ABSTRACT
Sustainable development in Africa has been negatively affected because of climate change and poor management of the continent’s natural resources. Africa has been unable to achieve its development targets partly due to climate variability and a lack of proactive measures in managing natural resources. Research reveals that 220 million Africans are prone to drought annually, while one-third of Africans live in drought-prone areas. Thus, African governments need to address climate change and its adverse effects at the national, regional, and international levels. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development recognises climate change as “one of the greatest challenges of our time” and raises concerns about its adverse impacts on the abilities of all countries to achieve sustainable development. Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 13 is targeted at integrating climate change measures into national and regional legal frameworks.
Using doctrinal and interdisciplinary approaches, this chapter seeks to determine whether the existing relevant African Union’s legal framework on climate change drives the mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions and effective management of natural resources. It particularly examines the draft Africa Climate Change Strategy 2020–2030 concerning effective governance of natural resources, environmental protection standards, environmental permitting, emissions trading, offsetting mechanisms, financing schemes, and other inventive instruments. The paper assumes that the draft Africa Climate Change Strategy (ACCS) is not enhancing sustainable development in the region because it is not centred on relevant climate change mitigations and effective governance of natural resources. It is argued that ACCS should aim at becoming a responsible and adequate framework that focuses on climate change mitigation and sustainable management of natural resources to avert the adverse effects of climate change and sluggish development in the region.
