Africa must align climate diplomacy with its industrial ambitions — AGN Chair

Chair of the African Group of Negotiators on Climate Change (AGN), Nana Dr. Antwi-Boasiako Amoah, has called for alignment between climate diplomacy and Africa’s industrial ambitions, while reinforcing institutional coordination in advancing the continent’s climate narrative.

 

He noted that global climate diplomacy has fundamentally shifted beyond emissions targets and long term ambition, becoming increasingly intertwined with geopolitics, energy security, industrial competition, critical minerals and finance.

 

“These global shifts are reshaping Africa’s development options faster than our institutions are adapting,” he said. “At the same time, decisions taken outside the UNFCCC framework, in trade, industrial policy and finance, are increasingly determining what is feasible within it. If our climate diplomacy is not aligned with our energy needs and industrial ambitions, we risk locking ourselves into pathways that reproduce dependency rather than transformation.”

 

At the just concluded 39^th Ordinary Session of the African Union Assembly of Heads of State and Government in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Nana Dr. Amoah had several engagements with cooperating partners, particularly the Committee of African Heads of State and Government on Climate Change (CAHOSCC), and emphasised the need for Africa to continue negotiating under a common position, and also strategically align climate diplomacy with its overall development agenda. 

 

The AGN Chair stressed that energy sovereignty, industrial policy and access to finance must be placed at the centre of Africa’s climate strategy, and urged stronger coordination among African institutions to address fragmentation between mandates and implementation.

 

Reflecting on key COP30 outcomes, Nana Dr. Amoah highlighted three priority areas for Africa: the Just Transition Mechanism, the climate–trade dialogue, and climate finance under Article 9.1 of the Paris Agreement.

 

On the Just Transition Mechanism, he stressed that Africa’s interpretation must go beyond worker protection to encompass national development and shared prosperity.

 

“For Africa, a just transition must mean manufacturing solar panels, batteries and green hydrogen components on the African soil. It must mean local beneficiation of critical minerals, supported by skills development and meaningful technology transfer,” he said, warning that a green transition that leaves Africa confined to exporting raw materials at the bottom of global value chains could not be described as just.

 

On trade, the AGN Chair cautioned that unilateral trade measures, carbon border adjustments and green subsidies were already reshaping global competitiveness, posing risks to African economies.

 

He thus urged the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) to offer a platform to aggregate regional markets and address scale constraints, but stressed the need to preserve policy space for green industrial strategies and differentiated transition pathways.

 

Turning to finance, he underscored that the Paris Agreement’s affirmation of developed countries’ responsibility to provide financial resources to developing countries.

 

“In an era of tight fiscal space, climate finance must be adequate, predictable and patient. It must address Africa’s high cost of capital and support debt sustainability,” he said, calling for a shift from “fragmented, project financing towards programmatic, regional investment platforms capable of transforming entire sectors and value chains.”

 

Nana Dr Amoah reaffirmed the readiness of the AGN to ensure that climate diplomacy strengthens Africa’s industrial ambitions and long-term economic transformation.

 

In his efforts to ensure that Africa’s climate narrative is well-coordinated, technically grounded, and politically aligned to translate into real resilience for African communities, Nana Dr. Amoah engaged with several partners including the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), African Union Economic, Social and Cultural Council (ECOSOCC), United Nations Office to the African Union (UNOAU), United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Africa Regional Office, United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), Green Climate Fund (GCF), the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD), Africa Green Industrialisation Initiative, among others.

 

Senior Specialist for Climate Action at IOM, Lisa Lim Ah Ken, reaffirmed the organization’s readiness to continue supporting Africa’s climate agenda through sustained collaboration, technical engagement, and institutional partnership, while UNOAU’s Parfait Onanga-Anyanga, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General to the AU and Head of the UN Office to the AU emphasized on the nexus of peace security and climate change. 

 

Meanwhile, UNEP Africa Regional Director, Rose Mwebaza, pledged continued strategic support, particularly focusing on strengthening Africa’s coordination, technical preparedness and political engagement in global climate negotiations.

