Climate Adaptation, Migration, and Electricity Access

Climate change is changing Africa’s growth trajectory, accelerating migration, and revealing the ongoing discrepancies in electricity availability across the continent. This chapter investigates the complex and underexamined interaction between climate adaptation, human mobility, and energy accessibility, suggesting that electricity is not only an infrastructural service but a necessary foundation for resilience, stability, and adaptive capability. While climate-induced migration has become a defining feature of many African regions, energy poverty continues to hinder adaptive alternatives and enhance vulnerability. The chapter places its analysis within the political economy of energy transitions, demonstrating how local adaptive responses can be strengthened, livelihood diversification made possible, and displacement pressures can be lessened with access to affordable, dependable, and sustainable electricity. It offers a conceptual framework that connects energy security, climate resilience, and migratory patterns with the use of regional case studies from East Africa, the Sahel, and Southern Africa. The chapter advances a call for multi-scale and cross-sectoral strategies that align electrification projects with climate adaptation and migration management plans by emphasizing the dearth in policy incorporation, financing, and governance. Ultimately, it argues that attaining universal access to electricity in Africa must be viewed as a strategic cornerstone of human security and climate adaptation, crucial for inclusive growth, energy justice, and sustainable development. Highlights It links climate adaptation, migration, and electricity access within Africa’s growth agenda. Redefines energy access as a fundamental component of resilience and human security. Presents a conceptual paradigm linking energy, climate, and mobility. Draws on regional case studies to illustrate policy and practice implications. Promotes climate-smart, gender-sensitive, and integrated electrification techniques.