COVID-19 response in Africa: impacts and lessons for environmental management and climate change adaptation

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic adds pressure on Africa; the most vulnerable continent to climate change impacts, threatening the realization of most Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The continent is witnessing an increase in intensity and frequency of extreme weather events, and environmental change. The COVID-19 was managed relatively well across in the continent, providing lessons and impetus for environmental management and addressing climate change. This work examines the possible impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the environment and climate change, analyses its management and draws lessons from it for climate change response in Africa. The data, findings and lessons are drawn from peer reviewed articles and credible grey literature on COVID-19 in Africa. The COVID-19 pandemic spread quickly, causing loss of lives and stagnation of the global economy, overshadowing the current climate crisis. The pandemic was managed through swift response by the top political leadership, research and innovations across Africa providing possible solutions to COVID-19 challenges, and redirection of funds to manage the pandemic. The well-coordinated COVID-19 containment strategy under the African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention increased sharing of resources including data was a success in limiting the spread of the virus. These strategies, among others, proved effective in limiting the spread and impact of COVID-19. The findings provide lessons that stakeholders and policy-makers can leverage in the management of the environment and address climate change. These approaches require solid commitment and practical-oriented leadership.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10668-023-02956-0.

Introduction

The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV2) broke out in December 2019, and the associated Coronavirus (COVID-19) disease was declared a global pandemic on 11 March 2020 by the World Health Organization (WHO, 2020). According to the World Bank (2020), the pandemic was likely to lead the Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) region into its first recession in 25 years. However, this did not happen, meanwhile, the continent recorded the least COVID-19 prevalence and mortality (Mbow et al., 2020). This is partly attributed to relatively well management that contained the spread of COVID-19 and the related impacts. The pandemic shares several similarities with climate change, notably their impact, magnitude and inequities of impact, system vulnerabilities, uncertainties and discourses of myth and reality amidst misinformation (Ebi et al., 2021). Hence, the approach used in responding to one may be applied to the other. The impacts of climate change are projected to increase if little or no adaptation and mitigation measures are put in place (IPCC, 2022).

The pandemic dominated the media since late 2019, given the pressure it exerted on the health sector, killing nearly 6 million people by the end of February 2022 and significantly impacting global socio-economic dynamics (Abdool Karim et al., 2021; WFP, 2020). Although Africa recorded the lowest number of infections and deaths, the continent remains at high risk since it has a poor health care system that is already dealing with other communicable diseases like malaria and cholera and is vulnerable and struggling to adapt to climate change (Adepoju, 2021; Lawal, 2021; Leininger et al., 2021). The COVID-19 pandemic exposed the unpreparedness and inequality across Africa (Shupler et al., 2021; Tessema et al., 2021), a continent that equally has low readiness for climate change adaptation (Epule et al., 2021a). The northern and southern African regions with the highest readiness for climate change equally have the highest climate change performance index across the continent (Epule et al., 2021a, b), emphasizing the need for policy and planning in managing hazards.

The compounding effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on climate change threaten to undo the gains made towards realization of various SDGs, such as poverty and inequality reduction (Hughes et al., 2021; Ingutia, 2021; Pradhan et al., 2021). This is a major concern for Africa, which remains off-track with the 2030 SDG targets (Hughes et al., 2021). The SDG13, Target 13.2 on strengthening resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related hazards and natural disasters in all countries has not been spared. Climate change remains a threat to global socio-economic development with an observed and projected increase in frequency and intensity of weather and climate extremes, causing loss of lives and destruction of property and the environment. This is true, especially for African countries that are prone and vulnerable to the effects of climate change owing to technological, institutional, and financial limitations (IPCC, 2022; Sono et al., 2021). According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, 2022), the projected changes in climate are likely to have devastating continental-wide impacts, such as the loss of 30% of biodiversity if the temperature increases by more than 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels. During the pandemic, Africa experienced varying weather and climate extremes (Table S1) that negatively affected different sectors. The economy of communities affected by an extreme weather event is impacted the same way the COVID-19 pandemic does by limiting the movement of people and goods.

There are several ongoing initiatives across Africa address the challenges posed by climate change. The projects vary in scale but tend to rely on government bodies and development partners due to the cash-intensive nature of the projects. Despite the commitments made by developed nations to fund climate change adaptation and mitigation initiatives in less wealthy countries as stipulated in Article 9 of the Paris Agreement (United Nations, 2015) and SDG Target 13.4, the set targets have always been missed (Timperley, 2021). Most of the initiatives sponsored by the developed countries under climate change finance mainly focus on mitigation than adaptation which is a priority for Africa (Timperley, 2021). This has forced developing countries most of which are in Africa use locally created cost-effective solutions to address climate change challenges.

The overwhelming burden posed by COVID-19 and recovery strategy provides an opportunity to re-examine strategies and approaches employed in climate change response. This is attainable if the COVID-19 pandemic management is considered a test run for climate change response (Fuentes et al., 2020; Yohe, 2020). At the same time, it is important to realize that the pandemic will not providentially invigorate climate action (Jacoby et al., 2020), calling for the necessary attention to the climate crisis.

