Clean Energy: Finance commitments reach $1.6trillion with $284billion mobilized towards achieving global goals

New commitments to boost renewable energy and increase access to electricity and clean cooking technologies by 2030 have brought the finance and investment pledged through the United Nations to US$ 1.6 trillion, with $284 billion already mobilized.

 

According to the fourth edition of the Energy Compacts Annual Progress Report, which is being launched at the EnergyNow SDG7 Action Forum on the margins of the UN General Assembly, shows expanding action under the Energy Compact voluntary commitments on both energy access and transition.

 

Of the $284 billion mobilized or deployed since 2021 through the Compacts, the majority has been private sector investment in renewable power generation.

 

The report cites figures from the 2025 Tracking SDG7 Report that over $4 trillion total investment is needed annually to reduce the ranks of 660 million people living without electricity and over 2 billion still cooking with polluting fuels, while setting the world on a climate action trajectory towards net-zero emissions by 2050 and averting ever-worsening climate impacts.  

"The world is entering a decisive moment for energy," noted the leadership of UN-Energy – Haoliang Xu, Acting Administrator of UNDP and Co-Chair of UN-Energy; Damilola Ogunbiyi, the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Sustainable Energy for All and Co-Chair of UN-Energy; and Li Junhua, Under-Secretary-General of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, which serves as the Secretariat for UN-Energy.  
 
"Choices made today will determine not only whether we achieve our climate and development goals, but also how future generations experience prosperity, equity, and security," the three UN-Energy leaders added. "The Energy Compacts are proving that transformation is possible [..], that solutions to advance the global energy transition are no longer abstract – they are investment-ready and being scaled, adapted, and delivered."  

Expanding results on energy transition and access

Progress on achieving affordable and clean energy for all – Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 7 – has been moving forward, but not at the scale and pace needed to meet the deadline of the 2030 Agenda or the climate targets under the Paris Agreement.

 

The Energy Compacts progress report outlines commitments from governments and the private sector, which include planned spending by countries for both domestic and international action to increase energy access, efficiency and renewables, as well as private sector investment slated in these areas.

 

Since the Energy Compacts were launched in 2021 – in connection with the UN High-level Dialogue on Energy – 209 commitments have been registered and substantial results generated, according to the report.

By providing new and improved electricity connections, Energy Compact proponents have enhanced electricity access for 285 million people, a significant increase of 108 million people in the past year.

 

Progress on enhancing clean cooking access by Energy Compact proponents remain slower, with 33 million people added since 2021, up from 23 million last year.

 

Tracking SDG 7

 

The latest Tracking SDG7 Report showed that population growth in Sub-Saharan Africa continues to outpace access gains, leaving approximately 14 million additional people without clean cooking solutions every year.

Updated figures also show how Energy Compacts have had positive impacts on a wide range of SDG goals, such as improving electricity access at over 10,400 health facilities (SDG3), and by helping to deploy over 2.8 million electric vehicles and over 336,000 charging stations (SDG11).

The report includes guidance on how national governments, regions and cities, private companies, financial institutions, UN agencies and civil society organizations can submit their own Energy Compact commitments through an online process.

The report notes that, as countries roll out their updated national climate commitments under the Paris Agreement, incorporating energy targets through national Energy Compacts can serve as an important tool, citing Indonesia and Nepal as examples. Case studies in the report highlight the diversity of Energy Compacts, ranging from a woman-led, solar-powered digital community centre in Guatemala to a Japanese business that enables customers to track the source of their electricity, as needed to work towards 24/7 carbon-free energy.

The report was prepared by UN-Energy, the coordination mechanism which includes nearly 30 UN and international organizations that work on energy issues, with data compiled and analysed by Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL).

 

African civil society denounces Trump’s “Climate Hoax” remarks as dangerous and irresponsible

The Pan-African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA) has described as “reckless” remarks made by US President Donald Trump at the United Nations General Assembly, where he dismissed climate change as the “greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world”.

Trump called the carbon footprint “a hoax”. 

But PACJA, the umbrella body of Africa CSOs on climate change, says such statements are scientifically false and morally indefensible.

“For millions of Africans, climate change is not a debate. It is a daily reality,” said Dr. Mithika Mwenda, Executive Director of PACJA. “From prolonged droughts in the Horn of Africa, to deadly cyclones in Mozambique, to unprecedented floods displacing communities in West Africa, the crisis is exacting a devastating toll. Africa contributes the least to global emissions yet bears the brunt of its impacts. When powerful leaders mock the climate emergency, they undermine the global solidarity urgently needed to save lives and livelihoods”. 

According to PACJA, Trump’s rhetoric emboldens climate denial, delays global action, and distracts from the responsibility of industrialized nations to lead in reducing emissions.

“The science is clear: without decisive mitigation, Africa faces a future of deepening hunger, water stress, conflict over scarce resources, and forced migration. Denying this reality is an insult to the children who go to bed hungry after crops fail, to the women walking longer distances for water, and to the young Africans whose futures are shrinking under the weight of an unjust crisis,” said a statement from Dr. Mwenda. 