 

Kofi Adu Domfeh asks: A new world disorder of climate change?

Kwaku works with a tight calendar; making a routine business trip every week between Kumasi and Accra, the kind professionals make without a second thought.

On this typical Tuesday, he takes an early morning flight from Kumasi for meetings in Accra, with an evening return flight to Kumasi for another early-morning engagement the next day that could unlock a significant business deal.

By mid-morning upon arriving in Accra, the sun blazed with unusual intensity, draining energy from anyone forced to move between appointments.

Kwaku dashed from one office to another as the sun burnt hot and harsh, but stayed focused on finishing his work to catch his evening flight back to Kumasi.

But without a warning, the clouds gathered. What had been scorching skies just hours earlier began to darken as clouds gathered fast and thick, rolling in with surprising speed. Within minutes, the atmosphere flipped from heatwave to storm warning.

Then came the rain; a torrential downpour. By the time Kwaku reached the airport, the announcement board read flight delayed. Then what he feared hit him; his flight cancelled.

The same skies that had scorched him hours earlier had now grounded him completely.

Despite his careful planning, he could not return to Kumasi that evening, missing a scheduled meeting for the following day.

In just one day, Kwaku experienced two extremes — intense heat and a disruptive storm — both powerful enough to alter personal and professional outcomes.

What once felt like isolated weather incidents now seem connected, part of a broader pattern of climate volatility that was becoming harder to ignore.

Climate change is no longer an abstract headline or distant environmental debate; it is operational risk, an economic loss and human disruption happening in real time.

UN Climate chief calls for new era of climate action

Last Thursday, the UN Climate Change Executive Secretary, Simon Stiell, addressed a press conference hosted by the COP31 President Designate, Minister Murat Kurum in Istanbul, Türkiye, where he stated that climate action can deliver stability in an unstable world of arms and trade wars.

“We find ourselves in a new world disorder. This is a period of instability and insecurity. Of strong arms and trade wars. The very concept of international cooperation is under attack. These challenges are real and serious. 

“Climate action can deliver stability in an unstable world of arms and trade wars. In the face of the current chaos, we can, and must, drive forward a new era of international climate cooperation,” he said.

The UN Climate Change’s plan for a new era of climate action was divided into three eras: first was to uncover the problem and respond; and the second was to get serious about solutions in building the Paris Agreement.

Simon Stiell acknowledged the Agreement did not solve the climate crisis, but showed that nations can deliver change on a major scale when they stand together.

“In the decade since Paris, clean energy investment is up tenfold – from two hundred billion dollars to over two trillion dollars a year. And, in 2025, amidst all the economic uncertainty and gale-force political headwinds, the global transition kept surging forward: clean energy investment kept growing strongly, and was more than double that of fossil fuels. 

“Renewables overtook coal as the world's top electricity source. The majority of countries produced new national climate plans that will help drive their economic growth up and – for the first time – global emissions down. And, at COP30, nations said with one voice: the global transition is now irreversible, the Paris Agreement is working, and together we will make it go further and faster,” he emphasized.

Trump challenges climate science 

While the UN Climate chief is strongly advocating climate adaptation for resilience building, US President Donald Trump has continued his attack on climate science by revoking a landmark ruling that greenhouse gases endanger public health.

The key Obama-era scientific ruling in 2009 underpins all US federal actions on curbing planet-warming gases.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) decided that key planet-warming greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide and methane, were a danger to human health.

But the reversal, according to the White House, is necessitated by the drive to make cars cheaper with an expected ease in the cost of production.

"This radical rule became the legal foundation for the Green New Scam, one of the greatest scams in history," said President Trump, who has snubbed the Paris Agreement on Climate Change twice.

The exit of US from the Paris Agreement means that America will no longer be bound by the agreement's requirements, such as submitting plans to reduce carbon emissions.

As the world’s second-largest greenhouse gas emitter behind only China, environmental groups say the latest move by the US is by far the most significant rollback on climate change, amidst skepticism of the potential cost savings being touted by the Trump administration.

