Abstract:
Africa has experienced climate change since the late Holocene which intensified in the last century
mainly due to factors such as the changes brought about by the colonial administration, which led
to rapid population growth from improved healthcare systems and infrastructure, and organised
agriculture. Recent studies on climate change and its impact on Africa indicate that the continent is
more vulnerable to climate change than other continents because of inadequate resources. The
effect of climatic change has worsened in the last fifty years, mainly due to heavy pollution and the
greenhouse effect caused by the industries in the developed countries and in the newly
industrialized nation such as India, China, Korea, Malaysia, Thailand and others. Recent studies on
climate change in Africa has shown that population growth has led to decline of forest coverincreased land and environmental degradation, leading to severe ecological disruption. This
change has wreaked and continued to cause severe damage to Africa’s infrastructure, health and
economy. Global warming related floods have destroyed roads, crops, water sources, and killed
both people, livestock and wildlife. Droughts too have caused similar problem if not worse
destruction. Africa’s poverty makes it difficult for the people to mitigate their losses and to adapt to
the conditions. It is, therefore, necessary for African countries and its leaders to adopt policies and
laws which deliberately aim at addressing the problems created by climate change. These policies
should be tilted towards adaptation rather than mitigation since African countries generally lacks
the capacity. The objective of this paper is to create policy awareness on the causes of climatic
change and its impact on sectoral systems in order to prioritise timely knowledge-based policy
decision for stimulated green growth development opportunities. The findings and the conclusion
are based on the available literature.
