Students in Climate Action: A Study of Some Influential Factors and Implications of Knowledge Gaps in Africa

This study examined how the regional manifestations of climate change effects and students’ involvement in various climate-related clubs and activities influenced their knowledge and awareness of climate change. Key knowledge gaps and their implications for climate action were also examined. A cross-sectional survey was adopted for the study whilst a snowball sampling technique was used to select the respondents. A total of 300 students from 26 African countries participated in the survey. Descriptive statistics, relative importance index (RII) method and the chi-square test of independence were used to analyze the data. Results showed that regional manifestations of climate change effects and students’ involvement in climate change-related workshops and campaigns significantly influenced their knowledge levels whilst their membership of climate-related student clubs had no significant influence. Key knowledge gaps with regards to how factors such as meat consumption and waste generation could lead to climate change were also identified. Students were also less knowledgeable about how climate change affects key issues such as conflicts, gender inequalities and job insecurity. Intensification of climate change education beyond the most common causes and effects is highly recommended among the youth. Various environment-related student clubs are also encouraged to tailor their activities in this direction.

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Econometrics Analysis of the Relationship between Climate Change and Economic Growth in Selected West African Countries

Energy and Environment Research ◽

10.5539/eer.v10n2p39 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 10 (2) ◽

pp. 39

Author(s):

Ebrima K. Ceesay ◽

Hafeez O. Oladejo ◽

Prince Abokye ◽

Ogechi N. Ugbor

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Economic Growth ◽

Rural Areas ◽

Poverty Reduction ◽

Random Effect ◽

West African ◽

Estimation Methods ◽

African Countries ◽

Climate Change Effects ◽

The Government

Linkages between Climate Change, Economic Growth and Poverty Reduction have become increasingly popular in local and international communities. This is due to the fact that we are currently facing pressing issues about climate change and poverty reduction effects in our planet. In this paper an empirical testing of the effects of Climate Change, Economic Growth and Poverty Reduction was carried out. Panel estimation methods of fixed effect, random effect, and panel unit root test-fisher type with trend and constant were applied. From the results, shows that economic growth has a negative and highly significant effect on the growth of poverty in the selected West African countries. Using growth rate of economics as dependent variable, the result shows that growth of poverty is highly significant. The population living in rural areas is significant with growth of poverty and highly significant with growth of food security. The policy recommendation is that the government of the west African countries should put in place strategies to reduce poverty, climate change effects on economics growth by following measures; to have strong institution and avoidance of corruption.Such strategies contain to counter climate change effects and increase the resilience of the economy, society and country in general.

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Climate change literacy and migration potential: micro-level evidence from Africa

Climatic Change ◽

10.1007/s10584-021-03241-7 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 169 (1-2) ◽

Author(s):

Marc Helbling ◽

Daniel Auer ◽

Daniel Meierrieks ◽

Malcolm Mistry ◽

Max Schaub

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Urban Areas ◽

African Countries ◽

Temperature Changes ◽

Highly Educated ◽

Climate Change Effects ◽

Long Run ◽

Migration Potential ◽

And Migration ◽

The Individual

AbstractWhile a growing literature studies the effects of climate change on international migration, still only relatively little is known about the individual mechanisms linking migration decisions to climate change. We argue that climate change literacy (i.e., knowledge about climate change) is a major determinant of why some individuals consider migrating to other countries in response to climate change effects. In particular, climate change literacy helps individuals translate their perceptions of temperature changes into an understanding of these changes’ irreversible long-term consequences. We test this hypothesis using highly accurate geo-coded data for 37,000 individuals across 30 African countries. We show that climate change indeed leads to stronger migration intentions among climate literates only. Furthermore, we show that climate change only increases migration intentions among climate literates when it is approximated by long-run increases in local temperatures, but not when operationalized as changing heat wave or precipitation patterns. Further analyses show that climate literates are more likely to live in urban areas, have a higher news consumption, are highly educated, and have demanding occupations. Consequently, climate change may further deprive affected countries of valuable talent.

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Africa The Diverse

Things Come Together ◽

10.1093/oso/9780190942540.003.0001 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 1-31

Author(s):

Robert I. Rotberg

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Coastal Waters ◽

Social Consequences ◽

African Countries ◽

Climate Change Effects ◽

Demographic Challenges ◽

The Social ◽

The Face ◽

Youth Bulge ◽

India And China

Africa is becoming the second most populous continent and several of Africa’s countries the most populous on the planet, after India and China. This surge of people will explode Africa’s cities, cause a massive youth bulge, and demand that African countries attract investors, create jobs, and cope with the social consequences of a median age under thirty. Meanwhile, Islam will spread and so will Pentecostal Christian sects. Inter-religious, inter-ethnic, and anomic conflicts will arise amid the spread of climate change effects such as drought, floods, and rising coastal waters. Africans will need to be resilient in the face of natural as well as demographic challenges.

