Africa’s climate change realities need women eco-preneurs to lead

Earlier this month, nine African cities, including Tshwane, Dar es Salaam and Lagos, committed to achieving “zero carbon” economies by 2050, a goal that would require them to either completely wean off fossil fuels or offset emissions by planting trees and switching to renewables. At the same time, the Climate Action Program reported that African countries’ transition to a low carbon economy has been slow, although all of them are part of the Paris Climate Accord. There is no doubt that Africa’s role in climate action is crucial as the majority of population growth in coming years will be concentrated in this continent. So it’s encouraging to see a new generation of passionate, game-changing women eco-preneurs emerging in Africa who are leading from the front, such as Kenyan social entrepreneur Lorna Rutto, founder of EcoPost. This high impact social enterprise has created thousands of sustainable jobs for people in marginalized communities, in addition to conserving the environment. EcoPost has so far transformed over 3 million kilograms of plastic waste into plastic lumber, saved over 500 acres of forest and proactively helped mitigate climate change in Kenya. Read more about Lorna and other entrepreneurial women eco-warriors here.