 Climate Change and The Dwindling Commodity Prices in Africa: Are There New Options For Economic Re-EngineeringJournal of Developing Areas, 2017, vol. 51, issue 1, 143-152 Abstract: Africa is a continent with huge resource endowments and prospects for growth. However, the continent battles with myriads of problems such as poverty, food insecurity and dwindling commodity prices among others. This is because Africa's export is dominated by primary products that are majorly climate-dependent and vulnerable to price volatility. This paper therefore examined the economic situations of Africa considering the dwindling commodity prices in the face of the threat posed by climate change. Climate change remains one of the greatest environmental problems with economic, social, health, security and environmental implications. The paper employed a combination of both secondary and historical information obtained from different sources (UNDP, UNECA, NBS, Trade reviews etc). Analytical method used include descriptive statistics such as tables, averages and percentages. Despite the declining Africa's contribution to global market, commodity prices have been plummeting with very devastating impact on the livelihood of households and general wellbeing of the inhabitants of many of these countries. Countries relying on mineral resources such as oil, copper, gold and platinum to mention just a few have been the worst hit. Therefore, African countries' local currencies and trade balance have weakened against the dollar leading to high inflation in the continent. The terms of trade is declining as Africa continues to import commodities it should be producing because of the weak productive base, decaying infrastructure and the worsening climate conditions. This implies that households' welfare in these countries is likely to be compromised because of more job losses emanating from declining profits accruing to the solid mineral sector in the affected countries. The paper recommends increased investment in infrastructure facilities and human capital development for skills enhancement in Africa. Also, climate change adaptation policies should be formulated and implemented by African governments at all tiers and encouragement of value addition in exportable commodities to enhance favourable trade balance. Keywords: Africa; Climate change; Commodity prices; Economic growth; Wellbeing (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:jda:journl:vol.51:year:2017:issue1:pp:142-153 Access Statistics for this article More articles in Journal of Developing Areas from Tennessee State University, College of Business Contact information at EDIRC. |
Is your work missing from RePEc? Here is how to contribute.
Questions or problems? Check the EconPapers FAQ or send mail to .
EconPapers is hosted by the
School of Business at Örebro University.