Press: Achieving Africa’s development in a way that limits air pollution and climate change

Air pollution and climate change threaten Africa’s development because of their negative impacts on human health, well-being and productivity. Air pollution and climate change reduce agricultural productivity, for example, with implications for food and nutritional security. Urgent, large-scale action is needed at all levels of government. This new assessment, the first of its kind for Africa, will support evidence-based policy across the continent and can underpin effective action.

Led by the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC) in partnership with UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and SEI, this first regional African assessment of air pollution and climate change, brings together scientists, policy leaders and practitioners working across Africa to consider the continent’s rapid development, and the associated air pollution challenges and climate risks.

The assessment will also promote capacity building and action geared towards reducing emissions among governments and stakeholders in Africa. While development is a priority for Africa to achieve the ‘Africa we want’, as outlined in the African Union’s Agenda 2063, this does not have to be at the expense of the environment or people’s health.

The assessment includes a focus on Short-Lived Climate Pollutants (SLCPs) – air pollutants that warm the atmosphere, whose mitigation play an important role in slowing the rate of global warming. The assessment will also highlight strategies that simultaneously reduce emissions of air pollutants and long-lived greenhouse gases (GHGs).

Read the full piece on the SEI website