Although both crises have large uncertainties (Phillips et al., 2020), there is a high likelihood that the spread and impacts of the COVID-19 will reduce with continuous development and uptake of COVID-19 vaccines (Ebi et al., 2021), while climate change will persist. IPCC (2021) reported with high confidence that the observed upward trend in hot extremes and a reduction in cold extremes over Africa are projected to persist throughout this century. An increase in frequency and intensity of heavy precipitation events is projected over nearly the entire continent. The associated impacts will be devastating, hence, the need to devise effective climate change adaptation and mitigation measures.

Despite the negative impacts of COVID-19, the experience especially the response to it provides great lessons that can applied in management of other hazards and disasters, and environmental challenges. The question that we want to answer in this study is, “What lessons for environmental management and climate change adaptation can be drawn from COVID-19 response strategies in Africa?” According to Amponsah et al. (2021), COVID-19 has strengthened Africa’s resilience to future pandemics. This work reviews the impact of COVID-19 on the environment, climate change adaptation efforts, and some of the strategies employed in managing the pandemic and key players involved. Most importantly, this work looks at how COVID-19 response can be applied to environmental management and climate change adaptation efforts in Africa. The findings of this work can guide policy-makers and stakeholders in facilitating the realization of SDG13.

The remaining parts of this work are as follows: Sect. 2 introduces the data and methods used in this study, Sect. 3 presents the results while the discussion of the results is given in Sect. 4. The conclusion of the study presented in Sect. 5.

Methodology

Systematic COVID-19 impacts on environment and response strategies

COVID-19 is a relatively new topic, but it has gained a lot of research interest. Although much information online attests to the subject’s interest, there are limited peer-reviewed studies on COVID-19–climate change nexus, especially over Africa.

This study systematically reviews English peer-reviewed and grey literature. Primary works of literature were sourced from Web of Science and Scopus. A search on Google Scholar did not yield any new publications, so that culled data are representative. The database was searched under the thread ‘COVID-19 and Climate change in Africa’ for the period December 2019 to March 2022. The searches did not produce any non-English peer-reviewed publications. The selection of articles was then refined by considering the titles and abstracts, where papers having a weak connection to the topic were excluded. In addition, grey literature from reliable opinions of renowned experts were found through search on Google under the thread ‘COVID-19 and Climate change in Africa’.

This work also considered relevant and reliable reports and press releases from institutions of authority in health and climate issues. Further, information accessible in online publications from renowned experts was included. Table 1 gives a summary of the inclusion and exclusion criteria for the selection of articles reviewed in this study.

Table 1.

Summary of the inclusion and exclusion criteria used in the selection of the reviewed articles

Inclusion	Exclusion
1. Papers published between 2019 and 2022	1. Papers published before 2019
2. Papers focusing on Africa	2. Papers focusing on other parts of the world, excluding Africa
3. Papers written in English	3. Non-English articles
4. Impacts of COVID-19 on the environment, and COVID-19 management	4. Impacts of COVID-19 cause, spread and COVID-19 vaccine

Data analysis

The database produced 216 articles before the manual screening as of 14 March 2022. A total of 58 articles were identified and reviewed (Fig. 1 and Annex 1). The articles were categorized based on the lead author’s country and type of institution, the impact of COVID-19 on climate change, and the COVID-19 response strategies.

Fig. 1.

Flow chart of article selection process

Results

This section presents the findings of COVID-19 research, the impacts of COVID-19 on the environment and climate change, and the possible lessons from COVID-19 response across the continent in addressing climate change in Africa.

COVID-19: Climate change nexus research in Africa

Figure 2 shows the geographical distribution and type of institution of the reviewed articles’ lead authors. Institutional reports (5) are not included in the figure since they are international. They are WMO, UNDP, WHO Africa, Global Center on Adaptation and African Adaptation Initiative, and Springer Nature.

Fig. 2.

Countries and affiliations of lead authors of reviewed articles

The pattern in Fig. 2 shows the possible sources of research funding, where well-funded institutions tend to produce more research findings. South Africa tops the list followed closely by the USA and Germany. Most of the studies focused on the impact of the pandemic on the environment rather than impact management. This explains the diversity in the institution types since researchers not based in Africa can study emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and pollutants over Africa by relying on satellite data. Most institutions are universities, followed by media companies, while financial institutions are the least.

Impacts of COVID-19 on the environment and climate change adaptation

Tables 2 and 3 summarize the pandemic’s impacts on the environment and the lessons that can be adopted in managing climate change in Africa. The tables also show the respective reviewed articles.

Table 2.

Summary of COVID-19 pandemic impacts on the environment (air and water) and climate

