Africa Climate Summit: Leaders commit to finance locally-led climate solutions

The Second Africa Climate Summit (ACS2) concluded with a clear call to position Africa, not as a mere victim of climate change, but as a driver of solutions and the next global climate economy. 

 

The ‘African Leaders Addis Ababa Declaration on Climate Change and Call To Action’ was officially adopted, heralding a historic moment that puts Africa at the forefront of global climate action.

 

The Leaders Declaration called for "strengthened and sustained support to scale up the implementation of African-led climate initiatives such as the African Union Great Green Wall Initiative, the African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative, and the Ethiopian Green Legacy Initiative.

 

The Summit was hosted by the government of Ethiopia, in collaboration with the Africa Union under the theme: “Accelerating Global Climate Solutions: Financing for Africa's Resilient and Green Development”.

 

Over 25,000 delegates, including heads of state and government, ministers, representatives of the civil society, development partners, private sectors, local community and indigenous peoples, farmers, youth, and academia, converged to deliberate and chart a way forward for their future and for posterity. 

 

Financial and innovative Commitments

 

African leaders and partners of Africa pledged for financial and innovative commitments to the continent for the implementation of African-led solutions including:

 

The Africa Climate Innovation Compact (ACIC) and the African Climate Facility (ACF), were established under the initiative of the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Abiy Ahmed, committing to mobilize $50 billion annually in catalytic finance to champion climate solutions that accelerate innovation and scale local climate solutions across the continent. The Compact aims to deliver 1,000 African solutions to tackle climate challenges in energy, agriculture, water, transport, and resilience by 2030.

 

Leaders were clear that adaptation finance is the legal obligation from the developed world, not charity. Africa stressed that adaptation finance must be delivered in the form of grants, not loans that worsen already fragile debt burdens. To correct the imbalance of the climate finance in Africa, a landmark deal was struck to operationalise the long-awaited African Climate Change Fund, supported by the African Development Bank, which will channel green bonds and innovative financing instruments built for Africa’s realities.

 

The Heads of State and Government spoke with one voice in demanding urgent reform of multilateral development banks to lower borrowing costs and expand African representation in global financial governance.

 

The Government of Denmark announced $79 million for supporting agricultural transformation.

 

African financial institutions such as AfDB, Afreximbank, Africa50, and AFC signed a landmark Cooperation Framework to operationalise the Africa Green Industrialisation Initiative (AGII), backed by $100 billion mobilised for green growth and aiming at transforming Africa’s renewable energy, resources, and industries into a climate-smart growth engine.

 

The Government of Italy reaffirmed its commitment to its pledge of $4.2 billion to the Italian Climate Fund, devoting about 70% of this to Africa. It signed an MoU with Ethiopiabso as to benefit from this initiative.

 

The second phase of the Africa Adaptation Acceleration Program (AAAP) called on partners to collaborate actively in AAAP 2.0, which aims to climate-prepare Africa’s food systems, future-proof infrastructure and urban zones, seeking $50 billion investment and unlocking resilient finance at scale by 2030.

 

The EIB Global has signed technical assistance agreements with Zemen Bank SC, Dashen Bank SC and Hibret Bank in Ethiopia with facilitation through the “Readiness support for greening central banks” of the NDC Partnership as part of EIB Global's devotion to supporting €100 billion of investment by the end of 2027.

 

The Mission 300 Agenda and the Clean Cooking Initiative were advanced to ensure that 300 million Africans gain access to modern energy and 900 million to clean cooking solutions within the decade.

 

Leaders further called for Africa’s share of global renewable energy investments to rise from a meagre 2% today to at least 20% by 2030, a shift that would finally reflect the continent’s potential as a renewable energy powerhouse.

 

The Summit pushed for the Green Minerals Strategy, a blueprint to ensure that cobalt, lithium, copper, and rare earths fuel not only global clean energy supply chains but also local beneficiation, job creation, and industrialisation.

 

Leaders pledged to establish dedicated financial mechanisms for addressing climate-related health threats, from deadly heatwaves to the spread of vector-borne diseases.

 

ACS2 also marked the official launch of the newly developed Africa Just Resilience Framework (JRF), which will work alongside the Climate Justice Impact Fund for Africa (CJIFA) to provide a framework and funding for local climate initiatives. CJIFA has already dispersed 64 grants in 17 African countries.

 

Road to Belem for COP30

 

At a time when many global summits have been reduced to finger-pointing and stalemates, ACS2 was notable for its spirit of cooperation.

 

The presence of leaders from across the African Union Member States, alongside global partners, reinforced the message that climate is the ultimate test of multilateralism. 

