{"id":362739,"date":"2025-01-20T08:02:55","date_gmt":"2025-01-20T07:02:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=362739"},"modified":"2025-01-25T18:36:35","modified_gmt":"2025-01-25T17:36:35","slug":"study-wealthier-african-nations-show-lower-levels-of-climate-ambition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=362739","title":{"rendered":"<\/font>Study: \u201cWealthier \u2026 African nations \u2026 show lower levels of climate ambition\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/font>From Watts Up With That?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/font>Essay by<\/strong> Eric Worrall<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Africa’s climate change balancing act: green energy vs economic development<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Published: January 17, 2025 11.50pm AEDT
Oluwafikayo Akeredolu<\/a>
PhD Candidate, University of Oxford<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I research climate finance and investigated what drives sub-Saharan Africa\u2019s climate ambitions<\/a>. I also wanted to find out whether wealthier sub-Saharan African nations were more likely to prioritise economic development over aggressive climate commitments than the region\u2019s more impoverished nations. 

\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I found<\/a> that wealthier sub-Saharan African nations<\/strong> (measured by gross domestic product per capita) show lower levels of climate ambition<\/strong>. Nigeria and South Africa, for instance, are wealthier than many others in Africa. But they\u2019re under political and economic pressure to expand energy access and industrial capacity. This can limit them from curbing greenhouse gas emissions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s clear from my study that gross domestic product per capita was the only statistically significant determinant of climate ambition<\/strong> among sub-Saharan African countries. This reveals how economic priorities often shape countries\u2019 climate commitments.

\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have several recommendations<\/strong> based on my findings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Third, renewable energy must be promoted<\/strong>, particularly through investments in solar, wind, and hydropower. The region\u2019s natural resources must be used to move countries away from fossil fuels.

\u2026Read more: https:\/\/theconversation.com\/africas-climate-change-balancing-act-green-energy-vs-economic-development-244758<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The referenced paper;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

African climate politics and multilateralism: Domestic factors and cross-country variation in climate ambitions<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fikayo Akeredolu<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pages 273-292 | Received 29 Feb 2024, Accepted 03 Oct 2024, Published online: 28 Oct 2024<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ABSTRACT<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article examines how domestic factors explain variations in the ambitions of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) countries to meet the requirements of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. Although Africa contributes only 3.8% of global greenhouse gas emissions, it is highly vulnerable to climate change. All 54 African countries have ratified the Paris Agreement, and by May 2022, 44 had submitted updated nationally determined contributions (NDCs), showing strong commitment to mitigating global temperature rise. Although SSA countries\u2019 NDCs are more robust than the global average, significant cross-country variations exist. This article builds on the limited research on these variations to explore whether democracy, GDP, oil consumption, and historical emissions influence NDC ambition across 44 SSA countries. The analysis finds a statistically significant negative relationship between GDP and NDC ambition, while other variables show no significance. This study is crucial for understanding how domestic factors shape climate commitments in SSA.Read more: https:\/\/www.tandfonline.com\/doi\/full\/10.1080\/10220461.2024.2413686<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The odd part of this article is, having discovered a statistically significant inverse correlation between climate ambition and national wealth, the author\u2019s recommendation is to promote green energy and try to raise climate ambition in wealthy nations? Does she want to keep Africa poor?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surely a more reasonable conclusion is there may be something about \u201cclimate ambition\u201d which damages national economies?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Africa is not alone in showing such a correlation. High climate ambition Britain, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Canada have suffered years of energy poverty and economic difficulties. Yet despite the Biden Presidency, the USA, with consistently lower climate ambition, has a much healthier economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

China is the odd man out when it comes to climate ambition vs economic progress, though some of the damage can be attributed to \u201cclimate ambition\u201d. Despite their recent climate efforts, China is a coal powered economy which appears to be on the brink of a deep recession. But there are other factors affecting the Chinese economy, such as China\u2019s gross mishandling of the Covid pandemic, Xi Jinping\u2019s incompetent management of Chinese energy needs, China\u2019s belligerent and disruptive posturing on the world stage, China\u2019s brutal Maoist crackdown on business leaders<\/a>, extreme local and regional government debt<\/a>, and the ongoing banking crisis caused by their government\u2019s long term failure to contain their property asset bubble<\/a>, which I believe can more than account for China\u2019s current economic woes.<\/font><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/font>https:\/\/wattsupwiththat.com\/2021\/09\/28\/china-suffers-widespread-blackouts-as-climate-targets-bite\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/font>The litany of problems being experienced by China makes me wonder if climate ambition is a proxy for more serious problems with governance. Perhaps governments which place climate ambition ahead of economic development are dysfunctional in other ways, which might make climate ambition a good litmus test for overall government incompetence, but not necessarily the complete explanation for why economies run by the climate ambitious perform so poorly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I hope after Oluwafikayo Akeredolu<\/a> wins her PhD; she has an opportunity to reconsider her list of recommendations. Because the obvious conclusion from her research is if Africa wants to be rich, they need to ditch climate ambition and fix whatever other problems led to the prioritising of climate ambition.<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The odd part of this article is, having discovered a statistically significant inverse correlation between climate ambition and national wealth, the author\u2019s recommendation is to promote green energy and try to raise climate ambition in wealthy nations? Does she want to keep Africa poor?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":362740,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691820276,691818056,691828434,691821122,691832713],"class_list":{"0":"post-362739","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-africa","9":"tag-climate-change","10":"tag-climate-economics","11":"tag-climate-finance","12":"tag-oluwafikayo-akeredolu","14":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/0-ghdft45.jpg?fit=1280%2C720&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1wmD","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":228477,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=228477","url_meta":{"origin":362739,"position":0},"title":"Fossil Fuels for Africa! 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