PACJA calls on all responsible leaders to reject climate denialism in every form, emphasizing that the global community cannot afford to treat science as opinion or justice as optional.

“We remind world leaders that the Paris Agreement was not built on ideology, but on evidence and fairness. Its survival depends on recognizing that addressing climate change is not charity, it is justice. 

“We urge the United Nations, governments, and civil society worldwide to reaffirm their commitment to climate action, to stand with vulnerable communities, and to expose rhetoric that risks the lives of billions. It is our collective duty to uphold and amplify the truth: that climate change is real, urgent, and inseparable from the struggle for justice and survival,” said PACJA.

The group says members will continue to mobilise African voices to ensure that no amount of rhetoric, no matter how powerful the speaker, derails the urgent task of protecting lives, ecosystems, and the future of our planet. 

By Kofi Adu Domfeh

Tackling climate and sustainable development crises together could cut costs by 40 per cent, new report shows

A report issued by a UN-convened expert group finds that tackling the climate and sustainable development crises together could unlock efficiencies at scale and reduce government spending needed to address these crises by nearly 40 per cent.

Harnessing Climate and SDG Synergy: Quantifying the Benefits, the third global report prepared by the independent Expert Group on Climate and SDG Synergy, was launched today ahead of the Climate Summit during the UN General Assembly High-Level Week.

 

It comes at a time when progress towards achieving climate targets under the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is far off track. The finance gap for SDG action exceeds USD 4 trillion annually and over USD 6 trillion annually for climate action.

“The climate and development crises are not separate – they are deeply interconnected, and so must be their solutions,” UN Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs Li Junhua and Executive Secretary of UNFCCC Simon Stiell stated jointly in the preface of the report, representing the two agencies that co-convene the expert group.

 

Declaring that the report shows that “we have the solutions and roadmap” for a more integrated approach, they issued a call for cooperation across ministries and sectors – for a whole-of-society approach. “Let us seize this moment of opportunity for transformative change, for people and planet,” they concluded.

The expert report comes at a crucial time: 2025 presents a critical window to maximize the potential of synergistic action, as countries prepare new national climate commitments under the Paris Agreement, some of which are being announced at the Climate Summit. These Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) can be a key mechanism, the report states, to align climate action with sustainable development and the SDGs. Citing two examples of co-benefits, the report urges that NDCs should include action on biodiversity and recognize the positive health impacts in cities of reducing emissions and air pollution.

The report suggests that tailoring synergistic strategies to country-specific development and climate objectives ensures that investments are targeted where they are needed most, and that climate action delivers multiple social, economic and environmental benefits. Currently, “fragmentation across governance, finance and policy continues to hinder progress,” the report states, “necessitating reforms for effective and inclusive action.”

Stating that private sector investment is vital, the report makes the argument that by aligning incentives, demonstrating economic value and reducing risk through synergistic action, governments can leverage private funding to magnify the impacts.

Growing Evidence

The report’s conclusions are based on statistical modelling, using the cost of meeting the greenhouse gas emission reduction objective of fulfilling all NDCs as well as achieving certain development targets measured by the Human Development Index. By contrast, synergistic allocation of funds could reduce total government spending by up to 37 per cent, according to the modelling.

 

The expert group intends to broaden the analysis in future reports to add other benefits, including social values, such as lives saved.

The report expands the growing body of evidence on the clear benefits of synergistic policies and action, building on the expert group’s global reports the past two years, as well as detailed thematic reports examining specific synergies that can yield major impact. It cites examples showing that:

Nature-based climate solutions such as conserving biodiversity and restoring ecosystems could deliver up to 37 per cent of cost-effective CO₂ mitigation by 2030;

 

City policies such as fossil-fuel phase-out, and encouraging cycling and walking as well as plant-based diets can deliver major co-benefits for climate and health;

 

Integrating disaster insurance into development plans can boost resilience, considering that in Africa only 0.5 per cent of disaster losses are insured, and each 1 per cent rise in coverage brings countries 5.8 per cent closer to achieving the SDGs.

Political momentum on climate and SDG synergies has been building, including through annual conferences, with increasing recognition of the need to break down the silos that are holding back progress urgently needed. The recommendations in the report will continue to be advanced in various forums, including at Climate COP30 coming up in Brazil in November.

The 17-member expert group, drawn from diverse backgrounds and research institutions, is co-led by Luis Gomez Echeverri (International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis) and Heidi Hackmann (CREST, Stellenbosch University).

 

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. 

 

UN Climate Change calls for urgent action to scale up climate finance at African Ministerial Dialogue

UN Climate Change director, Cecilia Kinuthia-Njenga, has reiterated the urgency of scaling up climate finance to support Africa’s adaptation and resilience efforts.

 

Speaking on the margins of the 20th Ordinary Session of the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN), she underscored that “Climate finance is not just a political choice – it is a matter of survival, of development, of dignity and of equity.”

