Africa’s Vulnerability to Impacts of Climate Change: Role of NGOs

In preventing the worst impacts of climate change, some non-governmental organizations in Cameroon are taking initiatives to reduce global temperatures to1.50C.

Prominent of them is Game Changers. It is a youth-led movement that champions the fight against climate change locally by mobilizing businesses to make bold concrete commitments to the climate agenda towards a zero-emission future.

They have been in the climate change business since early 2021 and trained small and medium-sized enterprises and individual climate actors on low-carbon operating methods to adopt in their day-to-day lives.

While in the fight against climate change and its devastating impacts, game changers in a bid to make the agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development and its 17 Goals a blueprint for a better future a reality, have trained these SMEs on how to make maximum use of waste such as; transforming textile waste into flowerpots, organic waste into fertilizers, and waste tires into furniture to name a few.

According to the United Nations fact sheet on climate change, Africa accounts for only 2–3 percent of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions from energy and industrial sources. But, Africa is the continent most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.

Already experiencing temperature increases of approximately 0.7°C over much of the continent, and with predictions that temperatures will rise further, Africa is facing a wide range of impacts, including increased drought and floods.

The paper also states that, soon, climate change will contribute to decreases in food production, floods and inundation of its coastal zones and deltas, the spread of waterborne diseases and risk of malaria, and changes in natural ecosystems and loss of biodiversity.

To this effect, Ndifoin, a cofounder of the organization, thinks it would be possible to achieve a circular economy in Cameroon if climate change is treated as an emergency. To achieve this, the government must be able to make environmentally friendly policies and see into their implementation.

Meanwhile, besides training SMEs, Game Changers have been able to plant over 1000 trees in Bamenda and Yaoundé mostly in schools, with the help of students to inculcate the idea of environmental protection in them at a young age, and trained about 100 SMEs low carbon operating models.


Game Changers have a team of 7 active executive members and about 150 active volunteers who come out massively each time they have activities such as clean-up campaigns where they pick dirt from the streets and supply it to recycling companies.

This year, they intend to train student journalists and the current journalists in Cameroon on environmental science reporting.
Their work and exposure have given them access to some very esteemed organizations/platforms who partner with them from time to time on activities related to climate change. If the government must play their role in achieving the agenda 2030, there is need for a concrete partnership with them.

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