The absurd inequality of climate work — and how to fix it | Joshua Amponsem
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You're listening to TED Talks Daily, where we bring you new ideas to spark your curiosity every day. I'm your host, Elise Hu. How do we build tomorrow's workforce for the climate transition?

Climate advocate Joshua M. Ponson says it won't work if young people in the global south aren't leaders of this transition. In his 2024 talk, he points out the need for a mindset shift to secure and support global south leadership in the crucial transition to clean fuels. At the Africa Climate Summit, I met with a group of young climate leaders from across the continent.

As the strategy director for the Youth Climate Justice Fund, they were very eager to talk to me about funding opportunities for their projects. And I was even more keen to talk to them, as about 80 percent of all the applications we receive for grants come from Africa. And I've been struck by the difference in their applications when compared to the ones we receive from North America or from Europe. So I asked them, why did the majority of you apply to the fund to plant trees or to collect waste in order to generate income?

Why not become forest data analysts or carbon market experts to support the existing initiatives that are already planting trees? I've been wondering about this. How do we build tomorrow's workforce and talent for this transition if some group of young people have the mindset of doing the hard work and others making opportunities from it? I believe this is deeply rooted in the trenches of colonialism, and sadly, we still need global node partners to fundraise for our work or even to be trusted.

a very depressing reality. And this has affected most of our workforce in Africa to believe that their role in this transition is doing the labor-intensive work, like planting trees or artisanal mining for critical minerals, yet very low income, while others look at the lucrative aspects. As we think about this massive transition that we need to move our world away from fossil fuels and extraction, I think we have two options on how we get there.

Option one: global north institutions and industries deploying solutions in global south countries, and we in the global south are expected to be grateful. But our lives are not truly changed and our capacity suppressed. This is what we've currently invested in mentally and financially. So I want to propose a new vision, a vision where the young people from the global south who will be most impacted by this transition are the leaders of the transition

And in regions like Africa, where 70 percent of our population are below the age of 30, there is an urgent need to rethink, refocus and reinvest in their talent. I want you to join me in challenging the narrative that we don't have time to engage local communities or to build local talent because of the urgency to meet global climate targets. As a matter of fact, we might not meet any of those targets on the timescales that we need for this transition to happen if we do not change this mindset.

This is what stands in between us and an opportunity for a transition that secures global South leadership. So I'll give you three examples from academia, finance and policy that are changing and must continue to change for this second vision to be a reality. First, we need to build a pipeline of talents that are focusing on solutions in our academic institutions. Between 2016 and 2020,

70 percent of the most cited climate research papers were authored in global north institutions. Even worse, 78 percent of all climate funding dedicated for climate research in Africa ended up in global north institutions. A very absurd science inequality. In 2013, when I was an undergraduate student, that was the first time I came across the word "climate change." Much of the conversation focused on the problems.

because my university did not have the tools, equipment to allow us and equip us on the solutions. So we learned about impending impacts, which are today's reality. And I still see the same challenge today. Young people across the global southern frontline communities are in institutions that do not have this capacity. So earlier this year, I went back to my alma mater and refurbished the Environmental Science Laboratory

with Green Africa Youth Organization, the same organization I founded in that university. We are scaling this effort across four universities in Africa, introducing new programs, courses and providing resources so that our students, tomorrow's workforce, can be leaders in current and emerging climate solutions, whether that be methane reduction, carbon markets or climate intervention. But the huge science inequality and the gap in Africa

cannot be solved by this alone. We will need initiatives like this to scale all across the continent. Our researchers need to be the lead authors. Our universities need to hold the research funding. Finance. We need to finance the just transition like we're serious about it. You've probably heard this statement before: "Local communities and indigenous communities have a lot of wisdom to solve the climate crisis." Or, "Today's generation is the last generation to solve the climate crisis." You've probably said that one before.

But how much resources are going to these groups? Out of the recent $1.7 billion committed to land rights, only 2.4 percent as of today have gone to indigenous groups. Our research shows that less than 1 percent of climate philanthropy goes to young people. The world of business is no different. Majority of investors are so risk-averse that they wouldn't invest in local communities, meaning no local leadership, no jobs created. We can't achieve this transition

and it's not going to be possible if we can't trust resources in the hands of local communities and in the hands of young people who are at the workforce for this transition. This is why we set up the Youth Climate Justice Fund. In less than two years, we've committed 2.1 million dollars to about 90 groups across 40 countries

or from historically underfunded communities. We are seeding these groups so they can work with other generations to understand the instances that put their communities where they find themselves today, but also to learn from that and ensure that the changes they are implementing today can be lasting and sustained. Third, policies. Policies are the force that drives transitions, and the transition can lead to a drastic collapse or a beautiful opportunity.

knowing very well that transitions that lack justice and inequality will lack durability, and it's going to be a missed opportunity. For instance, in the next five years, the transition to renewable energy is expected to generate two million jobs across Africa. Most of those jobs are going to be scaled, and they will differ by location. While solar would lead in Kenya and South Africa, hydro would be the job-creating opportunity for Ethiopia and DRC.

Now, what policies are going to be in place to take advantage of this moment that is ahead of us to transfer our informal economy, which makes up 83 percent of employment on the continent, to take these skilled jobs? Unfortunately, they don't exist yet, so I can't share that with you. What I'll do is to tell you an example of emerging initiatives that are showing hope for such policies in the future. And for that, let's look at the transition to secular economy in Africa.

In cities like Accra, Durban, Dar es Salaam, the transition has led informal waste workers who were most impacted by this transition, put them in policy-making situations with young people through a zero-waste initiative. And in Accra, this project has created numerous jobs, has reduced as much emissions in a single municipality compared to a round-trip flight from Accra to London, and has been shortlisted for the Earthshot Prize.

By doing this, the informal waste workers who will be most affected have secured themselves their local leadership and ownership, better and more sustainable income, social protection and their inclusion in the formal economy. These cannot be isolated examples. This is what we need to take advantage of the opportunities for this transition. So when I look back at my conversation with the young people at the summit, I didn't leave that room with despair or a sense of hopelessness.

Rather, I had a new resolve. I saw their desire to lead and the ambition to become more than the hands that plant trees. They wanted to be leaders of this transition. And in that moment, I realized that we actually know how to do this. Africa is a leader in this transition. We have the workforce, we have the talent, and we have the knowledge. And we know what is at stake. That if we do not engage our young people, we've already failed. So, as you are in this dilemma, this transition,

It's our opportunity to make sure that the young people in Africa and across the global south are not workers in the field, but rather they can be forest data analysts. They can be engineers and innovators. They can be executive leaders in boardrooms, and they can be leaders on a global stage. Thank you. That was Joshua M. Ponsom at TED Countdown's Dilemma event in Brussels. If you're curious about TED's curation, find out more at ted.com slash curation guidelines.

And that's it for today. TED Talks Daily is part of the TED Audio Collective. This episode was produced and edited by our team, Martha Estefanos, Oliver Friedman, Brian Green, Autumn Thompson, and Alejandra Salazar. It was mixed by Christopher Fazi-Bogan. Additional support from Emma Taubner and Daniela Balarezo. I'm Elise Hugh. I'll be back tomorrow with a fresh idea for your feed. Thanks for listening. To everyone else, this is a desk. But to you,

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