Climate Change Education in West Africa: Prospects and Problems

Abstract

In recent years, the challenges of climate change have accentuated with human factors playing a significant role in its sustenance and spread. This climatic instability which has affected the socio-political dynamics of nations in West Africa come along with threats of political instability. It is due to these myriads of unpalat-able experiences that global agencies and policymakers have advocated the impera-tive to engage climate change education as a remediation tool for the rising challenges of climate change in the sub-continent. It is however important to sound a caveat that as beneficial as climate change education (CCE) can be when adopted, it is laden with prospects and problems for implementation. This represents the motivation for this study which examines the prospects and problems of adopting climate change education in West Africa. In a bid to actualize this quest, we explored the frameworks for climate change education in Africa and engaged in a cross-continental appraisal of climate change education across the globe. This allowed us to identify strategies that can be adopted and replicated in West-Africa while unearthing loopholes to be plugged. The chapter adopted a qualitative research methodology and utilized secondary sources of information among other sources to interrogate the embedded issues in the discourse. The findings suggest that the West Africa region can defeat climate change by enhancing capacities in the area of climate education and ensuring that CCE is made a compulsory subject to be taught in all schools. It was observed that although some schools particularly at the tertiary level teach climate change, much emphasis is always on the scientific dimensions to the neglect of political, social and economic components. This indicated that beyond educating the populace on climate change, emphasis should also be on the approaches or methodologies adopted.