Global Climate Tech Fails Africa Without Local Input, Expert Warns

Climate colonialism is the ongoing exploitation of African nations through interventions that ignore local realities and needs, Nyasha Frank Mpahlo, Executive Director, Green Governance Africa, tells Sputnik Africa.

“When we talk about issues of reparation, we are justified to call for climate change reparations for the historical impact that climate change has caused, particularly when it pertains to carbon emissions, mostly being perpetrated by our colleagues in the global North,” he argues.

He emphasizes the deep inequality between nations that can mitigate climate change and those that can't. This imbalance, he points out, is not just in terms of economic resources but also in the way climate solutions are imposed on African nations.

“We have not really invested in local technologies and local solutions that would save our societies from the impacts of climate change,” he explains. “Unfortunately, the aid process has been led by technologies coming from the global North at the expense of indigenous knowledge systems,” Mpahlo says.

Mpahlo's criticism points to African nations being handed expensive and ineffective technologies that fail to address local realities. He advocates for the use of homegrown solutions and points to hydropower stations as an example of a locally driven, tested technology.

The conversation turns to the role of African scientists and policymakers, which Mpahlo believes must be more collaborative and regionally unified.

“African scientists and policymakers need to have a common understanding of how climate change affects us regionally.” He points out that regional forums like ECOWAS and SADC could play pivotal roles in creating a regional strategy that can withstand global pressures. “We need to have consensus between African scientists and policymakers so that we can stand strong in the global climate discussions,” he adds.

Mpahlo also highlights the potential of initiatives like the Africa Carbon Market Initiative as vehicles for shaping Africa's response to climate change. This platform, he explains, is an opportunity for African nations to define their own climate solutions and prevent foreign impositions.

“It's a platform through which Africa can define the way they want climate solutions to be handled. So we do want something to be imposed on us, just like what we are talking about at the beginning, to avoid ideas, methodologies, and even processes to be enforced on Africa. The Africa climate markets initiatives remains one of the key vehicles or institutions that has been set up to consolidate the African thinking around management of carbon markets,” Mpahlo explains.

When asked about foreign proposals, such as Bill Gates' controversial plan to insert metals into cows to reduce methane emissions, Mpahlo is firm in his criticism. He decries these trial-and-error experiments, pointing out that they often fail to account for the continent’s agricultural practices and cultural values.

“Some of these things are not cultural, especially when it comes to cows,” he says. “In many countries, cows represent wealth; they represent identity and so forth. So, you would rather not mess around with some of these things,” he stresses.

To find out what else our guest had to say, tune in to the Global South Pole podcast, brought to you by Sputnik Africa.

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