Aspect	References
Reduction in NO2	Liu et al. (2021), Shikwambana and Kganyago (2021), Shikwambana et al. (2021) Singh et al. (2021), Sokhi et al. (2021), Amouei Torkmahalleh et al. (2021), Mousazadeh et al. (2021), Venter et al. (2020), Masaki et al. (2020), Sekmoudi et al. (2022), Khomsi et al. (2021), Otmani et al. (2020), Elass et al. (2020), Mostafa et al. (2021)
Reduction in SO2	Shikwambana and Kganyago (2021), Sokhi et al. (2021), Otmani et al. (2020)
Reduction in CO2	Ray et al. (2022), Sovacool et al. (2020), Mousazadeh et al. (2021), Madkour (2021), Quéré et al. (2020), Kumar and Ayedee (2021), WMO (2020)
Increase(+)/reduction(–) in CO	Shikwambana et al. (2021) (–), Adeyemi et al. (2021) (–), Mostafa et al. (2021) (–), Kganyago and Shikwambana (2021) (+)
Reduction in PM2.5	McFarlane et al. (2021), Sokhi et al. (2021), Sovacool et al. (2020), Amouei Torkmahalleh et al. (2021), Venter et al. (2020), Sekmoudi et al. (2022), Kumar and Ayedee (2021)
Increase in PM2.5	Priyanka et al. (2021), Shupler et al. (2021), Sekmoudi et al. (2022), Khomsi et al. (2021), Elass et al. (2020), Adeyemi et al. (2021)
Reduction in PM10	Sokhi et al. (2021), Otmani et al. (2020), Adeyemi et al. (2021)
Increase in O3	Sokhi et al. (2021), Sekmoudi et al. (2022)
Disrupted research	López-Vergès et al. (2021), Cheval et al. (2020), WMO (2020)
Reduction in funding	Hughes et al. (2021), Quevedo et al. (2020)
Increase in COVID-19 waste	Kalina et al. (2021), Kalina and Tilley (2020), Okuku et al. (2021)
Reduction in aerosol optical depth	McFarlane et al. (2021)
Reduction in water pollution	Molekoa et al. (2021), Okuku et al. (2021), Cherif et al., (2020)
Reduction in focus on climate	Odey et al. (2021), Onyishi et al. (2021), Phillips et al. (2020), Cheval et al. (2020), Loureiro and Alló (2021), Cwienk (2020)

Table 3.

Summary of lessons on management of climate change based on experiences from COVID-19 response

Aspect	References
Continent-wide coordination	Abdool Karim et al (2021), Hopman et al. (2020), Onyishi et al. (2021), Massinga Loembé et al. (2020), Fagbayibo and Owie (2021)
Redirection of resources	Abdool Karim et al. (2021)
Collaboration	Unknown author (2020); Fagbayibo and Owie (2021), Global Center on Adaptation and African Adaptation Initiative (2020), WHO Africa (2021)
Swift action/response	Ebhuoma (2021), Elbany and Elhenawy (2021), Metcalfe et al. (2020), Onyishi et al. (2021), Tabong and Segtub (2021), Nguimkeu and Tadadjeu (2020), Heyd (2021), Fagbayibo and Owie (2021), Abubakar et al. (2021), Leininger et al. (2021), Global Center on Adaptation and African Adaptation Initiative (2020)
Message framing and dissemination	Ebhuoma (2021), Metcalfe et al. (2020), Tabong and Segtub (2021), Joubert (2020), Amuke (2020)
Research and innovation	Nature Editorial (2022), UNDP (2020)

Carbon emissions and pollution

The COVID-19 response strategies such as lockdown and travel restrictions had negative socio-economic impacts. However, there was a small silver lining to the environment and global energy consumption (Mousazadeh et al., 2021). Pollutants and GHGs were about 17% less in early-mid April 2020 compared to 2019 averages (Cheval et al., 2020; Quéré et al., 2020; WMO, 2020). Ray et al. (2022) reported a reduction in carbon emissions by 438 Mt in 2020 than in 2019 in 184 countries. Based on the carbon footprint method, the GHG emissions in Egypt during the lockdown period from January to August 2020 reduced by 17% compared to the same period in 2019 (Madkour, 2021). The GHG emissions reduced due to travel restrictions and lower energy use at workplaces during stay-at-home policies. However, the benefits are short-lived and have little effect on climate change adaptation in the short term (Harvey, 2020; Ray et al., 2022). Forster et al. (2020) estimated a negligible direct impact of the pandemic-driven climate response, with an approximated cooling of 0.01 ± 0.005 °C by 2030. According to World Meteorological Organization (WMO, 2020), daily fossil CO₂ emissions had gone up, reaching 1%–8% range below 2019 levels globally by mid-2020.