 

At last year’s COP29 Climate Change Conference in Baku, Azerbaijan, all nations reached an agreement on a new climate finance goal of USD300 billion annually by 2030 to flow to developing countries, to be scaled up to USD 1.3 trillion by 2035.

 

“The $300 billion must be a floor, not a ceiling – and it must translate into predictable, accessible finance for those who need it most,” stressed Cecilia.

 

According to her, the UNFCCC is working to strengthen institutional frameworks that can help African countries access sustainable climate finance.

 

“We are working to ensure that climate finance architecture responds to African priorities,” she said.

 

Africa is on the frontlines of the climate crisis, losing up to 9% of its GDP annually to climate impacts, while trillions of dollars are needed to meet energy, adaptation, and resilience goals. This challenge is compounded by a constrained fiscal environment where, in many countries, more is spent on debt servicing than on climate or health.

 

Leaders and stakeholders gathered at the United Nations Office in Nairobi, in Kenya, to mark the 10th anniversary of the Paris Agreement, a landmark accord that has shaped global climate policy for the past decade.

 

Cecilia Kinuthia-Njenga, who is director at the UNFCCC Intergovernmental Support and Collective Progress Division, stressed that “the Paris Agreement is delivering real progress, even if it has not yet solved the climate crisis.  But it has changed the course of human history. It has proved that climate cooperation can deliver when it matters most.”

 

Over the past decade, the Paris Agreement has guided unprecedented climate action, yet the world remains off track to limit warming to 1.5°C, but “without Paris, we’d still be heading for over 5 degrees of warming.”

 

The impacts of the rising temperature, extreme weather, droughts, floods, and loss of livelihoods are still a reality, particularly in Africa, the region most vulnerable to climate change despite contributing the least to the problem.

 

“Because African countries are not just on the frontlines of climate impacts: they are also on the frontlines of climate solutions,” Cecilia told the AMCEN Ministerial Dialogue.

 

The event concluded with a call to strengthen collaboration ahead of COP30, ensuring Africa’s priorities shape global climate action and the next Global Stocktake.

 

By Kofi Adu Domfeh

Bonn Climate Talks: Africa has eyes on $1.3 trillion climate finance roadmap

Many developing countries, particularly in Africa, are proposing more ambitious climate targets as they prepare to submit their updated Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to the UNFCCC in September.

 

However, a recurring challenge persists. Countries lack sufficient financing to implement climate action at the scale required, as international financial support has not been fully realized.

 

More than 70% of African climate commitments are conditional – they rely on external finance to be realized. Without tangible funding commitments from developed countries, these NDCs risk remaining aspirational rather than actionable.

 

The African Group of Negotiators on Climate Change (AGN) is therefore concerned about the ongoing UN Climate Conference in Bonn, Germany, delivering on climate finance.

 

During COP 26, rich countries pledged to double the amount of adaptation financing they provide by 2025 compared to 2018. At COP 30, the question of whether this has been met will be crucial.

 

The Bonn negotiations present a special moment to set an ambitious expectation of adaptation finance for the UN climate talks in Brazil later this year.  

 

AGN Chair, Dr. Richard Muyungi, says going back to the $1.3trillion climate finance deliverable is critical, taking into account both the historic imbalances and urgent development and resource needs.

 

“We need resources because impacts are increasing; we need resources because we are committed to work with the international community and we can’t do that without resources on the ground. Therefore, for us the realization of the $1.3trillion roadmap is very important,” he emphasized at a press conference in Bonn.

 

The delivery of the Just Transition – a shift towards low carbon climate resilient economies – is another essential area of interest to the AGN.

 

Dr. Muyungi believes the Just Transition is a transformative approach with inherent opportunities in the shift, but the AGN is also looking at the prioritizing issues that impact on the daily lives of people in Africa, including connectivity and energy security and clean cooking and impacts on women and children.

 

“We do understand that is not an easy task; it is not just a negotiating process, but a life transforming process. The Just Transition pathways must be informed by the realities of Africa on the ground, they must be informed by the needs and what Africa contributes to the just transition,” he stated.

 

The mid-year UN climate talks kicked off in Bonn amid an increase in climate impacts globally, yet many of the world’s biggest polluters have not submitted their updated Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). In response, African countries are calling on big emitters to submit ambitious emissions reduction plans to achieve the 1.5°C temperature goals.

 

In this year’s conference, the COP Presidencies of Azerbaijan and Brazil will jumpstart discussions between countries on delivering the $1.3 trillion goal. The roadmap offers the opportunity to address finance questions that went unanswered at COP 29.

 

African countries have continually emphasized the need for grants for adaptation and loss and damage, and concessional finance for the just transition.

 

As negotiators get to work, COP30 President, André Aranha Corrêa do Lago, has prevailed on governments to deliver on what they agreed to do under the Global Stocktake.

 

by Kofi Adu Domfeh