Despite being the world’s least contributor of greenhouse gas emissions, Africa stands out as one of the most affected regions of the world by the adverse effects of Climate Change. This fact has, since the onset of climate related discourse within conferences and conventions, become a popular assertion of many sustainability experts and enthusiasts and is now common knowledge to the common man.  Precisely put in figures, economies on the African continent contribute only about 3.78% to greenhouse gas emissions, compared to those of the European Union and the United States which produce approximately 9% and 14% respectively. The effects of Climate Change are felt and seen on the Continent and the sluggish efforts of the International Community towards achieving Net Zero, continue to render the Cradle of Mankind vulnerable to the biting effects of extreme weather conditions. To address this, the international community has largely adopted a collaborative approach towards combating Climate Change, characterized by prestigious international summits that host dignitaries from countries party to the UN Convention on Climate Change in a different city in the world each year. Most notable among these being the Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) commonly referred to as COP and the Africa Climate Summit held on September 2023 in Nairobi, Kenya. The impact of the resolutions and declarations birthed at these conventions however, is yet to be felt. The AfCFTA Agreement proposes a slightly different collaborative approach towards Climate Action on the African continent, but can it turn the tide?

According to the Africa Export-Import Bank’s (AFREXIMBANK) Trade Report 2024, https://media.afreximbank.com/afrexim/African-Trade-Report_2024.pdf  the AfCFTA (African Continental Free Trade Area) is the largest Free Trade Area in the world, connecting 55 Countries, covering about 1.3 billion people and accounting for a combined GDP of around US$3 trillion. Born out of the Agenda 2063 – The Africa We Want, the idea is to create a continent-wide free trade area and that eliminates tariffs on 97% of goods traded between African countries, liberalizes the trade in services, and improves the infrastructure of regulation and trade. The AfCFTA may not have an explicit Climate Policy, but it provides viable opportunities for collaboration towards combating Climate Change on the continent. 

The concept of the AfCFTA is that of promoting intra–continental trade ie trade that occurs within the continent. This arrangement could potentially  either reduce or increase carbon emissions due to increased manufacturing and the subsequent distribution of commodities within the continent itself. This remains a debatable issue among experts, but time is the only definitive factor. The initiatives taken, however, by AfCFTA’s partners to address climate change provide more confidence on mitigating climate change. Among the pledges from the international community of development partners, including the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), has been stepping up its efforts to address shocks and challenges related to climate change in Africa by providing emergency relief assistance and investing in long-term resilience. Recognizing the need to facilitate access to climate finance and to increase private and public sector collaboration in funding climate interventions, Afreximbank has deployed multiple innovative solutions. These include the recently introduced Climate Change Adaptation Facility, out of which US$800 million was allocated to Kenya. In 2023, the European Union launched a €1 billion initiative to support flood recovery and resilience building in Southern Africa. Multilateral organizations such as the African Development Bank have launched programs to support early warning systems, climate-smart agriculture, and infrastructure upgrades, while the International Monetary Fund has offered debt relief after climate disasters to countries such as Somalia and South Sudan, allowing them to increase longterm resilience. By leveraging on their wide network of partners the AfCFTA stands a fair chance at contributing towards Africa’s climate resilience. In addition to adopting a collaborative approach, the AfCFTA is able to facilitate access to Climate Finance, increase private and public sector collaboration in funding climate interventions, to promote climate-smart agricultural funding and to emphasize that nations engage in long – term resilience building and capacity development.

Climate change mitigation strategies largely involve the reduction of carbon emissions and the phasing out of fossil fuels. Despite the rich reserves in of energy resources in Africa, however, there is widespread energy poverty and an even greater reliance on fossil fuels to sustain economies and basic energy needs. An existing opportunity for the AfCFTA is the addressing of the energy crisis by harnessing other powerful energy resources available in abundance within the continent such as wind and solar energy.