 

The summit’s success is proof that Africa can convene, lead, and deliver outcomes that reverberate globally that will directly Cary into COP30 and beyond.

 

 

 

African MPs deliver bold call for climate finance and green development

Africa has the solutions for a green and resilient future, but global partners must step up with the financing to match its ambitions.

 

That’s the unified message of lawmakers from 21 African parliaments who convened at the Second Africa Climate Summit (ACS2) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

 

At the Parliamentary Dialogue themed “Financing for Africa’s Resilient and Green Development: Parliamentary Pathways”, the lawmakers issued a joint communiqué pledging to champion Climate Prosperity Plans (CPPs), leverage green economic zones, pass stronger climate legislation, and introduce new accountability tools to unlock billions in green investment for the continent.

 

President of the Pan-African Parliament, Chief Fortune Charumbira, urged fellow lawmakers to "change the gear" and take a proactive role in Africa's green transition.

 

He also urged them to seize opportunities to engage in both global and local climate conversations, ensuring that the voices of the people are represented.

 

“When you have something that's a crisis involving people, they should be part of the solution. Don't isolate them. You have to go to the grassroots, go to the people themselves, so that they also make an input into what we are trying to do,” he said.

 

The Promise of CPPs

 

The Climate Vulnerable Forum and V20 Finance Ministers (CVF-V20), a coalition of 74 countries most vulnerable to climate change, has been championing CPPs as national blueprints focused on growth-guided investments, technology transfer, and job creation, all while lowering climate-related financial risk.

 

“What we have in these plans are scenario analysis, socioeconomic outcomes, a green industrial policy to take advantage of supply chain and value chain expansion, and a detailed composition of the financing needs, projects and programs, and delivery mechanisms so that we hit the ground running, and it doesn't remain as a plan sitting on a shelf,” said Sara Jane Ahmed, Managing Director of the CVF-V20 Secretariat.

 

Hon. Yaya Gassama of The Gambia emphasized the parliament’s role in driving the implementation of CPPs. “Investors need confidence, and this is where parliamentarians play a decisive role. As lawmakers, we assist with passing enabling legislative frameworks, from tax incentives for renewables to frameworks for public-private partnerships. By turning plans into laws and conducting oversight on legislative implementation, we can ensure that climate finance delivers real results for the people,” he said.

 

“CPPs align development with climate goals—and it is very important that we consider this framework and adopt it,” Hon. Dr. Gladness Salema of Tanzania added.

 

Concrete Commitments for a Green Future

 

To create an enabling environment for CPPs, lawmakers at the dialogue committed to accelerate climate legislation by leveraging the Model Climate Change Law for Africa. They will also institutionalize oversight tools such as the Climate Finance Monitoring and Accountability Tool, champion climate-smart budgeting with dedicated funds for clean energy and adaptation initiatives, and strengthen collaboration through networks like the Africa Network of Parliamentarians on Climate Change (ANPCC) and CVF Global Parliamentary Group (GPG) to amplify Africa's unified voice on climate.

 

Hon. Émile Kohou Guirieoulou of Côte d'Ivoire and Chairperson of the ANPCC emphasized that these are “not abstract concepts, but practical parliamentary pathways to address climate change by securing and enhancing climate investment, creating green jobs, and building clean, climate-resilient economies.”

 

A Call for Global Action and Innovative Solutions

 

According to the Climate Policy Initiative, Africa needs up to $2.8 trillion between 2020 and 2030, but only 12% of this funding has been committed. Exacerbating this challenge, African nations face prohibitively high borrowing costs, making essential climate finance  expensive.

 

Closing this gap will require both global financial reform and innovative solutions. As Hon. Moses Kajwang of Kenya stated, "The debt-for-climate swap is a conversation Members of Parliament should have." He also pointed to new market opportunities, adding, “I want to encourage the [development] partners that are here that members are extremely interested in carbon markets and carbon trading, because we think that those could provide certain opportunities for local communities to benefit.”

 

The dialogue concluded with a call for a new kind of partnership. Hon. Mohamed Nasheed, Secretary-General of the CVF-V20 Secretariat and former

President of the Maldives, reframed the case for global support: “Africa is a powerful and colossally diverse continent, a willing partner in the global pursuit of climate justice and sustainable prosperity. The question is not what the world can do for Africa but what the world can do with Africa. Because investing in Africa is investing in a better tomorrow for the rest of the world.”

 

The Parliamentary Dialogue was convened by the CVF GPG, the World Future Council’s Global Renewables Congress, in collaboration with AGNES, ANPCC, the Climate Parliament, the Kenyan Parliament, the Ethiopian Parliament and the UN Environmental Programme.