Studies (e.g. Singh et al., 2021; Sokhi et al., 2021; Sovacool et al., 2020) noted a short-term reduction in global air pollution following the economic slowdown associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. Pollution is equally a growing concern across Africa, where it is estimated that exposure to indoor and outdoor air pollution causes nearly 650,000 premature deaths annually (Global Burden of Disease Collaborative Network, 2016). Although it is difficult to quantify the level of pollution reduction in Africa given the limited surface air quality monitoring installations (Singh et al., 2021; Sokhi et al., 2021), a reduction in outdoor air pollution and a marginal increase in ozone in 34 countries globally during lockdown by May 2020 were recorded (Venter et al., 2020). In a related study over 34 countries globally, Amouei Torkmahalleh et al. (2021) reported a reduction in nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) and PM_2.5 concentration by 34 and 15%, respectively, during the lockdown period (until 30 April 2020). Masaki et al. (2020) reported a decrease in the level of NO₂ in urban centres in SSA by 11% in April 2020 compared to monthly quantities in 2018 and 2019. Over Morocco, Sekmoudi et al. (2022) investigated changes in surface dust PM_2.5 from 2016 to 2020 and O₃ and NO₂ from 2019 and 2020. The findings showed a decrease in PM_2.5 and NO₂ by about 10 and 4%, respectively, while O₃ increased by about 1%. In Cairo, Egypt, there was a decrease in NO₂ and CO by 15 and 5%, respectively, during the 2020 lockdown compared to the baseline period of 2015–2019 (Mostafa et al., 2021). In Casablanca, Morocco, a decrease in NO₂, PM_2.5, and CO concentrations by 12 μg/m³, 18 μg/m³ and 0.04 mg/m³ was observed, respectively, during the lockdown in 2020 as compared to 2016–2019 (Khomsi et al., 2021). The study further found that the pollution reduction reduced mortality and saved lives, mainly from cardiovascular diseases (more than 60% of the avoidable deaths). Similar air pollution reductions were observed in the Moroccan cities of Rabat and Salé during the lockdown: NOx (up to 50% in Rabat), SO₂ (49% in Salé) and PM₁₀ (75% in Salé and 53% in Rabat) (Elass et al., 2020; Otmani et al., 2020). In Port Harcourt, Nigeria, a study on the air quality index revealed a respective decrease of CO, PM_2.5 and PM₁₀ from a range of 8–28 ppm, 20–140 μg/m³ and 15–135 μg/m³ before lockdown to a range of 4–16 ppm, 10–110 μg/m³ and 10–90 μg/m³ during lockdown (Adeyemi et al., 2021). A 20–30% reduction in NO₂ was reported in Tanzania, Botswana, Namibia, Angola, South Africa, Kenya and coastal countries of West Africa, Algeria and Niger (Singh et al., 2021). At OR Tambo International Airport and Cape Town International Airport in South Africa, NO₂ emissions decreased by 70.45 and 64.58%, respectively, during the global lockdown period (Shikwambana & Kganyago, 2021). Gauteng Province reported a ~ 31% reduction in NO₂ emissions (Shikwambana et al., 2021; Sokhi et al., 2021). Over the entire country, Liu et al. (2021) reported a reduction in NO₂ by 17% in 2019 relative to the 2010–2019 mean climatology. McFarlane et al. (2021) reported a nearly 40% reduction in PM_2.5 level during the 2020 COVID-19 lockdown compared to the same time in 2019. The contrary was observed in lower-middle-class settlements in Nairobi, Kenya, during the lockdown in 2020 (Priyanka et al., 2021), explained by the residents’ switch from liquefied petroleum gas to biomass fuels because of loss of income (Priyanka et al., 2021; Shupler et al., 2021). In a related study, Kganyago and Shikwambana (2021) found that a 17.8% increase in CO emissions and 20% in smoke dust AOD were observed in the SSA region during the COVID-19 lockdown. The majority of emissions resulted from burning forest cover, cultivated lands, and shrublands due to escape fires from agricultural activities. This might have an impact on ozone in this region.

The response of ozone and PM_2.5 to reduced NOx emissions and their local concentrations is of particular interest because of their effects on human health (Health Effects Institute, 2019), and in the case of ozone, its crucial role in tropospheric chemistry and chemistry-climate interactions as the third most important anthropogenic greenhouse gas in the atmosphere (Myhre et al., 2013).

These studies presented an overall positive impact that the lockdown enforcement had on carbon emissions and local air quality, giving new directions in limiting carbon emissions for a sustainable environment.

Coastal water pollution in Morocco and Kenya improved significantly during the pandemic, with a significant reduction in E. coli concentrations on the west coast of Morocco and a rapid decrease in litter floating on the Kenyan coastal waters (Cherif et al., 2020; Molekoa et al., 2021; Okuku et al., 2021).

On the other hand, few studies (Kalina & Tilley, 2020; Kalina et al., 2021) have reported an increase in medical waste from the COVID-19 management. This is a concern, especially in Africa’s urban centres, which lack specialized disposal services to handle the influx of contaminated wastes, such as face masks. This issue is likely to unfold soon, calling for monitoring and action.

Focus

Since its outbreak, COVID-19 became a health emergency, receiving particular attention compared to the ongoing climate crisis (Filho et al., 2021). In Kenya, concerns about tuberculosis, HIV patients and maternal health being neglected were raised by researchers (Metcalfe et al., 2020; SDGC|A, 2020). Studies (e.g. López-Vergès et al., 2021; Phillips et al., 2020) noted the relegation of scientific fields that were not directly tackling COVID-19. According to Loureiro and Alló (2021), COVID-19 caused a significant decrease in the number of messages written on Twitter about climate change, slowing down climate concerns and discussion globally especially in vulnerable countries. Phillips et al. (2020) also observed how the pandemic overshadowed the public’s handling of the climate crisis. In the USA, the situation was not different, Spisak et al. (2022) found a decrease (~ 80%) in climate change content sharing and resharing on Meta’s Facebook platform as COVID-19 spread during the spring of 2020.

In agreement, Smirnova and Hsieh (2022) observed a reduction in climate change discussion on Twitter despite the high Twitter daily active usage in 2020 and 2021, and a number of phenomena such as a larger number of North Atlantic Ocean hurricanes, and wildland fires area in the USA happening at the same time. In a slightly different perspective, IMF (2021) in a survey on impact of COVID-19 on attitudes to climate change and support for climate policies in advanced and emerging economies observed that the pandemic increased concern for climate change. The findings indicated that the pandemic opened up more window for policy makers in large economies to implement strong climate policies.

Although the urgency of the problem can explain the dominance of COVID-19 over other diseases, climate change should equally be a centre of focus given its compounding long-term impacts (Phillips et al., 2020). Climate change research and activism agenda were equally affected during the lockdown period. Fieldwork and important meetings both locally and internationally were either cancelled or postponed. This is likely to have slowed down the climate change adaptation process where decisions are based on field experiments.

