African countries face a wide array of environmental problems that pose a major threat to people in the region. The continent’s biggest environmental challenges are water pollution, air pollution, and droughts, which directly impact the health of Africans. The tragic dilemma is that although Africa is the continent that contributes the least to the earth’s environmental change, it is the most vulnerable to its impact. Africa’s environmental challenges threaten not only the continent’s public health but also its economy and social fabric. To combat these threats, Africa’s leaders should evaluate numerous policy solutions.
It is widely acknowledged that Africa is the continent most vulnerable to climate change and the least equipped to cope. These challenges include land degradation, deforestation, biodiversity loss, and other climate-related vulnerabilities. “The region’s vulnerability is driven partly by geography but mainly by its low adaptive capacity resulting from dysfunctions in national economies in education, health, infrastructures, and governance systems” (Grant, 2015). Moreover, Africa’s environmental health is deteriorating in both rural and urban settings, causing an increase in poverty and hampering development.
Climate change has not been prominently featured in most countries’ development programs, and few national development projects have a climate change focus from the initial planning stage (Grant, 2015). Africa can address this shortcoming in several ways. First, African countries can expand access to energy. Second, they can support green development. Third, they can begin growing crops that tolerate more heat and less rain and withstand summer droughts. Fourth, they can prioritize local input at the forefront of policy discussion and implementation.
Globally, corporate interests continue to undervalue the voices of climate activists and ordinary citizens advocating for more resilient climate policies (Grant, 2015). Environmental security will be in jeopardy if there is not a transition soon to low carbon energy and increased implementation of sustainable, environment-friendly technologies. Failure to reach an international agreement on carbon emission soon could end very badly for the continent, according to many African environmental activists.