31 its waste, and to provide space for its infrastructure. Increasing HDI while maintaining a small ecological footprint is central to decoupling economic growth from environmental damage, and to achieving sustainable development. While Africa’s per capita ecological footprint has remained stable over the past four decades, at about one global hectare (gha)/capita (compared to ~4 gha/capita for Europe), its total footprint has been steadily increasing with the growth of its population (Lin et al, 2018). Forests play a key role in supporting terrestrial biodiversity and in providing rural communities with food, medicinal plants, and other livelihood supplies. Forests generate 6% of the continent’s GDP, almost three times the global average, and 18 African countries, including Cameroon and Ghana, rely on forests for more than 10% of their GDP. Congo is among the countries with the largest forested areas in the world. Avoiding the destruction of Africa’s tropical forests and making efforts towards reforestation can contribute to establishing microclimates that can support agriculture, preserve biodiversity, protect water sources, and mitigate climate change by sequestering carbon. During the period 2000-2015, African forest cover decreased at a rate of 2.8 million ha per year, higher than in Latin America, where 2.0 million ha of forest is lost annually. Natural forest cover decreased by 0.54% a year. In 2015, forests covered approximately 624 million ha in Africa, equivalent to an above- and below-ground biomass of 60 Gt of carbon. Forests in western and central Africa (along with South America) have been found to store the highest densities of carbon in living biomass anywhere (about 120 tonnes/ha versus the global average of 74 tonnes/ha). Eastern and southern Africa saw the largest decline in forest biomass and carbon stock between 1990 and 2015, averaging about 100 million tonnes a year, although these loss rates are currently declining (FAO, 2016). The primary reasons for deforestation and carbon stock destruction have been the conversion of forests into agricultural land (sometimes for high-value crops such as palm oil), the destruction of forest to make room for new settlements, illegal logging and degradation of forest land. In Gabon and Congo, illegal logging is estimated to account for at least 60% of total logging activity. Human pressure on natural ecosystems and biodiversity, especially through landuse change and wildlife exploitation, increases the risk of infectious diseases by bringing people and animal populations into close contact. Diseases transmitted from other animals to humans represent approximately 60% of all infectious diseases and 75% of emerging infectious diseases in humans (Taylor et al, 2001). These zoonotic diseases include Ebola, SARS, MERS, etc, and most probably also the SARSCOV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 (Zhang et al, 2020). Access to energy and sustainability of the energy mix Access to clean energy, particularly access to electricity and clean cooking fuels, is a key building block of sustainable development due to its intrinsic links to other drivers, such as education, health, and productivity. Clean cooking solutions directly improve the health of women and children and free up productive hours for girls and women in rural areas which would otherwise be spent collecting fuel wood. SDGCA & SDSN (2019) indicate that about 85% of African countries are lagging significantly behind in their efforts to achieve SDG 7 (access to clean and affordable energy) by 2030. Energy access rates remain stubbornly low, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa, where about 600 million people lack electricity access and 890 million are forced to use traditional biomass or highly polluting fuel such as kerosene for cooking (IEA, 2018). Thirteen countries in Sub-Saharan Africa have electricity access rates lower than 25%. In rural areas, electricity access rates are often much lower than national averages. Also, where there is access to electricity, the supply can be unreliable and of poor quality. Electricity consumption per capita varies widely across African countries and generally grows with expanding electricity access. For this reason, per capita consumption is typically highest in northern and southern African countries. In general, across the world, countries with high HDI scores have electricity consumption rates above 4,000 kWh per capita. In 2014, the average annual consumption of electricity in Sub-Saharan Africa was about 490 kWh/capita (including high-income countries), which is considerably lower than that of other developing economies such as India or Brazil (IEA, 2014). The IEA estimates that while the number of people without access to electricity on the continent has shrunk slightly in the past years, this could soon be offset by population growth in the region, especially in off-grid areas. East Africa was responsible for 80% of the decrease in the total population without access since 2012, due to aggressive grid expansion supported by better policies and more investment (mainly in Kenya and Ethiopia, which are projected to achieve universal access by 2030), and expansion of offgrid solar power solutions (primarily in Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia, and Uganda). In western and central Africa, where ~50% of Sub-Saharan Africa’s population lacking energy access live, progress has been slow except for in Ghana (where access rates increased from 45% to 84% between 2000 and 2016), Senegal (increase from 30% to 64%), and Gabon (31% to 90%), where access expansion was primarily Climate change —core to the African Development Bank’s strategy
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