The economic landscape of most Africa countries depends essentially on the dynamics of climate change. Key sectors driving their economic performance and livelihoods such as agriculture, forestry, energy, tourism, coastal and water resources are highly vulnerable to climate change. This paper examines the empirical linkage between economic growth and climate change in Africa. Using annual data for 34 countries from 1961 to 2009, we find a negative impact of climate change on economic growth in Africa. Our results show that a 1 degree Celsius increase in temperature reduces GDP growth by 0.27 percentage point for the region. A higher impact of 0.41 percentage point was however observed when the sample period was reduced to 1961 to 2000 indicating a reduction in the influence possibly given increase in efforts towards adapting to climate change. The two largest economies in the Sub-Saharan Africa (South Africa and Nigeria) played some significant role in ameliorating the negative economic impact of climate change in the region. Some policy options emerged from this study. First, mainstreaming climate change adaptation into National Development Strategy and budgets could promote proactive engagement on the formulation and implementation of climate change adaptation strategy. Second, the potential of regional or multiple countries approach to climate change adaptation is high due to possibility of economies of scale. Third, the role of South Africa and Nigeria in cushioning the negative impact of climate change on other African countries tends to suggest the benefit of regional integration in addressing this challenge.
The benefit of growth experienced since 2000 in Africa has not been broadly shared. Poverty fell by only 8.0 percentage points between 1990 and 2010 compared to the targeted 28.3 percentage points by 2015. Although income inequality fell by 4.3 percent between 1990 and 2009, Africa remains the second most unequal region globally after Latin America and the Caribbean region. Fiscal policies play important roles in reducing poverty and inequality through such instruments as taxes, transfers and government spending. Countries with high fiscal space tend to have lower poverty rates than those with lower tax revenue to GDP ratios. Indeed, fiscal space alone tends to account for 16.5 percent of changes in poverty reduction. Institutions play an important role in increasing fiscal space in Africa. Countries with increasing participatory, transparent and accountable budgetary process tend to have stronger impact of fiscal space on poverty and inequality reduction. Although 29 countries recorded declines in the distributional effectiveness of their fiscal policies over time, the distributional impact rose by 35 percent or more in countries such as Angola, Mozambique, South Africa and Togo. This paper calls for enhancing the non-extractive revenues by diversifying revenues sources from the extractive sectors and improving progressive taxation in countries with high fiscal space and high income inequality. Heavy investment in quality and accessible education and health services, and social programs are also vital to reduce poverty and inequality in Africa.
The paper advances the view that environmental diseconomies occasioned by oil industry activities in Nigeria have to a large extent contributed to the lingering crisis in the Niger Delta area, where the bulk of the country's oil and gas is produced. Against this background, the framework for environmental policy and strategies adopted by oil operators is reviewed. It is revealed that the role which communities could play towards minimising negative environmental incidents and related social crises, has been largely neglected by the various legislations and environmental management strategies adopted by petroleum operators. The authors suggest the fostering of sustainable partnerships between oil operators and host communities through appropriate memoranda of understanding, in order to address problems arising from such issues as compensation for environmental damage, impact assessment, management of spills, pipeline surveillance, information management, conflict resolution, and decentralisation of responsibility for abatement programmes.
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