Africa’s trajectory approach towards decarbonizing it’s transport systems.

Africa might be a resource-rich continent from an expanse of forests and Savannah grasslands to nutrient-rich lakes and rivers and ocean-diverse fish species, but it suffers disproportionately from climate change impact more than other continents.

The impacts might not exist in isolation but the efforts and strides in combating and minimizing its detrimental effects are unacceptable. Its impacts have not only caused a knock-on effect on Africa’s economy but has potentially paused additional challenge to the prospects of mainstay economic sectors. With accrued climate/weather variations and frequency, Africa has been compelled to wake up from its daytime sleep by making quick turnarounds in combating climate change by limiting global warming to a manageable increase.

The scaled-up efforts vary from; decarbonizing transport and energy systems, instigating nature-positive and climate-sensitive sustainable agricultural practices, sound strategies to foster health and nutrition by strengthening climate resilience, proposing adoption plans to strengthen climate resilience within Vulnerable groups that increase their capacity to cope with climate-induced impacts i.e drought and floods. 

With an Energy transformative agenda like the Paris Agreement, which aims to help countries make just transitions by decarbonizing their energy systems to a more sustainable nature-positive energy alternative. Most African countries are making pivotal shifts towards renewable energy consumption with Kenya and South Africa glitching the top positions and landscaped as the top countries in making huge sustainable transitions within this sector.

Carbon emissions are a huge contributor and driver to climate change and this has been stemmed by a couple of key factors and contributors i.e. increase in industrialization, a surge in automobile consumption, land encroachment and fragmentation, and deforestation. Africa’s population is increasing exponentially at an unprecedented rate and causing a strain on the mobility sector to meet the mobility demand with its consumption not only festering the climate crisis but also undermining the unwavering efforts of scientists, climate researchers, and activists.

This has made an urgent call for key parties to make a fundamental shift towards Driving a sustainable transportation revolution in creating resilient infrastructure systems in becoming carbon-free and achieving the carbon-net-Zero outlined in the Paris Agreement.

Amid the ongoing climate change summit held in Nairobi, Kenya, the summit is a collective event anchoring economic circularity and the crucial effort of transitioning the African economy to a thriving green economy. The summit aims to address and magnify key contributors to climate change and key element sectors that require urgent action. ACW (Africa Climate Week)2023 organized by UNFCCC, UNDP, UNEP, and World Bank, is designed into four systems-based tracks, each focusing on specific themes: Energy systems and industry; cities, urban and rural settlements, infrastructure and transport; Land, ocean, food and water and Society, health, livelihoods and economies.

Comprising about 17 percent of the world’s population, Africa contributes just 4 percent of global carbon emissions at 1.45 billion. South Africa earned a top position with 435.9 Million Tonnes (7.34 Metric per capita) followed by Libya with 74.5 Million Tonnes(11.6 metrics per capita), Algeria with 176.3 million tonnes( 3.99 Metric per Capita), Tunisia with 31.6 Million Tonnes ( 2.58 Metric per Capita), Egypt with 249.6 million tonnes (2.28 Metric per Capita), Morroco with 17.6 Million Tonnes( 1.9 Metric per Capita)with Ghana, Nigeria, Ghana, Sudan, and Kenya tailing with the lowest carbon footprint input of 0.65, 0.64, 0.62, 0.46, and 0.44 Metric per Capita respectively. Kenya’s transport sector contributes 37.7% of its annual emissions. Dwarfed by other giant world-leading carbon emittors, china tops the list at  11.47 billion tonnes, making it the world’s largest polluter, followed by the United States (5 billion tonnes), India (2.7 billion tonnes), Russia (1.75 billion tonnes) and Japan (1.07 billion tonnes). 

Kenya is noted to make lightning-fast shifts towards decarbonizing its sector with the government purchasing two roam rapid electric buses with will act as prototypes. The Swedish-Kenyan manufacturer aims to monopolize the Kenyan mass transport sector by adding a fleet of 100 electric buses by the end of 2023 and 1000 by the end of 2025.

Achieving a carbon-free transport sector and a resilient infrastructure system requires sound yet fluid and dynamic sustainable interventions. But what are these potent pathways that will aid drive these initiatives to meet its aggressive sustainable transformative plans? 

The government should;

• Invest in E-mobility solutions as an alternative means for both public and private transportation.
• Invest in sustainable fuels for all types of mobilities( vehicles, trains, and airplanes)
• Green and design sustainable cities to help reduce carbon footprint which will consequently help cool cities from heat waves due to climate change.
• Better city design that allows children to conveniently walk to school.

Achieving a carbon Net zero is a colossal task and might seem an impossible goal to achieve but all requires discipline and unwavering commitment from active parties and contributors to climate Change(the public, private sector, and the government). Such shifts not only aid in creating a robust green economy but open and soar green opportunity streams through projects employing many youths passionate about climate advocacy and environmental stewardship thus growing the green job market.