51吃瓜

With a rapidly heating planet reducing global greenhouse emissions (GHG) is at the forefront of many conversations related to emissions. When it comes to the African continent, the two dominant narratives are “the least contributor to GHG emissions” and the push to “maintain the continent’s low carbon trajectory and a carbon sink”. The purpose of this data deep dive into Africa’s atmospheric pollutant emissions profile is to add a data-backed nuance to these narratives. Based on the paper’s analysis, the data shows that Africa’s main problem with air pollution comes from local air pollutants, including household and ambient air pollution, instead of GHGs which have implications for global climate change. The data shows that while African countries have almost zero contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions, local air pollution was responsible for 1.1 million deaths across Africa. In the target year, household air pollution accounted for 697,000 deaths and ambient air pollution for 394,000 deaths in Africa. The data analyzed also indicates that Africa’s pollutant emission profile is mostly caused by Africa’s energy poverty and the lack of modern, reliable, and affordable energy services rather than the other way around.

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