Africa can't afford climate backsliders today

US President Donald Trump speaks to journalists about TikTok as he signs executive orders in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on January 20, 2025.[AFP]

President Donald Trump's 2017 Executive Order to pull America out of the 2015 Paris Agreement sent a chilling message to Africa, which requires collaboration from leading greenhouse gas (GHG) emitters to cope with g effects of climate change.

America's pulling out of the international treaty that aims to reduce global GHG emissions and tame climate change, signaled a dangerous precedent likely to encourage backsliding on climate commitments by other rich nations. Over the years, effects of global warming have been felt across Africa, manifested in prolonged droughts, shrinking and flooding lakes, heatwaves to cyclones and floods that kill thousands, and destroy property, including crops, in a continent that heavily relies on rain-fed agriculture. Climate change has stagnated development and economic growth, besides occasioning diseases, insurmountable loss and damage. The disasters in Africa also worsen food insecurity, conflicts and displacement, as was the case in Sudan's 2020 floods that displaced over 800,000 people. All these show how urgent it is for countries to commit to the Paris Agreement.