Local Activism and Climate Action in Africa: Protecting the Environment as a Social Justice Imperative

Abstract

This chapter engages the ways in which local environmental activists in Africa and specifically in South Africa, Senegal, Mali, Kenya and Zimbabwe use their urgency to protest and advocate for environmental justice in Africa. From the data gathered, I argue that Africa is the most vulnerable continent to climate change compared to developed countries which are the chief culprits in impacting the environment. Moreover, the act of deriving communities away from poverty through modernisation unfortunately comes at the expense of the environment. This negatively impacts the lives of African rural and urban poor who heavily depend on agriculture which requires favourable climate. To curtail this, local environmental activists in Africa mobilise themselves, collectively protest and advocate for environmental justice, inclusivity and citizen participation in the world's environmental protection decision makings. A qualitative research design was undertaken through a review of existing literature, reports of international organisations, secondary and online resources and newspapers over 12 months. In this chapter I contend that there is a need for strong engagements of communities in decisions that affect their economic and social life of the people. Failure to achieve integration and inclusion between developed and developing countries impinges on climate change mitigation strategies, therefore there is a need for countries from both the North and South to work towards sustainability and resilient to climate change management as urged by goal numbers 11 and 13 of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.