The Third Era of Climate Action

The UN Climate Chief has observed an unprecedented threat to the decade of international climate cooperation that has delivered more real-world progress.

“From those determined to use their power to defy economic and scientific logic, and increase dependence on polluting coal, oil and gas – even though that means worsening climate disasters and spiralling costs for households and businesses. These forces are undeniably strong, but they need not prevail,” stated Stiell.

His solution to the chaos and regression is for countries to stand together, building on successes and working more closely with businesses, investors, and regional and civic leaders to deliver more real-world results in every country.

This is the third era of climate action; an era to speed-up and scale-up implementation of actions.

“It must start with a relentless focus on delivering – or even exceeding – the targets agreed in the first global stocktake, in 2023. Doubling energy efficiency and tripling clean energy by 2030. Transitioning away from all fossil fuels, in a just, fair and orderly manner. Strengthening resilience and reducing vulnerability, and ensuring more climate finance reaches people everywhere, especially the most vulnerable,” said Simon Stiell.

The expectation is for countries to be on track to meet the commitments by the second global stocktake in 2028, in boosting resilience, growing economies, and slashing emissions.

“The fact is climate adaptation is the only path to securing billions of human lives, as climate impacts get rapidly worse,” said Mr. Stiell. “As climate disasters hit food supplies and drive inflation, resilient supply chains are crucial for the price stability populations are demanding.  And they are increasingly unforgiving of governments who don’t deliver it.

“So more than ever, climate action and cooperation are the answer: not despite global instability, but because of it. There is a huge amount of work before us, this year and in the years to come”.

As vulnerable people and communities in Africa are already suffering the extremes of weather conditions, the UN conference of parties (COP31) in Antalya is expected to deliver for people, prosperity and planet.

For professionals like Kwaku, what used to be a routine of moving between two cities for work has suddenly felt uncertain; the weather is no longer background noise, it is deciding outcomes.

Amidst the reality of climate science and the challenge to the impact of the science, what would a new world disorder of climate change mean for people like Kwaku?

Kofi Adu Domfeh is a journalist and Climate Reality Leader| adomfeh@gmail.com

Climate Change: AGN Chair to mobilize strong expertise to project Africa’s interest in global climate negotiations

 The Chair of the African Group of Negotiators on Climate Change (AGN), Dr. Nana Antwi-Boasiako Amoah, has called on African countries to strengthen unity and collective action as global multilateralism continues to weaken.

 

Addressing the first strategic meeting of the AGN under Ghana’s leadership, Dr. Amoah warned that Africa as one of the regions most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change cannot afford the erosion of multilateral cooperation.

 

“With Africa’s well-documented vulnerabilities to climate change, the continent cannot afford to let multilateralism die,” he stated.

 

Dr. Amoah reaffirmed his commitment to mobilizing the broad expertise within the AGN to ensure Africa maintains a strong and coordinated presence in global climate negotiations, despite growing geopolitical and economic pressures.

 

“The strength and success of the AGN lie in our ability to work together, even under difficult circumstances,” he said. “My chairmanship will harness the collective expertise within the AGN family to project Africa’s interests at a time when the spirit of multilateralism is clearly under strain.”

 

The strategic meeting, held virtually, marks the first under Ghana’s chairmanship and focused on preparations for the upcoming African Union Summit scheduled for 11–15 February 2026 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

 

Ahead of in-person engagements leading up to the mid-year UN Climate Conference in June, the meeting was guided by the following objectives:

 

Reviewing outcomes and priority issues from COP30 and their implications for continental policy processes;

 

Consolidating AGN positions and negotiation priorities to inform strategic engagement during the African Union Summit; and

 

Reviewing the AGN Chair’s priority agenda and aligning it with Lead Coordinators and country focal points perspectives.

 

The African Group of Negotiators on Climate Change (AGN) is a technical body of the three-tier African negotiating structure that engages in the technical negotiations during the UN Conferences of the Parties (COPs) and the inter-sessional negotiations on Climate Change. It was established in 1995 with the objective of representing the interests of Africa in the international climate change negotiations, with a common and unified voice.