Editorial: Urgent action for Africa

An editorial published in over 250 health journals urge world leaders to deliver climate justice for Africa Africa has suffered disproportionately although it has done little to cause the crisis. The damage to Africa should be of supreme concern to all nations, warn editors

The editorial, which is authored by 16 editors of leading biomedical journals across Africa, including African Health Sciences, the African Journal of Primary Health Care & Family Medicine, and the East African Medical Journal, is simultaneously being published in 50 African journals and other leading international medical journals such as The BMJ, The Lancet, the New England Journal of Medicine, the National Medical Journal of India, and the Medical Journal of Australia. Never have so many journals come together to make the same call, reflecting the
severity of the climate change emergency now facing the world.

The authors say Africa has suffered disproportionately although it has done little to cause the crisis, and urges wealthy nations to step up support for Africa and vulnerable countries in addressing past, present and future impacts of climate change.

The damage to Africa should be of supreme concern to all nations, they write, because in an interconnected world, leaving countries to the mercy of environmental shocks creates instability that has severe consequences for all nations.