March 25, 2024

How a carbon tax encourages a cleaner, healthier Africa

topic:	Climate action
located:	Ghana
editor:	Bob Koigi

More African countries are considering introducing environmental taxes to protect the environment, raise revenue and meet their climate obligations under the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals. The idea is to ensure a just society where the public is protected, and the polluters are made to pay. 

Ghana recently became the third African country, after Mauritius and South Africa, to introduce a carbon levy on vehicles. The government is seeking to tame the threats associated with harmful greenhouse gas emissions. 

Road transport is one of the biggest emitters of greenhouse gases, with emissions having risen by 47 per cent compared to 2016. This is attributed to a burgeoning demand for vehicles and attendant effects such as traffic congestion in cities. 

Africa is on the brink of industrialisation, which has led to the growth of cities and peri-urban areas. With an increasing middle class driving this industrialisation, more cars are being used in these urban areas, increasing air pollution levels.

Globally, air pollution kills one in nine people, becoming the fourth highest risk factor for health. 

In 2019, five of the world’s ten most heavily polluted countries were in Africa. Air pollution is the second leading cause of premature death after malnutrition in the continent, causing an estimated 1.1 million deaths each year. 

Such sobering statistics inform governments about green tax policies. However, such interventions must work with others. To be sustainable, governments must have clean, affordable alternatives and invest in encouraging their mass adoption. 

Infrastructure and investment in electric vehicles are needed, backed by policies that make it easy to transition to green mobility. Ethiopia has set a good example by exempting e-vehicles from excise duty, VAT, and surtax.

Governments should also tap and invest in startups and small businesses that are leading the clean mobility revolution by making the environment conducive for them to do business. 

While a carbon levy is a welcome move for the continent to clean, green options offer a more pragmatic and sustainable solution. 

Image by Xavier Gonzalez.

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