Climate podcasting in Africa: Policy, people and reality

Abigael Kima grew up in Iten, in western Kenya's Rift Valley, where a stream ran through her family's farm. It provided water for crops and supplementary income for the community. When she returned from high school in 2015, the stream had gone, dried up by deforestation and climate change. 

She went on to study Environmental Science at Kenyatta University, and in 2022 launched Hali Hewa — Swahili for climate — one of Africa's first youth-led podcasts dedicated to the crisis. Based in Nairobi, she serves as communication lead for the African Youth Climate Assembly and has covered negotiations from COP26 to the Africa Climate Summit in Nairobi, where she was part of the youth delegation that handed the Africa Youth Climate Declaration to heads of state. 

Her podcast has been featured on CNN's Inside Africa and on Christiana Figueres' Outrage + Optimism, and she was named by activist Elizabeth Wathuti as one of seven young climate voices to watch at COP27. We spoke with her about how she approaches the climate crisis from an African perspective, what this work actually costs, and what she still wants to build.

DW Akademie: You were at COP 26 in Glasgow in 2021 before you started Hali Hewa. What was the experience that pushed you toward podcasting?

Abigael Kima:Participating in COP 26, I felt very disconnected from what was happening. It felt like a very elitist space that didn't leave room for ordinary citizens or community members who are at the forefront of the impacts of climate change. I really wanted a platform where we could dissect climate lingo, because the UNFCCC (the UN body that coordinates global action on climate change – eds.) system is set up as a negotiation – its documents are meant to be complex. In that space, I didn't feel like anyone was trying to simplify the message, and there was no direct link to the lived experiences of the climate crisis. That's why I decided to start Hali Hewa.

Why a podcast rather than some other medium?

I was working at a climate and energy policy think tank that was producing policy briefs and papers on different issues — adaptation, loss and damage. It felt like a good opportunity to expand the conversation beyond people who can sit and read a 20-page paper. A podcast also made financial sense: it wouldn't require video production, which is quite expensive, and my background is in environmental science, not production. In Kenya at the time, there was a production space that welcomed early creators with very affordable rates — I think we were paying around $20 for a full production session. So it was accessible.

Hali Hewa bridges the gap between high-level policy and grassroots reality. How do you avoid framing Africa only as a victim of the climate crisis?

The data is clear: Africa's emissions make up less than 4% of global totals. But the impacts are visible across the continent — the cyclones, the floods in Nairobi, the drought in the Horn of Africa. Initially, when I was starting out, I felt those kinds of lived experiences were absent from the negotiations. At these conferences, they spend almost the first week just agreeing on agendas, then days discussing where commas should go. There was no urgency for communities on the ground.

But as much as highlighting the negative impacts is important, it's equally important to showcase what's already working — grassroots solutions and indigenous knowledge passed down through generations. When you visit communities at that level, you realize they are possibly more informed than most of us who have access to the elite spaces and spend hours talking over complicated documents.

Africa has a young population, and I always say young people are Africa's greatest asset. You see that in the level of innovation that exists when you look for it. But we cannot fail to keep the conversation of justice at the center. Our contribution to this problem is very small; the impacts on us are very large. You have to talk about both the problems and what can be done or is being done.

What's an example of you putting that approach into practice?

One project was specifically focused on adaptation, and we went to the grassroots to record it. We interviewed women farmers who were implementing different technologies to adapt to the changing climate, dealing with both drought and excess water. Some had developed farming techniques that gave them a full supply of vegetables year-round. Some had sold enough produce to buy cows and diversify their income.

The content was meant to showcase what is already working at the community level, and it was built on a partnership with an organization already training those farmers. It was important that it didn't feel like we were just extracting information from them. When it comes to community storytelling, you have to work with communities as partners and collaborators, not just as sources.

There's been a lot of talk about climate fatigue — a feeling that all this work and activism is in vain. Do you experience it yourself?

Well, I'm literally going through that right now. That is why my last episode was posted about two months ago. You get to a place where you see that people in power simply decide they don't want to do the right thing. My fatigue comes from feeling that we can't continue to do the same thing and expect different results.

I'm tired of panel discussions, because in most cases you're speaking to people who already understand the issue – you're preaching to the choir. Why must we continuously spend so much money to sit in panels and say the same climate jargon? Then what? Then what happens next?

Does your own podcast feel that way?

In most cases, no. I try to be very intentional. There has to be a goal that is meaningful. I don't want someone to appear on the podcast just for the sake of appearing. There has to be something we're trying to do that matters. That's why sometimes I take time to develop a project. I would rather do that than put out content I don't enjoy making.

When we at the PodCircle were looking for African climate podcasters to talk to, we found that many had stopped producing. Why do you think that is?

Financial barriers are at the top of the pile. Not everyone is lucky enough to find people willing to hold their hand and believe in what they're trying to do. For me, that was probably luck.

It was Christiana Figueres, the former UNFCCC Executive Secretary, who first supported me. She has a podcast called Outrage + Optimism. Just before I started Hali Hewa, I was invited to speak on her show, and I mentioned I was planning to launch my own podcast. I was then invited to co-host with them, and they asked what I would need. I was given some seed funding to get started. Without that, I don't know if I would have been able to execute that first project – the one that opened so many other doors.

Eventually, I went back to full-time employment because after about two-and-a-half years of doing the podcast full-time, you reach a point where the uncertainty of when your next income will arrive pushes you to make a different choice. Sometimes I've had to fund my own projects.

But this is not because of any kind of lack of interest. From around 2024, young people in Kenya and across Africa have become very active citizens. People are having honest conversations about carbon credits, carbon markets, and land rights for indigenous communities. A lot of people are thinking about green jobs and the energy transition. The interest is absolutely there.

Where do you want to see Hali Hewa go from here?

Many young people want to do this kind of work, but don't have someone to hold their hand. I would love to create a physical space for young African creatives working on climate and climate advocacy, where production could happen at subsidized rates. Right now, the studio I use costs around $60 per session, and that may not be something everyone can afford. I would also love to connect young people with mentors and run masterclasses.

We're calling it the Hali Hewa Collective – writers, content creators, documentary specialists, all focused on shifting the narrative on African energy and climate policy. Right now, it exists in name only, but we're building toward it.

This interview was edited for length and clarity.