Climate – Views & Research – The Conversation

Blue rectangular panels and orange plastic lanterns; hands holding a cellphone connected to a device with wires

Solar power in rural Zimbabwe hasn’t reduced women’s unpaid work: can policy do better?

Ellen Fungisai Chipango, University of Johannesburg

Ghana’s cities are getting hotter: they need more trees to keep them cool

Yaw Agyeman Boafo, University of Ghana

Solar power is taking off in Malawi: but poor households need financial help to make it work for them

Pam Jagger, University of Michigan; Charles B.L. Jumbe, Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources; Congyi Dai, University of Michigan; Ryan McCord, Duke University, and Thabbie Chilongo, Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources

Four people outside a rural home with a tiny solar panel about A4 size

South Africa is moving away from coal – how mines and power stations could be used for green energy and farming

Sandeep Pai, Duke University and Jennifer Lee Broadhurst, University of Cape Town

Children play among shacks, with power station cooling towers in the background

‘Blood cobalt’ is disappearing from batteries – and cheaper, cleaner batteries are arriving

Neeraj Sharma, UNSW Sydney

Critical mineral supply faces risks if local communities aren’t consulted enough: the case of lithium in Ghana

Clement Sefa-Nyarko, King's College London

A sandy and desolate landscape with the carcasses of dead goats strewn across it

Climate change could expose 1.1 billion people to hunger by 2100 (but there’s good news too) – AI modelling study

Giovanni Strona, Joint Research Centre (JRC)

African climate science-policy has a serious blind spot: the slowing Atlantic circulation

Guy Franklin Midgley, Stellenbosch University and Pedro M.S. Monteiro, Stellenbosch University

A bright hot sun set against an orange background

Heat with no end: climate model sets out an unbearable future for parts of Africa

Oluwafemi E. Adeyeri, Australian National University

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Solutions

A line of corrugated iron shacks with a pole between them on which is mounted a giant solar panel

South Africans are leaving the electricity network – but are solar mini-grids a fair solution?

Joanna Watterson, University of Cambridge

Zambia’s farmers are working in dangerous heat – how they can protect themselves

Anayawa Nyambe, University of Zambia

A big piece of land with very few shrubs and no shade and cattle grazing

Nigerian farmers talk about how climate change is affecting staple food crops – and what can help

Abeeb Babatunde Omotoso, North-West University and Mojirayo Ayodele, Olabisi Onabanjo University

Hundreds of yams at an outdoor market sorted into piles with several people handling them

Sahel farmers do better when they combine innovations rather than using them one by one

Lateef Olalekan Bello, University of Tokyo

Climate adaptation has a new global plan. What the Belem indicators are and why they matter to Africa

Olasunkanmi Habeeb Okunola, United Nations University

Green Transition

Two workers stand on a roof fitting solar panels onto it

What’s stopping sunny South Africa’s solar industry? Court case sheds light on the wider problem

Wikus Kruger, University of Cape Town

A group of women in a muddy lake, washing something in bags and buckets

Africa’s critical minerals are a huge economic opportunity: G20 framework sets out ways to seize it

Glen Nwaila, University of the Witwatersrand and Grant Bybee

A factory photographed from outside with a pipe sticking up into the air and large amounts of steam pouring out

Zambia’s factories burn too much coal – how reusing hot water can cut energy use

Paul Coughlan, Trinity College Dublin and Aonghus McNabola

The battle over a global energy transition is on between petro-states and electro-states – here’s what to watch for in 2026

Jennifer Morgan, Tufts University

A view across ribbons of solar panels on a hillside with snow-capped mountains in the backgound.

‘Reduce, reuse, recycle’ is corporate gaslighting – the real change must come from the fossil fuel industry

Alex Lenferna, University of Fort Hare

A group of a few hundred people march down a city street, carrying a banner that says 'System change not climate change'

African countries gear up for major push on climate innovation, climate financing and climate change laws

Pedi Obani, University of Bradford

Two lines of people stand in front of a sign saying The Second Africa Climate Summit.

Africa’s ‘great green wall’ is stalling: in Senegal very few planted areas show progress

Annah Lake Zhu, Wageningen University and Amadou Ndiaye, Université Amadou Mahtar MBOW de Dakar

A sandy environment with a few sparse trees and a government sign in front

More Green Transition

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Climate crisis

Loungers and umbrella on a beach, with a stone wall in the background

Climate change is hurting Kenyan women working in coastal tourism – they explain how

Lucy Atieno, Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research (ZMT)

Climate change and inequality are connected – policies need to reflect this

Anda David, Agence Française de Développement (AFD) and Rawane Yasser, Agence Française de Développement (AFD)

Informal settlement seen against the skyline of highrise commercial buildings.

Factory farming in Africa: development banks see it as a good idea, but it’s bad for the climate

Divya Narain, University of Oxford

Cattle inside cages with their heads sticking out eating hay

New report reveals how climate change is spreading infectious diseases to new regions

Tulio de Oliveira, Stellenbosch University; Cheryl Baxter, Stellenbosch University, and Maambele Khosa, Stellenbosch University

People in protective clothing and masks spray a smoky substance on the street

Climate crisis is a daily reality for many African communities: how to try and protect them

Decide Mabumbo, CGIAR

A woman stands inside her compound, in floodwaters up to her knees

Children sit on the ground around a big pink circle drawn in chalk

South African study finds 4 low-income communities can’t cope with global warming: what needs to change

Sithabile Hlahla, University of Cape Town

More Climate Crisis

Justice

Large pieces of equipment in an open mine, with clouds of dust

Activists in Ghana are forcing extractive firms to account for the harm they cause – corporate abuse study

Cynthia Kwakyewah, York University, Canada

The G20 was built to stabilise the world’s economy – but it’s failed on climate, debt and inequality

Rasigan Maharajh, Tshwane University of Technology

TotalEnergies: French court ruling over false climate claims could boost African cases against polluters

Zunaida Moosa Wadiwala, University of the Witwatersrand and Tracy-Lynn Field, University of the Witwatersrand

People holding a banner next to a harbour. The banner says "Kick Total out of Africa" and the people have giant cardboard shoes attached to their legs and are making kicking motions

Children and young people at climate talks: seen, photographed, but not allowed to decide anything

Katie Reid, University College Cork; Aoife Daly, University College Cork; Independent Social Research Foundation, and Florencia Paz Landeira, University College Cork

Young children with signs saying "Try to leave Earth a better place than when you arrive" and "Global warming isn't a prediction - it is happening"

South African environmental groups push to block Shell’s new wells – how world court opinion might help

Angela van der Berg, University of the Western Cape

More Climate Justice

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