Africa goes from net carbon sink to source

New research shows Africa's impact on greenhouse gases and the need to focus on climate-smart agriculture, writes Jyothi Laldas.

- Jyothi Laldas

New research by a team at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) shows that, in only nine years, Africa has gone from being a net carbon sink to being a net carbon source.

Researchers from the Future Ecosystems for Africa programme, based at Wits, found that between 2010 and 2019, the continent has made the transition.

It is estimated that Africa is a source of 4,5 petagrams, or 4,5 billion tons, of carbon dioxide equivalents per year.

According to Prof Sally Archibald, principal investigator at the Future Ecosystems for Africa Programme, and professor at the Wits School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences, until now, Africa has been producing about 4% of the anthropogenic greenhouse gases (GHG) that lead to climate change globally. The continent has also been offering climate services to the globe, largely through the intact ecosystems in the tropics that have been sequestering more GHGs than were released through anthropogenic activities.

"While it still serves this purpose, in the last decade the rate at which carbon is being released from the continent increased. In terms of global numbers this means Africa still hovers around 4% of fossil fuel emissions, but actually emits nearly 40% of the global emissions from land use, and is now, for the first time, contributing 3% to 5% of the growing amount of GHGs in the atmosphere."