Impala on a termite mound. Global termite methane emissions have been affected by climate and land use changes.Credit: University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa.
It has taken less than 10 years for Africa to transition from being a net carbon sink to a net carbon source. The continent now emits more greenhouse gases than it absorbs.
Looking at data between 2010 and 2019, researchers from the Futures Ecosystems for Africa programme, based at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, looked at major potential carbon sources, such as agriculture and fossil fuel emissions. From Africa, the rise in emissions can be mainly contributed to fossil fuel burning and land transformation processes.
Natural sources such as wildfires, and termites whose methane emissions have increased in line with climate and land use changes.
“Africa still hovers around 4% of global fossil fuel emissions, but emits nearly 40% of the global emissions from land use, and is now, for the first time, contributing 3-5% of the growing amount of greenhouse gasses (GHG) in the atmosphere,” says Sally Archibald, the programme principal investigator.
Different forms of land use in Africa – as landscapes are transformed into small scale, and then commercial agriculture, greenhouse gas emissions and carbon losses increase significantly.Credit: University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa.
The team developed a comprehensive greenhouse gas (GHG) budget for Africa using global and local data sets and innovative methods, process-based models, data-driven remotely sensed products, and national GHG inventories, and satellite imaging.
“For Africa, the rise in emissions can be mainly attributed to fossil fuel burning and land transformation,” says Yolandi Ernst, lead author and researcher at the Wits Global Change Institute.
“If we don’t do something drastic to reduce our emissions and increase our absorption of carbon by forests and biomass, Africa will contribute even more in the future.”
“Africa’s regional contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions remains very low, both currently and historically,” says Andreas Schwarz Meyer from the African Climate and Development Initiative at the University of Cape Town, South Africa.
Schwarz says that halting the trend of African emissions without compromising the region's development would require huge international investment. “African nations cannot finance their transition alone,” he says.
