International: Africa
Sustainable economic growth in South Africa will come from renewables, not coal: modelling
17 Feb 2025
To move away from coal and meet its commitment to reaching net zero emissions by 2050, South Africa needs to dramatically increase production of renewable energy.
Who can share seeds? As climate change and counterfeits hurt Kenyan farmers, it's a growing question
10 Feb 2025
Tucked away in a lush, forested area of central Kenya's Kikuyu town, the National Seed Bank stands as a crucial safeguard for the future of the country's agriculture. Inside two chilly rooms of a government building, more than 50,000 seed varieties are cataloged and stored.
African nations want to connect 300 million people to electricity by 2030
3 Feb 2025
Several African nations committed on Monday to open up their electricity sectors to attract investors and light up homes of 300 million people currently lacking power in the next six years.
Think your efforts to help the climate don't matter? African philosophers disagree
31 Jan 2025
If a single pro-environment lifestyle change - like one person giving up their SUV or cutting out meat in favour of plant-based foods - will not turn the tide of global climate change on its own, it's reasonable to feel there is little that 'doing your bit' can achieve. This mindset is disempowering.
Kenya’s devastating drought is the worst in 40 years
18 Dec 2024
The extreme conditions are leaving millions without food or clean water.
Nimble electric trucks are supercharging African trade
12 Dec 2024
In Rwanda, farmers often watch their harvest spoil before it can reach the market. A fleet of simple, efficient trucks is changing that.
Thirty-five million Africans driven from homes by war and climate disasters – report
29 Nov 2024
Data shows a threefold increase in internal displacement across the African continent since 2009, with flooding and drought posing a growing threat.
The huge, high-tech, low-carbon kitchens feeding young Kenyans
27 Nov 2024
The Giga Kitchen is the jewel in the crown of Food4Education, a Kenyan nonprofit using high-tech, low-carbon and centralized kitchens to feed students en masse in what is Africa’s largest locally led and independently run school feeding program.
Big Oil’s dirty legacy in Nigeria
8 Nov 2024
Who will clean up the environmental mess when Shell and others pull out of the Niger Delta?
COP29 must kickstart stalled progress on the lifeline that is adaptation
1 Nov 2024
Targets for adapting to climate change are meaningless without the means to act. It’s time for a clear adaptation finance goal.
Worst drought in century devastates Southern Africa, millions at risk
17 Oct 2024
More than 27 million lives affected by worst drought in a century, with 21 million children malnourished, says WFP.
South Sudan floods: the first example of a mass population permanently displaced by climate change?
16 Sep 2024
Enormous floods have once again engulfed much of South Sudan, as record water-levels in Lake Victoria flow downstream through the Nile.
Floods decimate Nigerian zoo, wash crocodiles into community
13 Sep 2024
Floods in north Nigeria have killed more than 80% of animals in a large zoo with an array of wildlife from lions and crocodiles to buffaloes and ostriches.
'People have never seen anything like it': Morocco hit by extraordinary torrential rains
13 Sep 2024
A rare and deadly phenomenon: According to the latest count, published by the Moroccan interior ministry, 18 people have died as a result of the torrential rains that fell.
African nations are losing up to 5% of their GDP per year with climate change
4 Sep 2024
African nations are losing up to 5% of their GDP every year as they bear a heavier burden than the rest of the world from climate change, a new report said Monday after one of the continent’s hottest years on record.
Nearly 68 million people reeling from drought in Southern Africa
19 Aug 2024
Seventeen percent of people across the region need aid amid the climate change-fuelled drought.
Niger floods toll increases - 53 dead, 18,000 affected
23 Jul 2024
Flooding caused by heavy rains lashing Niger since June has killed 53 people and impacted 18,000, as the west African country grapples with the effects of climate change.
South Africa’s new environment minister must focus on people, not profits from fossil fuels – climate ecologist
22 Jul 2024
There are huge profits to be made in exploiting South Africa’s natural resources, but these come at a cost to society and the environment.
South Africa energy minister vows change with 'aggressive' renewables rollout
10 Jul 2024
South Africa's new energy minister vows to accelerate the shift to renewable energy from coal, breaking with a predecessor who opposed swift decarbonision.
Arrests in Uganda over pipeline protests
1 Jul 2024
Hundreds of people gathered outside Chinese embassies and financial institutions in 10 countries, calling on China to reject financial support for the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) and related oil field projects.
