According to a new analysis, climate academics from some of the regions experiencing the worst effects of global warming, are struggling to publish their studies.
The study which looked at hundred mostly cited climate study papers over the previous five years, found that while the numbers of female lead researchers in the field were very scarce, the number of authors who were based in Africa, was less than 1 percent of the total studies published.
The study was conducted by the researchers from the Carbon Brief website. They examined the backgrounds of about 1,300 climate change authors involved in the 100 most cited climate research papers from the year 2016 to 2020.
The analysis found that 90% of the climate studies published in frontline science magazines were written by scientists affiliated to scientific academic institutions based on North America, Europe or Australia, with less than 1 percent representation form the African continent, which is home to more than 16 percent of the world population.
Out of 10 papers published by African researchers, 8 of them were from South Africa, which indicates huge differences within the regions in the continent. In the top 100 papers, not even one was published by an African or South American author.
Ayesha Tandon from Carbon Brief, mentioned that women were more vulnerable to drop out than men when they progress through scientific academia. She added that the problem belonged to the system and it kept getting worse, as the people in power would continue to have privileges which will reflect on the representation in the publications.
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