Climate change activism is critical in driving climate justice and climate change adaptation agenda through shaping policy and funding. According to Cwienk (2020), travel restrictions, lockdown and social distance measures to curb the spread of COVID-19 limited environmental protests globally. An example is the twenty-sixth Conference of the Parties (COP26), initially scheduled for November 2020 in Glasgow. This impacted diplomatic process on climate action was postponed for a year. This slowed down the response of targeted stakeholders and consequently slowed down the fight for environmental conservation and climate change adaptation and mitigation. Although the fight against the climate crisis shifted online, this continued to expose unequal access to information since the economically marginalized people lack the necessary tools and services to support virtual communication.

Data are critical in understanding the state of climate at a given time. Under climate change, accurate, credible weather forecasts are vital in saving lives and property. The COVID-19 pandemic affected the quality of weather forecasts by limiting weather observations. According to WMO (2020), the pandemic disrupted aircraft-based observations by 75–80% in March and April 2020, following the reduction in air travel. Similarly, lockdowns disrupted manned weather station observations, most of which are in Africa. Oceanographic observations were also affected. This introduces data gaps that affect the analysis of climate variability and change for informed decision-making.

Reduction in support from development partners

Financial and non-financial support from development partners is a critical aspect of addressing climate change. Developed countries mainly support climate financing in-line with the Paris Agreement. However, the countries have failed to meet their pledge to jointly contribute $100 billion annually in climate finance by 2020. Unexpectedly, the COVID-19 pandemic crippled economies of many countries. The developed-country parties that are major contributors to climate finance have set up pandemic contingency to protect their populations. It is argued that some parties likely diverted the funds meant for climate action to support the recovery of their economies (IMF, 2021; Quevedo et al., 2020). Although the European Union (EU) committed funds to climate action following COP26, climate change adaptation and mitigation efforts in Africa may be significantly hampered if the EU diverts the money to other sectors in response to the pandemic. The same concern was observed in Nepal where researchers (Pradhan et al., 2021) noted the dilution of focus and funds for non-COVID-19-related issues such as climate change, and anticipated reduction in backing from development partners.

This may limit the ability of many developing nations to achieve their nationally determined contributions (NDCs) according to the SDG13. Failure to meet the SDG13 goals is likely to directly impact other SDGs, including 1, 2, 3, 6, 11, 14 and 15. In Africa, many countries have equally cancelled, postponed, and redirected all non-essential expenses to regain stability. The Global Center on Adaptation and African Adaptation Initiative (2020) argues that such short-term emergency steps will likely cause unwilled harm to the climate adaptation measures across the continent. This will worsen the situation in climate-sensitive sectors such as agriculture, water and health.

Adaptation lessons

Despite sharing many characteristics, the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change have varying features that dictate human responses. So far, the management of the pandemic across Africa has been relatively successful against what had been anticipated following the continent’s weak health system (Ihekweazu & Agogo, 2020; Karamagi et al., 2022) and limited resources. The strategies put in place at various levels were mainly scientifically informed, based on the recommendation of studies such as Massinga Loembé et al. (2020).

Swift action

Strict measures such as school closures and travel restrictions to curb the spread of COVID-19 were swiftly put in place as compared to other continents (Leininger et al., 2021; Metcalfe et al., 2020; Nguimkeu & Tadadjeu, 2020). According to Mbow et al. (2020), the measures were effected even before an African country had recorded a case. The timing limited importation of COVID-19 cases, as well as reduced intracountry transmission giving room for necessary preparation to tackle the challenge. This happened when most countries did not have the necessary medical facilities to manage the spread of the virus. Many governments in Africa and beyond declared a state of emergency and lockdowns. Despite leading to mental health breakdown in many people, responses that included travel restriction also helped to reduce air pollution and GHG emissions (Cheval et al., 2020; Kumar & Ayedee, 2021), a pointer that appropriate and timely measures can help mitigate climate change and protect the environment.

Political will and swiftness are equally crucial in climate change, given its increasing and cumulative impacts. This was recently pointed out and emphasized in a global (Heyd, 2021) and regional study over South Africa (Ebhuoma, 2021). Such a move is essential to limit global temperature warming to below 1.5 °C compared to pre-industrial levels, or else the warming is likely to reach 1.5 °C between 2030 and 2052 (IPCC, 2018). We should act rapidly as the world did in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Although the impacts of climate change manifest slowly, urgency is required to cut GHG emissions and adapt effects of climate change. In adaptation, Elbany and Elhenawy (2021) called for the activation of the African Peace and Security Council's early warning and intervention strategies based on the pandemic outbreak. According to the study, a reliable early warning system can help avert losses that are associated with hazards. This was not the case for COVID-19, given that the virus was new. The issue is different from climate change that is evident today and is projected to persist. The available climate data can be used to develop a reliable climate early warning system to inform action that can help minimize the effects of extreme weather and climate events. The success of early warning systems is dependent on the information, communication and technology (ICT) sector that played an important role in coping with COVID-19 challenges. This was also observed outside Africa, for instance, a case study of Nepal (Pradhan et al., 2021).

