Climate Change, Economic Welfare and the Health Status of Vulnerable Population in Africa

The climate system continues to deteriorate primarily due to harmful human activities, which has caused the earth’s temperature to rise by about 1 °C above pre-industrial levels. This has adversely affected many economic and social indicators in many countries, but more especially, the Africa sub-region. African economies are the most vulnerable to these climatic variabilities due to the tropical nature of the continent, albeit the most minor contributors to the climate variabilities. This chapter provides empirical econometric evidence of the linkages between climate change, economic welfare and African health outcomes. The chapter is based on a panel data of 52 African economies from 1990–2022. The empirical strategy deployed is the System Generalized Method of Moments technique. The result suggests that climate change vulnerability adversely affects economic welfare due to the high exposure, sensitivity and low resilience to climate change risk. Climate change vulnerability is also associated with deterioration in human health through a reduction in life expectancy at birth and increases in adult mortality. The policy implication is that African governments need to urgently accelerate the necessary mechanisms for adaptive capacity to boost climate change resilience. Adequate healthcare provision for the underprivileged should also be prioritized.