Climate change puts UNESCO-listed Mali fishing tradition in danger
25 Jun 2024
Thousands of fishermen holding cone-shaped nets stood side by side, cheering and chanting as they waited for the signal.
‘Crippling’ drought in Zambia threatens hunger for millions, says minister
11 Jun 2024
Collins Nzovu says country’s plight is foretaste of disasters that will increasingly afflict region as climate breakdown takes hold.
West African nations call for firms to be able to offset carbon
10 Jun 2024
A group of 10 West African countries has weighed into a debate over whether companies around the world should be allowed to use carbon offsets to cut emissions.
What a new global pledge means for climate, nature and gender goals
20 May 2024
World leaders gathered in Paris this week to pledge to make 2024 the “pivotal year” for improving access to clean cooking.
Kenya’s devastating floods expose decades of bad land management
6 May 2024
Floods in Kenya killed at least 169 people between March and April 2024, a result of decades of poor urban planning.
Southern Africa drought flags dilemma for loss and damage fund
2 May 2024
Scientists blame the current drought on El Niño – which could exclude those affected from receiving aid for climate-change damage.
Fifty killed in Kenya floods
1 May 2024
About 50 people have died in Kenya in a deluge following heavy rains and flooding, a Red Cross official has said.
World Bank advises South Africa on climate insurance, contingency fund options
30 Apr 2024
The World Bank is advising South Africa’s National Treasury on a climate risk strategy after floods in recent years caused billions of dollars of damage.
Deadly African heatwave 'impossible' without warming
19 Apr 2024
A deadly heatwave in West Africa and the Sahel was "impossible" without human-induced climate change, scientists say.
Africa's carbon sink capacity is shrinking
8 Apr 2024
The population of Africa, the second-largest continent in the world, currently sits at about 1.4 billion, but is set to exceed 2 billion by 2040.
Meet the Nigerian women spearheading solar projects
5 Apr 2024
The African country has the lowest access to electricity in the world. Women and girls are bearing the brunt of energy poverty.
How the the African Forest Restoration Initiative threatens savannas and grasslands
3 Apr 2024
A recent paper published in Science warns that “Across Africa, vast areas of nonforest are threatened by inappropriate restoration in the form of tree planting.”
"The water is eating the island"
26 Mar 2024
Villagers hang onto the last patch of Sierra Leone’s Nyangai Island, knowing that their home may soon disappear.
Back-to-back climate disasters leave millions of Malawians in deepening need
21 Mar 2024
Millions of Malawians are struggling with the impacts of back-to-back climate disasters that have deepened the poverty of subsistence farmers and undermined the ability of the cash-strapped government to help.
‘We don’t need air con’: how Burkina Faso builds schools that stay cool in 40C heat
5 Mar 2024
Architects use local materials and merge traditional techniques with modern technology to make schools and orphanages cool, welcoming places.
Alarming Africa-wide report predicts 30% drop in crop revenue, 50 million without water
1 Mar 2024
African countries will suffer significant economic loss after 2050 if global warming is not limited to below 2°C, a new study by the Center for Global Development has found.
Real solutions to climate change in Africa are about people, not profit
1 Mar 2024
The continent’s leaders should resist quick fixes and deadly traps offered by the market and bring the people at the centre of the climate action.
Africa's ice is disappearing: Tropical ice fields demonstrate speed of climate change
22 Feb 2024
The ice on the high summits of the continent is rapidly disappearing, and Africa may lose its white peaks by the middle of our century.
Italy’s energy deal faces backlash in Africa
8 Feb 2024
Critics charge that a plan that aims to curb migration will derail the continent’s climate change agenda.
Climate change behind Africa cholera surge, top health officials say
2 Feb 2024
The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, the continent’s chief health advisory body, has tied the worst outbreak of cholera in three years to climate change.
Climate change worsens human trafficking of the poor in Sierra Leone
31 Jan 2024
Sierra Leone’s poorest communities have long been prey to human traffickers. Climate change is making things worse.
East Africa's new love affair with geothermal energy
30 Jan 2024
There has been little interest in geothermal power in East Africa but Kenya's trailblazing energy transformation policy is now inspiring others.