Network governance

Beyond national strategies, international and continent-wide collaboration and coordination of COVID-19 affairs were evident and beneficial under the Africa Union (AU). The African Center for Disease Control (CDC) was instrumental in the creation of a Joint Africa Continental Strategy on COVID-19 Outbreak (https://africacdc.org/download/africa-joint-continental-strategy-for-covid-19-outbreak/), sponsored by AU COVID-19 Response Fund (Fagbayibo & Owie, 2021; Massinga Loembé et al., 2020). The strategy which was endorsed within two months after confirmation of COVID-19 in Africa helped accelerate COVID-19 testing through Africa Taskforce for Coronavirus (AFTCOR), while the Partnership to Accelerate COVID-19 Testing (PACT—https://africacdc.org/download/partnership-to-accelerate-covid-19-testing-pact-in-africa/) further limited the spread of COVID-19. Related case studies (e.g. Hopman et al., 2020; Leininger et al., 2021; Massinga Loembé et al., 2020) lauded the highly effective reaction by Africa CDC that assisted many countries in handling the pandemic and associated health effects.

This internationalization by African leadership was a milestone and a ray of hope for future socio-economic developments (Fagbayibo & Owie, 2021). Similarly, climate change has no political barriers, with the African continent being the least prepared to deal with its effects. Thus, there is a need for concerted and coordinated international adaptation and mitigation practices aimed at reducing the increasing risks. The success stories of internationalism and network governance exhibited in response to COVID-19 should shape climate action across the continent.

Indeed, continental coordination of climate change response will be beneficial if adopted since it speed actions and makes it affordable to some countries that cannot meet some costs on their own. The African Adaptation Initiative (AAI—https://africaadaptationinitiative.org/) was launched by the African Heads of States during COP21 in Paris in 2015 to urgently work on the continent’s adaption to the effects of climate change. The performance of the Africa CDC in response to the COVID-19 pandemic is a challenge to AAI as it embarks on its phase 3 (2020–2030) to achieve transformative results for adaptation in Africa.

Funding

Funding is critical in the management of crises. Given limited resources in most African countries, several non-essential expenses were postponed (WMO, 2020). Resources were redirected into established manufacturing entities to boost the production and supply of masks, ventilators and hand sanitizers, among other medical necessities. For instance, South Africa, through its Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (DTIC), partnered with Sasol, a global chemicals and energy company, to produce hand sanitizers. The company developed a unique blend of alcohol-based chemicals for hand sanitizers to help address the increase in market demand (https://www.sasol.com/media-centre/media-releases/sasol-responds-increased-demand-alcohols-used-sanitisers-and-3). This worked well, stressing the need for priorities in financial planning. This strategy could be implemented in climate change adaptation financing.

Although the response to climate change is finance-intensive, funds may not be the main issue, especially in local governments. Institutional acknowledgement of climate change as a priority and integrating response strategies in their operations is key to utilizing the existing resources effectively. This has not happened in most African countries. For instance, Owino (2021) noted that although devolution has taken place in Kenya, the local governments lack the necessary financing or capacity to deliver on some critical areas such as climate change.

Messaging

Packaging information and its dissemination avenue determine the level of its uptake. Following the misinformation on the spread and effects of the virus in the early stages of the pandemic, for instance, in Ghana (Tabong & Segtub, 2021), organizations at every level of the government embarked on message framing to educate the public by removing misconceptions and dispel myths about COVID-19 (Metcalfe et al., 2020; Tabong & Segtub, 2021). As part of the effort, television adverts and posters were displayed on how to control the virus, for instance, by advising the public to use face masks. Posters aimed at maintaining social distance showed where to sit or stand in public. This resonates well with climate change, where there is a need to properly frame climate change message to inform climate action at personal and all levels of institutions.

The choice of message ambassadors is equally vital for effective communication. In many governments, COVID-19 messages were released to the public by the president or senior government officers, top scientists, and celebrities (Metcalfe et al., 2020). A good example is Abdool Karim (https://www.samrc.ac.za/people/prof-salim-abdool-karim), a renowned scientist who led South Africa’s Ministerial Advisory Committee to combat COVID-19. Karim’s interaction with the South African public on COVID-19 stood out, mainly characterized by ‘visibility’ and ‘credibility’ that exhibited expertise and built the public’s trust in science (Joubert, 2020). The same was replicated in Kenya, where the then newly appointed Cabinet Secretary for Health - Hon. Mutahi Kagwe, addressed the credibility of a trusted broadcaster, building familiarity with the press very fast and showcasing himself as firm but accessible (Amuke, 2020; Metcalfe et al., 2020). As a result, most Kenyans associated him with a stature of national reassurance, fitting in well with the president.

The same approach, open, frequent, and transparent communication, can be adopted in climate change messaging. Much credible information ought to be packaged well and appropriately disseminated by the right people to increase its uptake among end-users and, consequently, climate action.

Research and innovation

Research and technological innovation are key in addressing many challenges today. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, there were varying scales of research to manage it. The notable one is the production of vaccines. Although none of the seven vaccines in use worldwide was developed in Africa, researchers in a company in South Africa in early 2022 completed the process of reproducing Moderna’s mRNA vaccine against COVID-19 (Nature Editorial, 2022).

In Africa, individuals, institutions, and countries developed innovative products and services to mitigate and adapt to the virus. For example, Moroccan ventilators dubbed “iVent” are reliable and affordable, using more than 80% locally manufactured components (https://www.mapnews.ma/en/actualites/social/iresen-clinical-tests-moroccan-artificial-ventilator-ivent). The African Influencers for Development (AI4DEV) reported over 50 Africa’s innovators who had presented possible solutions to address COVID-19 challenges (UNDP, 2020).

