The second Africa Climate Summit wrapped up in Ethiopia with a bold assertion of the continent’s ability to chart a path to green growth with homegrown resources, but climate campaigners expressed disappointment that leaders had not swung behind the COP28 pledge to transition away from fossil fuels.
While a copy of the final declaration from the three-day summit in Addis Ababa had yet to be released a day after it ended, Ethiopian President Taye Atske Selassie told the closing ceremony on Wednesday that the summit had re-positioned Africa “not as victims of a crisis it never created but as a global centre for climate solutions, renewable energy and green growth”.
Selassie said it is an injustice that 600 million Africans live without electricity access, adding that the continent is no longer waiting for charity but will use the abundant sun it has and the critical minerals beneath its soils to drive its own progress.
According to a statement from the summit organisers, the leaders’ declaration calls for “strengthened and sustained support” to scale up African-led climate initiatives such as the 8,000-km Great Green Wall across the Sahel and the African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative.
It also noted that the Africa Climate Innovation Compact (ACIC) and the African Climate Facility (ACF) had been set up to to mobilise $50 billion annually in catalytic finance to deliver “1,000 solutions” for climate challenges in energy, agriculture, water, transport and resilience by 2030.
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Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed described the new compact as a “bold, continent-wide partnership uniting our universities, research institutions, startups, rural communities and innovators”.
The announcement came after African financial institutions on Monday backed a green industrialisation initiative for the continent with $100 billion from a range of development and commercial banks to support renewable energy projects and new green industry sectors.
Backing for “transitional energy sources” draws fire
Despite these major green growth programmes, civil society groups criticised the summit declaration for recognising “the role of transitional energy sources in ensuring a just transition that safeguards the energy security of developing countries”. On the other hand, it did not mention the COP28 promise to transition away from fossil fuels in energy systems.
Activists said the wording leaves room for the use of fossil gas in Africa’s transition to a low-carbon, climate-resilient economy.
“Fossil gas is a false solution that cannot drive development agenda across the African continent,” said Dean Bhebhe, a senior advisor at think-tank Power Shift Africa. A path grounded in gas is not “just” because Africa “risks further trapping itself into a cycle of debt, wants, needs and fears in the African continent”, he added.
The Nairobi declaration from the first Africa Climate Summit in 2023 recognised the need to phase down unabated coal power and phase out inefficient fossil fuel subsidies, but it is “disappointing” to see that those were not featured in the Addis decision while messaging on transitional fuel was sneaked in, Bhebhe added.
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Nafi Quarshie, Africa director at the Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI), said that despite the sufferings of oil and gas communities in parts of Africa and the realities of the transition, including pressure on local economies and livelihoods, “the declaration made no reference to these impacts”.
“African governments must now use COP30 to ensure that they move toward a just, orderly and equitable transition that responds to the needs of the communities behind every oil field,” she added.
International finance sought
In addition to the climate finance announced by African funders, the international community still has an obligation to provide support, said Richard Muyungi, chair of the African Group of Negotiators (AGN) at the UN climate talks.
The climate negotiator added that Africa’s demand “is not charity but our just rights under the [UN Climate] Convention and the Paris Agreement: adequate, accessible, and grant-based finance, alongside technology transfer and debt relief”.
Few pledges were made at the summit by donors, apart from Denmark announcing $79 million for supporting agricultural transformation and Italy reaffirming a commitment of $4.2 billion to the Italian Climate Fund, of which around 70% will be allocated to Africa.
Ahead of November’s COP30 climate summit, the Addis declaration highlighted an urgent need for new, innovative climate finance mechanisms adapted to Africa’s sustainable development priorities, including blended finance mechanisms, debt-for-climate project swaps and strategic public-private partnerships.
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Carlos Lopes, special envoy of the Brazilian COP30 presidency to Africa, said Africa had shown commitment by coming up with initiatives and also strengthening its continental institutions, “but true progress requires developed countries to lead with predictable, accessible, and just climate finance”.
African leaders asked for international support to implement Africa’s key energy access and transition initiatives including Mission 300 to provide 300 million people with electricity by 2030, clean cooking programmes and efforts to scale up renewables to meet a goal of 300 gigawatts of capacity by 2030.
“Climate finance is the critical enabler: without it, our people cannot thrive and our economies cannot grow,” said Dion George, South Africa’s minister of forestry, fisheries and the environment and head of the country delegation at the Addis summit. “With it, Africa can drive a just transition, create jobs, and play a central role in the global effort to address the climate crisis.”