Climate change is the biggest human health risk, says Africa's disease boss
30 Nov 2023
Climate change is the biggest threat to human health in Africa and the rest of the world, the head of the continent's public health agency said.
Leaks reveal how McKinsey drives African climate agenda
29 Nov 2023
Whistleblowers raise alarm over American consultancy’s growing influence in pushing carbon markets and developing energy transition plans.
Devastating flooding in East Africa
27 Nov 2023
Heavy rainfall led to extensive flooding in Somalia, Ethiopia, and Kenya in October and November.
Neighbourhoods submerged following flash floods in the Horn of Africa
20 Nov 2023
More than 100 people, including 16 children, have died and over 700,000 been forced out of their homes in the Horn of Africa due to flash flooding.
Leaders convene to protect tropical forests
31 Oct 2023
Brazzaville, the capital of the Republic of the Congo, had the privilege of hosting the summit of the three major tropical forest basins on the planet.
Africa’s first carbon-removal plant stokes questions about responsible climate solutions
10 Oct 2023
A joint venture between Swiss and Kenya-based companies has been billed as a springboard for creating a new, green economy in Africa.
Environmental groups sue energy company over 'devastating' East Africa oil pipeline
9 Oct 2023
Four environmental groups have filed a law suit against the French group TotalEnergies and its EACOP oil project in Tanzania and Uganda.
Ivory Coast deforestation rate rises as EU green imports law looms
5 Oct 2023
Deforestation in top cocoa producer Ivory Coast increased last year after declining for several years, a major report has found, raising questions about how the country will comply with a new EU law preventing commodity imports linked to forest loss.
Two Australian states offer free public transport as war pushes up fuel prices
Mon 30 Mar 2026
Public transport in two Australian states will be made free to incentivise people not to drive as fuel prices soar due to the war in the Middle East.
Double danger? Climate change, El Niño push Earth 'beyond its limits'
Today 11:45am
A freakish March heat wave has already pushed temperatures to summertime levels throughout much of the western and central United States, but a new report comes with a dire warning: This is just the beginning.
China launches two probes into US trade practices
Tue 31 Mar 2026
China's commerce ministry has initiated two counter-probes into U.S. practices that hamper the flow of Chinese products into the United States, it said on Friday, refraining from immediate retaliation to U.S. measures announced earlier this month.
Europe’s energy illusion: Why a €1 trillion green bet hasn’t broken the import habit
Tue 31 Mar 2026
The war with Iran is exposing a hard truth – Europe’s green push has left it no less dependent on imported energy.
Record wind output helps shield the UK from worst of Iran war fallout
Today 11:45am
Record output from wind farms has helped boost total clean power supplies in the United Kingdom to new highs so far in 2026, and allowed power firms to pare use of fossil fuels to multi-year lows.
Mark Carney just picked his lane on climate change
17 Feb 2026
COMMENT: Mark Carney's time as prime minister has been defined in part by his decision to roll back Trudeau-era climate policies.
Scientists achieve ‘impossible’ solar efficiency in renewables breakthrough
Today 11:45am
Researchers in Japan have developed a new material that allows solar cells to generate an amount of energy from sunlight that was previously thought impossible.
Vanuatu Indigenous leaders raise concerns over plans to build resort for cruise tourists
Today 11:45am
Indigenous community leaders in Vanuatu have raised concerns over plans by the cruise operator Royal Caribbean to build a private beach club on the island of Lelepa, arguing environmental impact assessments by the company are “incomplete” and “misleading”.
Arctic sea ice just dropped to an alarming new low
Mon 30 Mar 2026
Right now, the Arctic is maxing out on sea ice – the cold of winter has built up over months of darkness, and ice has spread as far south as it will all year. It’s the North Pole’s sea ice maximum, except this year, it’s alarmingly low.
Beef production drives 40% of agriculture-linked forest destruction, Brazil leads
Thu 26 Mar 2026
Beef production is the leading driver of agriculture-linked deforestation, accounting for 40% of all forest clearing done to open space for food production, according to details of a study released on Tuesday.
Iran war should trigger faster exit from fossil fuel dependence, UN climate chief says
18 Mar 2026
The disruption to energy markets caused by the Iran war is a lesson on the risks of relying on fossil fuels which should drive governments to wean their economies off oil and gas faster, the U.N. climate secretary told Reuters on Monday.