The response to climate change in-line with the UN SDG is resource-intensive. This calls for innovations in various sectors, such as water recycling and renewable energy (Odey et al., 2021). In a current case study, Afokpe et al. (2022) noted that developing and implementing innovative adaptive farming systems and technologies in SSA have increased productivity in farming systems. The study recommended the scaling up of climate-smart innovations for sustainable agriculture. This stresses the potential benefits of investing in research and innovation as a climate change adaptation and mitigation strategy.

Collaborative governance

Given the complexity of the COVID-19 pandemic, dealing with it requires a horizontal approach that calls for collaborations from different disciplines and sectors (Onyishi et al., 2021). For instance, despite being the responsibility of the health sector to tackle the virus, the transport sector in Kenya, in collaboration with banks and the country’s leading Telecommunication Company, embraced cashless payment of bus fares to reduce the spread of the virus (https://www.nfcw.com/2021/01/11/369981/kenya-to-combine-cashless-payments-with-covid-contact-tracing-on-matatu-minibuses/). The payments are made using mobile money transfer, M-PESA (https://www.safaricom.co.ke/personal/m-pesa). Their charges were reduced during the pandemic to cushion Kenyans (Safaricom, 2020). Further, in the transport industry, the minibuses in Kenya embarked on campaigns to curb the spread of COVID-19 by insisting on taking passengers’ temperatures and contact details, washing hands, and wearing masks. This illustrates how transport, banking, and telecommunications companies worked together to manage COVID-19 in Kenya (WHO Africa, 2021). In agreement, the Global Center on Adaptation and African Adaptation Initiative (2020) and Onyishi et al. (2021) root for the involvement of multiple stakeholders, highlighting banks that mobilize resources and prepare and operationalize knowledge acceleration programs. This should be replicated in climate change adaptation efforts.

The need for and benefits of multidisciplinary collaborations are evident in solving crises. In Nigeria, Abubakar et al. (2021) illustrated how the COVID-19 response based on the co-production of evidence between different players: political decision-makers, health policy-makers and academics had an impact on containing the virus spread. The process had to withstand many challenges, including limited transparency and bureaucratic hindrances. These are among the obstacles that limit multidisciplinary cooperation in Africa, calling for enactment or revision of policies and frameworks for effective collaboration in the future.

Within the medical field, COVID-19 boosted the collaboration momentum for surveillance in South Africa (Unknown author, 2020). This was key since it created a platform for institutions to share resources and data, which is critical in decision-making.

Almost all economic sectors contribute to and are affected by climate change. Thus, joint initiatives to address climate change are likely to have a remarkable impact. The Kenyan COVID-19 joint response strategy exemplifies how the needs of different populations are addressed differently through collaborations. This is key in climate change adaptation efforts, where adaptation initiatives must be customized to meet various vulnerabilities and needs of the victims, as emphasized in related studies (Phillips et al., 2020).

Discussion

COVID-19 was declared a pandemic within a short time, redirecting attention from other global challenges such as climate change and biodiversity loss (López-Vergès et al., 2021). The pandemic has devastating short- and long-term global impacts that are likely to derail attainment of SDGs (Hughes et al., 2021). In SSA, the highest impact of COVID-19 was felt in East Africa, followed by Southern Africa following the closure of businesses (Mashige et al., 2021). Studies (e.g. Dasgupta & Robinson, 2021; Oxfam, 2022; Shifa et al., 2021) observed that closure of businesses will likely widen the existing economic and gender inequality in SSA if not well addressed. During the pandemic, when most countries enforced lockdown, many cities across Africa and beyond recorded a reduction in the level of GHG emissions and an improvement in air quality (McFarlane et al., 2021; Sekmoudi et al., 2022; Shikwambana & Kganyago, 2021). On top of lockdowns helping to improve the air quality, the compliance of the public to limit movements and meaningful socio-economic activities illustrates how forcing people to sacrifice in the near-term for long-term gain can lower the risk of existential calamities such as climate change (Yohe, 2020). The pandemic presents a turning point for us to shift to a clean, sustainable, and inclusive growth and development as we strive to address other crises and sustainable lives. Notably, ICT and the digital economy played a critical role in response to the spread of COVID-19 and impacts across different sectors. ICT sector remains very essential in addressing other challenges such as climate change through design and implementation of systems such as early warning systems to minimize losses associated with climate extremes.

Climate change has long-term impacts while COVID-19 impacts are overwhelming in the short term. The double challenges have no political boundaries, calling for immediate international/regional collaborations if they are to be managed effectively (Odey et al., 2021). This is also a caution not to shift all the climate crisis attention to COVID-19, the two should be pooled together as much as possible (Heyd, 2021). Given the high uncertainty and long-term impact associated with climate change, there is a growing need for a long-term strategy for pandemic preparedness. This can be realized through formulating and implementing effective policies that ensure a balance between economic progress and a healthy environment.

Although there has been progress in adaptation and mitigation efforts across Africa, there is still a need for further investments and actions to attain set targets (Epule et al., 2021a, 2021b; IPCC, 2022). On the other hand, the ongoing administration of the various COVID-19 vaccines, life is expected to revert to the ‘near normal’. A few studies (e.g. Leininger et al., 2021; Ray et al., 2022; Usman et al., 2021) are concerned that a rebound effect may be recreated when normalcy returns in the effort to recover economic losses. So far, the latest global figures show that the world has not listened to the call for a sustainable recovery from the pandemic, with the global emissions rebounding sharply and reaching the highest ever level on record (IEA, 2022).

