A majority of Africans polled in September 2021 are knowledgeable on this global issue
Africa is most affected by climate crisis compared to other continents
Millennials lead on their knowledge of climate change issues
Focusing on African solutions to climate change challenges
Africa is most affected by climate crisis compared to other continents
The rising issues of climate change in Africa are affecting the continent daily. Africa is the most vulnerable to climate change and has the least effective measures to cope with the changes. Further words by WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas, clearly highlighted the depth of the situation at hand. In his words, “Climate change is having a growing impact on the African continent, hitting the most vulnerable hardest, and contributing to food insecurity, population displacement and stress on water resources.”
Some of the challenges that are associated with climate change in Africa include coastal degradation especially along the West African Coast which is brought about by the rising sea levels. Food insecurity is on the rise; agriculture is widely known as Africa’s economic backbone. Currently, this is not the case as sub-Saharan countries suffer the most as they are drought-prone. The number of malnourished people has increased by 45.6% from 2012 according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). There are many issues that climate change may bring up and there is a need to come up with ways that these issues will be dealt with. To assess the awareness of Africans on issues of climate change, primary data was collected via a tracker done by Kasi Insights in September 2021.
Millennials lead on their knowledge of climate change issues
According to Kasi Sustainability Consumer Trends, a poll of about 5528 Africans from 11 African countries, 3 in 10 Africans surveyed in the tracker had substantive knowledge of issues of climate change, global warming, and planet protection. This percentage is too low considering the challenges Africans face due to climate change. There is a need to increase African awareness of the issues that face them. Consequently, more than half of Africans had little knowledge on the climate crisis issues while the remaining 13% had no idea at all. Africans tend to be ignorant of a number of factors that need prompt attention. For example, this is widely seen with Africa’s response to the Covid-19 vaccines. The majority of Africans are yet to be vaccinated.
On further analysis of the information obtained, 89% of Millennials (i.e., people aged between 25-34 years) are knowledgeable on climate change issues. Millennials tend to be liberal and open to new ideas; this may be attributed to the fact that they are young and energetic and need a better future for themselves. They are closely followed by 87% from Gen X (i.e., people aged between 35-44 years) who are not entirely old but still have some vigor in following the events happening in the real world. Though Baby Boomers (i.e., people aged between 45-54 years) have a slightly lower percentage on the overall knowledge on climate issues, most of them are extremely knowledgeable. These are the current leaders and other generations tend to follow in their footsteps. For this reason, it is important for them to keep up with the current trends. Finally, Gen Z (i.e., people aged between 18-24 years) lack knowledge on climate change issues. This is because they do not find these happenings to be fun or worth paying attention to.
Focusing on African solutions to climate change challenges
As the COP26 climate change conference starts in Glasgow UK, Africa is again at the bottom of the agenda, taking the back seat at the table even though it burdens the negative impact of the effects of climate change. Planet earth needs to be saved; Africa needs to be saved. With the rising climate changes, the effects are likely to worsen. Africa may lose some of its best features like the Western Coast, occurrences of drought may increase, the water level in the oceans may rise making it difficult for people to live along the Coast. The forces of nature can never be stopped but there is a way Africans could reduce pollution in order to slow down the effects of climate change. For example, smoke emissions from various factories in Africa are known to contribute to global warming. Rather than waiting for the West to come to our rescue, Africa needs to look inwards at solutions to the climate change challenge while keeping the rest of the world accountable for its responsibility (industrialization, CO2 emissions). There is also a need to create awareness amongst consumers so they can make informed choices when it comes to their behaviors and the products and services they buy or use. This data will prove useful for policymakers when making and assessing policy recommendations but also for brands when reaching and engaging with a more sustainability-conscious consumer.
Kasi Insight has recently added a sustainability consumer trends dataset based on a quarterly survey of Africans to measure awareness around sustainability and its growing influence on purchase decisions.
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