African Educators Call for the Continent’s Youth and Governments to Adopt 21st Century Technologies to Combat Climate Change

This month in South Africa, an international education conference called THENSA met in Johannesburg to address the continent’s future challenges. THENSA stands for Technological Higher Education Network South Africa.

Professor René Pellissier, Program Manager for Climate Change and Sustainable Development from the Southern African Regional Universities Association (SARUA), described the need for alliances and partnerships across the continent to tackle local challenges. She called for incorporating the advanced technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) as well as Indigenous knowledge to fight global warming. Pellisier pointed to the application of artificial intelligence (AI) in applied research to deal with migration, agriculture, and environmental issues. She sees a critical role for SARUA in the development of the curriculum for Africa’s youth as week as for the creation of programs to help governments implement climate mitigation and adaptation. She urged universities across the continent to embrace the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals 13 (SDG13) guidelines to help with climate change capacity building.

In a University World interview, Pellissier is quoted stating,

“The African region needs more effective use of the SDG framework as a guideline to adaptation and building resilient communities as well as ecosystem-based strategies to protect and restore ecological infrastructure in adaptation approaches. In other words, we need local solutions to local climate change problems.” 

Pellissier says that Africa faces inequities in this fight. The continent is currently the smallest contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions. Yet because of its location is likely to be impacted the most from atmospheric warming and weather extremes. And Africa, being the youngest continent, with a median age of 19.7 years, has the most to gain from educating the current generation to start now because the majority will grow up with the climate change crisis unfolding around them even though they have done the least to contribute to it.

What Africa Should Expect as the Century Unfolds

At the present pace of atmospheric warming, the planet’s mean temperature will increase by 1.5 Celsius over pre-Industrial Revolution levels within the next few decades. Each 0.1 Celsius increase above that United Nations target will make matters worse. Based on the current effort by nations around the world, we are more likely to see a 3 Celsius rise by 2100.

The International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in its most recent report indicates that all of Sub-saharan Africa will experience significant changes. The climate models show the Western Sahel experiencing longer dry spells. Central Africa will see its rainy season shorten but precipitation when it occurs will be heavier. West Africa will be hotter and will experience greater food insecurity as crop yields decline. And Southern Africa will see declines in precipitation of 20%, and water volumes in rivers and lakes will be reduced by up to 10%.

If the planet’s mean temperature reaches 2 Celsius higher, Southern Africa will see many more heatwaves. And the Sahel with a population of over 300 million, will continue to dry out. Why is this significant? Because the Sahel has Africa’s fastest-growing population, which was growing at an annual growth rate of 2.8% per year in 2019.

In the last three years, the Sahel has experienced drought and floods. Lake Chad, the largest body of water in the Sahel has almost completely vanished as climate change has increased evaporation and reduced precipitation. The Sahel has also experienced more armed conflict than anywhere else on the continent with the exception of Ethiopia. In 2019 conflict and climate change displaced 4.9 million people, and 24 million people required humanitarian assistance.

African universities and countries will need to see the rich countries of the world, the Global North, meet the $100 billion annual pledge to poor countries to help with climate change adaptation that was first promised at the Copenhagen COP in 2009. In the last month, John Kerry, the American climate envoy spoke at the United Nations indicating that the money first promised for 2020 will finally be a reality in 2023. Kerry noted that $100 billion a year is insufficient for the planet to keep the worst from happening with temperatures rising well past 2 Celsius. That annual amount won’t even cover the needs of African countries. That’s why Africans, like Pellissier, are calling for universities in Africa to band together to build local responses to climate change incorporating Indigenous best practices as well as 21st-century science and technology solutions.