Africa’s climate policies will not survive the next decade unless communities are placed at the centre of decision-making and enforcement frameworks are strengthened across the region, experts warned.
This was the focus of discussion on Tuesday at the Media and Development Conference 2025 (MDC) organised by the Centre for Journalism, during a plenary session on “Beyond COP30: Translating Policies into Action for Climate and Environmental Justice.”
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The session examined the rising strain on climate justice systems, the shrinking civic space for environmental reporting and the slow translation of policies into real protection for vulnerable communities.
A climate and energy expert, Gideon Ofosu, warned that technology meant to support environmental enforcement is failing to keep pace with rising criminal activity around mining and deforestation.
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Mr Ofosu said limited manpower means officers cannot be stationed everywhere, which makes smarter tools essential for detecting illegal activities before serious damage occurs.
“We do not have law enforcement officers everywhere because they are limited. They should be targeted. That is what technology used to be for us,” he said.
He explained that recent studies in his country used a control group to monitor the movement of “scavengers” involved in mining and forest extraction.
According to him, each movement is tracked, and illegal activity can trigger automatic system responses that shut down operations when they move beyond approved zones.
He stressed the need for specialised environmental courts to fast-track prosecutions, noting that officers often lose motivation when arrested offenders are not convicted due to a lack of technical expertise.
“We need to interact with how these specialised environments unfold and provide capacity to judges,” he said.
Adeolu Adekola, Project Manager, Centre for Investigative Journalism, said African countries cannot continue to design climate interventions without community leadership.
Mr Adekola argued that communities cannot become enforcers of policies that they did not influence, insisting that meaningful participation must begin before any stakeholder ceremony or official announcement.
He said, “If the community is missing on the day when decisions are made, it is going to be difficult for such policies to be implemented.”
Mr Adekola added that climate strategies fail when governments ignore the socio-economic realities of the people expected to enforce them.
He said policies must reflect consent, local priorities and long-term ownership.
“When you have a framework that supports the community first, their decision, you consider their responses, and consent is important,” he said.
Climate misinformation
In another intervention, Mr Adekola warned that the information crisis around climate change has entered a dangerous phase, shifting from denialism to political manipulation.
He said the new wave of misinformation is increasingly tied to elite interests, resource struggles and attempts to control economic narratives.
“What we are seeing is climate corruption. It is not only about whether climate change is real. It is more about economic control and power,” he said.
He recounted cases where journalists across Africa and Latin America were detained or barred from travel while attempting to cover climate workshops.
He said such restrictions show how governments and powerful actors are disrupting accountability efforts.
He, however, urged media organisations to prioritise safety, digital security and mental health support for reporters covering climate issues.
Power shift
Mike Terungwa, Executive Director, Global Initiative for Food Security and Ecosystem Prevention, said African civil society is working with climate frameworks that are still too centralised and disconnected from local realities.
Mr Terungwa stated that Nigeria’s climate commitments remain top-down and do not reflect the people most affected by flooding, drought and mining pollution.
He warned that Africa’s food security is under severe pressure from mining activities that destroy agricultural land.
He added that communities must be mobilised to defend their food systems or risk dependence on foreign food imports, the kind of vulnerability he described as a power tool in global politics.
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He called on CSOs to confront systems built on exploitation, power capture and profit.
“The master’s tools cannot dismantle the master’s house,” he said, urging activists to keep demanding transparency and fairness in resource management.
Reshaping migration and livelihoods
Responding to participants’ questions, Mr Adekola highlighted the economic drivers of rural migration.
He said shrinking resources, poor planning, and decades of authoritarian rule have worsened the conditions that are pushing people from their homes.
“If the source of income for some people has shrunk and there was no adequate planning, things will move from bad to worse. People will migrate. That is why we must keep focusing on climate change,” he said.
He added that Nigeria’s national climate policy does recognise vulnerable groups, including persons with disabilities, but more work is needed to ensure they are involved in climate response programmes.
