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Between September 4-6, African and international leaders attended the Africa Climate Summit 2023 in Nairobi, Kenya, where they deliberated on Africa’s unified position on the climate crisis ahead of COP28, the global climate talks, in December.

They also developed the Nairobi Declaration for Green Growth, a blueprint for Africa’s green energy transition.

The Africa Climate Summit is the largest gathering of African heads of state, ministers, UN agencies, humanitarian and development partners, the private sector, and youth in the continent’s history.

It represents an unprecedented opportunity to address the increasing impacts of climate change on human mobility in Africa.

As you may know, not all countries are equally responsible for the climate crisis. African countries are among the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, experiencing drought, flooding, extreme weather temperatures, and rising sea levels, among other things.

In 2022, more than 7.5 million internal displacements due to environmental disasters were registered on the African continent (IDMC, Global Report on Internal Displacement, 2023).

The African Development Bank (AfDB) indicates that nine out of 10 countries most vulnerable to climate change are in sub-Saharan Africa. These events are costing countries $7-$15b (about sh26-56 trillion) a year.

If unchecked, the AfDB warns these costs could soar to $50b (sh186 trillion) annually by 2030. The research, commissioned by the United Nations Environment Programme, also estimates the cost of adaptation to be about $50b by 2050 if the global temperature increase is kept within two degrees.

Worse to note, the World Meteorological Organisation also reports that more than 30 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere every year, the main source of the greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change.

Most of this is a product of fossil fuel use. Africa accounts for only 4% of the global carbon emissions. Despite this, the continent is suffering the most devastating effects of the climate crisis.

That is why, according to the 1992 Rio Declaration — now known as the polluter pays principle — those who cause pollution should bear the costs of dealing with it to prevent damage to human health and the environment.

Despite such declarations, the catastrophic effects of climate change in Africa are not only wreaking havoc on local communities but are becoming a major obstacle to achieving a just energy transition.

Urgent action to combat this threat is no longer a matter of choice but of existential necessity. The world is gradually waking up to the climate emergency as major oil and gas companies in Europe and America are losing licences to operate.

However, they are turning to Africa to try and secure a few more years of extraction and profit. Yet decades of fossil fuel development in Africa have failed to bring prosperity and reduce energy poverty.

African countries whose economies rely on the production and export of fossil fuels are suffering slower rates of growth, sometimes up to three times slower than those with more diverse economies. For instance, in Mozambique, where foreign companies have built a $20b offshore natural gas field and onshore liquefied natural gas facility, 70% of the country still lives without access to electricity.

The gas is not for local people. Fossil fuels development has often had terrible consequences for the communities exposed to it.

In Cabo Delgado, the area around the gas fields of Mozambique, for example, the industry destroyed the lives and livelihoods of the locals but delivered few of the promised jobs and compensation.

In Nigeria, Uganda, Angola, and the DR Congo, the arrival of oil brought poverty, human rights abuses, and the loss of traditional lands and cultures.

The investments in fossil fuels are not investments for the people. The gas prices are inherently volatile, as the consequences of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine are currently demonstrating. In many African countries where costly fossil fuel projects already demonstrated they can do little to alleviate debt burdens, new fossil fuel investments will only serve to pile more debt on existing debt.

Renewable energy presents an unequivocally better alternative to all this. Electricity from the sun and the wind is now largely cheaper than electricity from gas and prices do not experience dangerous fluctuations.

Therefore, if African countries are to stand a chance to achieve the just clean energy transition, there must be an increase in investment in renewable energy and climate action and this requires strong political commitments to increase the pace of implementation as opposed to prioritising fossil fuels.