10 ways US Exit from the Paris Climate Agreement Could Affect Africa (And How to Ride the Storm)
Side profile of 47th US President Donald Trump
By Phumla Duma
We know, we know. This feels like deja vu. It hasn’t been a week and Trump has already taken over the news cycles, overshadowing so many other stories. But it seems to be all that people want to talk about, so to leverage the conversation and put an Africa lens to it (something the media isn’t doing), we have put together a list that highlights the ways this big but disappointing news may affect Africa. After all, the US contributes 15% to global carbon emissions while Africa only contributes 4%, so we’d say it’s a big deal.
The exit of the US from the Paris Climate Agreement puts Just Energy Transition ambitions in jeopardy. This backsliding by those most responsible for the climate crisis will lead to a substantial increase in climate-induced losses and damages.
It threatens financial and tech support mechanisms that African nations rely on to build resilience and adaptation to the climate crisis. (And no, the climate is no longer changing, we’re in full crisis mode).
The exit widens the gap between what is required and what is available for Africa to transition sustainably.
It also stalls transition to clean energy.
America’s exit from the Paris treaty may also incentivise nations with fossil fuels to ramp up extraction, thus exacerbating environmental degradation while simultaneously feeling less incentive to continue with renewable energy investments.
Could cause the Global Carbon Budget to be consumed more rapidly, which will increase climate change impacts for vulnerable regions (read AFRICA!)
Delay local manufacturing of electric vehicles in Africa due to reduced global momentum, affecting Africa’s current investments in this sector.
It flies in the face of multilateralism, which is the cornerstone of global climate action, and for which Africa has been a great proponent.
It sends the wrong signals on the rise of negative nationalism and claws back on decades of effort and investments by Africa to foreground the collective ambitions of nations operating as one to save the planet.
It runs the risk of exacerbating the climate-induced debt crises facing many developing nations, especially those in Africa whose budgets are routinely diverted to finance disaster mitigation efforts.
But it is not all doom and gloom, in the words of Mohamed Adow: The Paris Agreement remains a powerful framework for collective action, and Africa’s unified voice within the African Union, the G77+China, and the African Group of Negotiators (AGN) ensures that the continent’s unique challenges and priorities remain central in global climate discussions. If anything, African nations can respond to President Trump’s climate policy regressions by doubling down on multilateral cooperation and regional solidarity.
This is the resilient spirit that drives our movement.
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Phumla Duma is the Digital Campaigner at Power Shift Africa.