Africa’s Climate Compensation Call: The Intersection of Historical Debts and Realistic Demand

Though Africa has contributed the least to global warming (less than 4% of the world’s carbon emission), it has suffered the worst extreme climate shocks, from desertification in the Sahel to devastating drought in Southern Africa. Since the pre-industrial period, average temperatures in Africa have risen by about 1.4°C, compared with a global average warming of about 1.1°C. According to the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) 2024 report, monitored wildlife populations in Africa have declined by an average of 76% over the past 50 years, and about 10% of species in North Africa are threatened with extinction. In fact, Africans are not indifferent to the climate crisis— on average, African countries lose between 2% to 5% of their GDP each year dealing with the consequences of extreme environmental events, which devastated their already tight treasuries. Africa should not be left to shoulder these consequences alone — they are the results of environmental and economic disruptions caused by colonial rule. Most directly, the resource exploitations and environmental destructions during the colonial period are still influencing Africa’s environment. During colonial rule, European powers promoted monocropping and large-scale extraction in Africa to meet their own industrial needs. This mode leads to over-exploitation of land, deforestation and destruction of ecosystems. France’s promotion of peanut cultivation in West Africa has resulted in extensive land desertification, and the Sahel region remains one of the most severely degraded regions globally. During the Belgian colonization of the Congo (1885-1960), the colonizers cut down large amounts of rainforest for rubber and ivory, leading to soil degradation in the Congo Basin, and the risk of flooding in modern time increased significantly because of that. Similar examples were just countless, but these were just the most direct distortions. The structural and social impacts were sometimes neglected. The slave trade during the 15^th to 16^th centuries resulted in the loss of 12 million young labor forces in Africa, which destroyed the sustainable development patterns of traditional agrarian societies. For instance, the Niger Delta is more vulnerable to droughts due to the lack of labor forces and the abandonment of traditional irrigation system. There was also much indigenous ecological knowledge being lost (including shifting cultivation, community forest protection) during the colonization through repression. For example, the traditional seasonal grazing patterns of the Maasai in Kenya were banned by the colonists, leading to overgrazing and desertification of the grasslands.

This environmental exploitation even last till the 21st century. Currently, more than 60% of Africa’s exports are unprocessed natural resources, reflecting a dependence on extractive industries. Western countries have been making good use of this imbalance by importing raw materials at low prices while exporting high-value manufactured goods back to Africa. This unequal trade relationship—often referred to as the “scissor effect”—not only perpetuates economic dependency, but also transfers the environmental costs of extraction to African countries. As a result, while Africa bears the consequence of deforestation, pollution, and ecological degradation, the Global North continues to enjoy clean air and environmental benefits, detached from the true cost of its consumption.

For instance, oil extraction in the Niger Delta spills 4 million tons of crude, but companies such as Shell pay only a small percentage of the cleanup costs. At the same time, mainstream discourse often criticizes developing countries for pursuing growth that appears to come at the expense of the environment. Yet ironically, it is the developed nations that historically consumed far more natural resources and produced significantly greater emissions. Their recent shift toward clean energy is not the result of a moral awakening, but rather a response to the declining returns of the old development model based on extraction and pollution. Worse still, many of these countries have simply outsourced their environmental degradation to the Global South, continuing to enjoy the benefits of resource-intensive consumption while leaving the pollution behind. According to the Natural Resources Conservation Council (NRDC), 23 developed countries alone account for half of the world’s historical CO2 emissions. The US exported over 1 million tons of harmful waste to Mexico, seemingly to regard Mexico as a “trash can”.

The West should be considered responsible for Africa’s environmental issue. A new report conducted by ActionAid reveals that the West owes Africa a climate debt of at least 36 trillion US dollars, let along the ongoing exploitations. The number is 50 times more than the debt Africa owes the West, while African countries are struggling to repay those foreign debts by cutting basic public expenditures such as education and health care.

As the power of global south continues to rise, Africa has also taken many actions to demand for reasonable compensations. African countries have unified other developing nations at the United Nations Climate Conference (COP) to demand that developed countries provide financial compensation for the damage caused by climate change. Developed countries have pledged to provide $100 billion a year in climate finance to developing countries by 2020 to help mitigate and adapt to climate change.

Through diplomatic efforts at the 2009 Copenhagen summit, developed countries have pledged to provide $100 billion a year in climate finance to developing countries by 2020 to help mitigate and adapt to climate change. However, as of 2020, the actual provision was only $83 billion, and mostly used in renewable energy instead of the most urgent projects such as droughts aid. At COP27 in 2022, the African Group pushed for the establishment of a “Loss and Damage” fund aimed at providing assistance to countries affected by climate disasters. However, as of April 2025, only about $1.2 billion had been raised in this fund, which was far lower than the real damages brought by developed nations as well the actual need of Africa (needs about $290 billion to $440 billion between 2020 and 2030 to deal with loss and damage). The fund was mainly dominated by the World Bank, where developing countries rarely have right of speech. At the same time, nearly all the climate funds provided by developed economies take the form of “aid” or “loans” rather than genuine compensation. This compellation not only allows them to evade legal accountability for the damage they have historically caused, but also redefines the issue as an act of charity rather than justice. And that only adds insult to injury for Africa and other regions that still live with the consequences of colonialism.

Addressing Africa’s climate demands isn’t charity—it’s justice. The Global North must move beyond symbolic gestures and loans disguised as aid, acknowledging historical responsibilities through genuine compensation. Only through honest confrontation of past debts and present inequities can we forge a truly sustainable and equitable future.

By Xingchen Liu