Africa Climate Week: How can carbon trading help fund climate action?

Africa has an interest in ensuring that its economic growth prospects are not hurt by trying to do its part for the climate. Carbon trading is one way to do that. [iStockphoto]

There are very few things in life that are truly global. Climate change is one of them. Whatever languages we speak, whatever our religion, whatever smartphone we use, we are all impacted by climate change. Yet it hits us all in different ways, with different costs attached - depending on where we live.

For many of the almost 1.5 billion people who live in Africa, climate change is about basic needs. Not just quality of life, but survival. Food sources are increasingly threatened. Water scarcity is becoming ever more prevalent. And with populations growing across the continent, these pressures will only get more real.