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Integrated Use of Local and Technical Soil Quality Indicators and Participatory Techniques to Select Them. A Review of Bibliography and Analysis of Research Strategies and Outcomes

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13010087 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 13 (1) ◽

pp. 87

Author(s):

Greta Braidotti ◽

Maria De Nobili ◽

Lucia Piani

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Developing Countries ◽

Rural Communities ◽

Soil Quality ◽

Research Strategies ◽

African Countries ◽

Climate Change Effects ◽

Cultural Conditions ◽

Participatory Techniques ◽

Successful Approach

Climate change has strong impacts on soil conservation and agricultural productivity, with severe consequences on smallholders in developing countries, but virtually no research has been carried out so far on this issue. Therefore, it is necessary to foster the implementation of participatory projects to help communities deal with new difficulties. Sustainable soil management can reduce and even reverse land degradation, helping farmers to adapt to climate change effects. Progress toward sustainability cannot be implemented in small rural communities regardless of local knowledge, which can be addressed using participatory techniques. To this purpose the choice and use of indicators is essential to carry out correct assessments of soil vulnerability integrating local and technical knowledge. The purpose of this review was to study how the problem of building a set of integrated indicators to assess soil quality has been addressed so far and which participatory techniques have been more successfully employed, analyzing studies carried out in rural communities of developing countries. We found out that there is a lack of participated studies dealing with environmental issues. Those that do so address them only indirectly, being centered on present agricultural problems. The studies rarely feature a collaboration with social science experts, consequently the use of participatory techniques lacks protocols and a standardized nomenclature to help in the transfer and generalization of experiences. Women are rarely involved and nearly exclusively in African countries: this could be related to social and cultural conditions, but needs more attention. Different aspects need to be improved to help the implementation of a successful approach in future projects. This review provides a tool to facilitate future interdisciplinary research on integration of local and scientific knowledge and will help to devise more successful strategies to tackle the challenges posed by climate change to smallholders in developing countries.

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Reward and punishment in climate change dilemmas

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/s41598-019-52524-8 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 9 (1) ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

António R. Góis ◽

Fernando P. Santos ◽

Jorge M. Pacheco ◽

Francisco C. Santos

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

A Priori ◽

Strategic Decisions ◽

Climate Change Effects ◽

Collective Effort ◽

Collective Risk ◽

Climate Action ◽

The Commons ◽

The Impact ◽

Reward And Punishment

Abstract Mitigating climate change effects involves strategic decisions by individuals that may choose to limit their emissions at a cost. Everyone shares the ensuing benefits and thereby individuals can free ride on the effort of others, which may lead to the tragedy of the commons. For this reason, climate action can be conveniently formulated in terms of Public Goods Dilemmas often assuming that a minimum collective effort is required to ensure any benefit, and that decision-making may be contingent on the risk associated with future losses. Here we investigate the impact of reward and punishment in this type of collective endeavors — coined as collective-risk dilemmas — by means of a dynamic, evolutionary approach. We show that rewards (positive incentives) are essential to initiate cooperation, mostly when the perception of risk is low. On the other hand, we find that sanctions (negative incentives) are instrumental to maintain cooperation. Altogether, our results are gratifying, given the a-priori limitations of effectively implementing sanctions in international agreements. Finally, we show that whenever collective action is most challenging to succeed, the best results are obtained when both rewards and sanctions are synergistically combined into a single policy.

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Achieving the SDGs in Africa Through South-South Cooperation on Climate Change with China

The Palgrave Handbook of Development Cooperation for Achieving the 2030 Agenda ◽

10.1007/978-3-030-57938-8_28 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 605-623

Author(s):

Moritz Weigel ◽

Alexander Demissie

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Climatic Changes ◽

African Countries ◽

The Sustainable Development ◽

Development Partner ◽

Low Emission ◽

Climate Action ◽

Development Goals ◽

Targeted Approach ◽

Adaptation And Mitigation

AbstractClimate change poses a significant threat to socio-economic development in Africa. Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will not be possible without fostering low-emission development and addressing the adverse impacts of climatic changes on the continent. China has emerged as a key development partner and is increasingly cooperating with African countries on climate change adaptation and mitigation. This chapter looks at the evolution of South-South cooperation on climate change between African countries and China over the past decades. We argue that South-South cooperation with China has a tremendous potential for African countries to realise their climate action priorities, and thus enable the achievement of their SDGs. However, to realise this potential, both sides need a more ambitious and targeted approach.

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Nature-Based Solutions Forming Urban Intervention Approaches to Anthropogenic Climate Change: A Quantitative Literature Review

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su12187439 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (18) ◽

pp. 7439

Author(s):

Jackie Parker ◽

Greg D Simpson ◽

Jonathon Edward Miller

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Literature Review ◽

Climate Science ◽

Research Area ◽

Anthropogenic Climate Change ◽

Future Research ◽

Knowledge Gaps ◽

Political Awareness ◽

Climate Change Effects ◽

Climate Change Responses

Discussion around anthropogenic climate change has occurred for over 100 years. However, in recent decades, these discussions have intensified due to increased confidence in scientific research highlighting adverse effects, increased knowledge breadth in climate science, and heightened public and political awareness and engagement on the topic. Climate change is now acknowledged as one of the biggest challenges and threats to modern lifestyles. Nature-based solutions (NBS), as a mediator and mitigator to adverse climate change effects, is an emerging area of expanding research collateral and practitioner literacy. To highlight current NBS knowledge, existing knowledge gaps, and research trends, a Quantitative Systematic Literature Review (QSLR) was undertaken (n = 54). This QSLR reveals the short temporal span of articles relating to NBS as a response to climate change, with most articles being of a research style format. NBS research focus areas were found to be dominated by ecological and infrastructure approaches to climate change mitigation, and ecological and technical positions were found to be most topical across the current climate change literature. Multiple knowledge gaps were identified by the review, namely the lack of broader conceptual approaches and knowledge acquisition regarding climate change responses via NBS, as well as the psychological relationship humans share with NBS and climate change, adverse or otherwise. These knowledge gaps highlight where future research inquiry may be directed to increase the value and completion of this research area. It is hoped that this QSLR will assist in increasing the profile of NBS in the multidisciplinary and complex response to anthropogenic climate change, as well as contribute to the growth in investment and implementation of NBS assets for a rigid and resilient global future.

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