Other than disrupting research and climate-related activities such as activism, COVID-19 presents a new dispensation with return to uptake of scientific findings. According to Sovacool et al. (2020) the science's role in containing the virus is likely to instil public confidence in climate science. The development of COVID-19 vaccines to contain the spread of the virus, and many people accepted them for that purpose. This should persuade the many people especially leaders beyond Africa to believe in climate science and adopt the measures suggested by scientists to address climate change. This can be more effective if message framing manages the public’s perception  on climate change the same way it did for COVID-19 information, increasing its uptake (Metcalfe et al., 2020). The information was not only well-packaged, but communicated by influential people in governments using the most effective channels (Joubert, 2020), that can be applied in climate change discussions. The lack of participation by influential stakeholders in such initiatives can erode the public's trust in the results or implementation of the same, as observed among religious leaders in Nigeria (Agbo & Nche, 2022).

The WMO (2021) called for the fast implementation of African climate adaptation strategies to promote economic development and create more employment opportunities to support economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. Although climate change adaptation and mitigation efforts in Africa slowed down due to limited funding, individual countries got an opportunity to utilize the pandemic economic rescue packages to simultaneously address the crises of debt, climate and biodiversity loss (Steele & Patel, 2020). This is possible through the debt system for the climate and nature programme. Aligning debt relief with Paris Agreement goals could provide an important channel for increased financing for climate action, for example, by allowing African countries to use their debt-servicing payments to finance climate change mitigation and adaptation (Fenton et al., 2014). Governments can disclose climate risks when taking on sovereign debt, and debt-for-climate resilience swaps could be used to reduce debt for low-income countries while supporting adaptation and mitigation (Dibley et al., 2021).

The approach to address COVID-19 and the intersecting nature of COVID-19 recovery programs and climate change adaptation presents an opportunity for a more sustainable future. For instance, a COVID-19 green recovery strategy and initiatives consider the urgent need to address climate change challenges. Interestingly, simulation studies (Billon et al., 2021; Pollitt et al., 2021) show that the green recovery package outperforms conventional stimulus packages in supporting the global economy and national labour markets. A green economy is vital in climate policy since it yields multiple benefits, a “triple dividend” by reducing the pandemic risk, building climate resilience and boosting economic recovery. Presentation and preparedness measures are considerably more cost-effective than coping actions, hence, the need for climate change adaptation and mitigation. The Green Recovery Action Plan (African Union, 2021) is a good example of a policy that tackles COVID-19 and addresses climate change. The Action Plan intends to accelerate action on climate finance, renewable energy, nature-based solutions addressing biodiversity loss, resilient agriculture and green and resilient cities.

Conclusion

COVID-19 has devastating impacts on nearly all socio-economic sectors as well as human life. Based on previous studies, key lessons learned from how mankind responded to COVID-19 opened a window of opportunities for sustainable development. The opportunities can be adapted to address other challenges such as climate change. The role of political leadership and goodwill, inter-sectoral cooperation, and swift response are some of the commendable practices that were applied in containing the spread of COVID-19 across the continent. Unfortunately, some of the practices such as inter-sectoral cooperation and quick response are still lacking in climate change adaptation efforts. The role of political will and leadership comes out strongly since many other needs and actions are based on their decisions. Similar to the COVID-19 response, an African system for monitoring climate impacts and openly sharing data across boundaries would enable better climate risk management and resilience across levels.

A deeper look at climate change through the COVID-19 pandemic lens challenges African leaders, among others to:

• (i)Act on COVID-19 given its spreading speed but maintain and, if possible upscale climate-action efforts since impending risks are threatening.
• (ii)Integrate climate change adaptation in COVID-19 recovery strategies and programs.
• (iii)Embark on message framing to educate the community on climate change causation, impacts, and adaptation and mitigation strategies.
• (iv)Foster more coordinated multidisciplinary cooperation between countries/regions, the continent and beyond.

The application of these strategies is believed to be have contributed to relatively successful response to COVID-19 pandemic in Africa. Hence, they can be employed mainly by decision-makers to addresses challenges of the nature of COVID-19, an example being climate change. However, it is important to note that the effectiveness of the proposed strategies has not been assessed herein neither have the identified strategies been ranked in a specific order. The limitation of this study is its failure to apply any empirical models to evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on climate change in Africa. It is worth noting that there are limited studies that document response to the pandemic and climate change over Africa. It is expected that with increase in studies on the same more lessons will likely come up on how to address climate change for sustainable development and respond to other pandemics in Africa and globally. Future work related to the findings of this study should focus on the meta-analysis to establish the influence of COVID-19 on air pollution and impact on climate change adaptation.

Supplementary Information

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Author’s contribution

VO, TEE, and MT contributed to conceptualization and manuscript writing. VO, AC and YB contributed to results verification and manuscript correction.

Funding

VO and TEE are sponsored by Mohammed VI Polytechnic University through the professors’ start-up research fund.

Data availability

A list of the articles reviewed is provided under Supplementary Materials.

Declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no competing interests.

Ethical approval and consent to participate

Not applicable.

Consent for publication

Consents for publication from all the co-authors are received.