Nigerian campaigners at the Africa Climate Summit in Addis Ababa this week said Ethiopia is better positioned to host COP32 than Nigeria – which is also bidding for the 2027 UN climate summit – because the East African country has good infrastructure, a simpler visa process and stronger political support.
The Ethiopian government last week announced its intention to host the COP32 conference, due to be held in Africa, six months after Nigeria first threw its hat into the ring. Ethiopian President Taye Atske Selassie told UN Climate Week in Addis Ababa that the country has “the capacity, the facilities, the location, the connectivity to host the much-anticipated climate summit”.
Then, at the opening ceremony of the second Africa Climate Summit (ACS2) this week, Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed officially launched the country’s bid to host the annual UN negotiations, saying Ethiopia is “proud to present its candidacy to host COP32 in 2027”.
“We invite the world to Africa’s capital, a global city in climate ambition, to witness our solutions and to help shape the future,” Ahmed said.
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Back in March, Nigeria unveiled its intention to host the climate conference in its most populous city of Lagos during a visit by UN climate chief Simon Stiell.
The country’s then climate council director Nkiruka Chidia Maduekwe said Nigeria “has what it takes to host COP32”. She told journalists that Nigeria has shown leadership as a “champion” of climate action and so it is time for the country to host a COP summit.
This announcement was not reinforced by any official statement from Nigeria’s presidential team, signalling that the bid may not have had top-level political backing.
Maduekwe has since been sacked and replaced with climate finance expert and environmental lawyer Omotenioye Majekodunmi. When asked by Climate Home in Addis this week about Nigeria’s continued interest in hosting the climate talks, Majekodunmi declined to comment.
The UN COP summits rotate around global regions and attract tens of thousands of international delegates, from world leaders and CEOs to Indigenous people and youth activists. This year, COP30 will take place in Brazil, in the Amazon city of Belém, which is struggling to offer enough reasonably priced accommodation.
The location of next year’s COP is still undecided, as Australia and Turkey are locked in a battle over which will host the summit, with Australia said to have greater support. In 2027, it will be Africa’s turn – and 54 countries under the umbrella of the African Group of Negotiators (AGN) will collectively decide on the winning candidate before the end of next year.
Ismaila Shittu, a climate campaigner at the Nigeria-based International Climate Change Development Initiative, told Climate Home he believes Ethiopia has the edge.
“Ethiopia is more ready than Nigeria,” Shittu said. Ethiopia’s efforts to build modern infrastructure, transform its capital city and show its readiness to take on big global events such as ACS2 show “that they are actually ready to host COP”, he said.
These are areas where Nigeria is currently lacking, he added, criticising its tendency towards a “fire-brigade approach” in which event-planning happens at the last minute.
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Ethiopia has been strategically positioning itself as a key player in international climate diplomacy and a leader in climate action and green growth. The African Union is headquartered in the country, and it hosted the UN’s second annual climate week right before this month’s Africa Climate Summit, which was attended by more than 25,000 delegates from governments, the private sector and civil society.
On Tuesday, the country launched the largest hydroelectric dam in Africa – the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) on the Nile, a controversial project that took 14 years to complete and is aimed at supporting national energy independence and clean economic growth.
In March, the country also opened a new International Convention Centre where it is hosting global events. They include the ongoing ACS2, which proves it can handle major gatherings, campaigners said.
Nigerian climate activist Olumide Idowu said Ethiopia also appears to have more leverage when it comes to international diplomacy, especially with the AU and the UN having head offices in the country. These institutions can help channel resources to support Ethiopia in hosting the conference, he added.
Nigeria lags in terms of accommodation and transport networks, which could need as much as three years to get up to scratch, so “we need to start early to put necessary infrastructure in place”, he said.
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Ethiopia has also won praise for its easy and flexible visa application and approval process. While some participants at the ACS2 and UN Climate Week faced challenges with the online payment system, the electronic visas were granted within 24 hours of applying, and in some cases even within two hours.
Nigeria, on the other hand, is more challenging to enter from abroad. With visa system delays, payment processing errors and long application wait times, campaigners said they doubted whether Nigeria could offer a quick turnaround for thousands of COP participants and would need to address bottlenecks if it is serious about hosting the summit.
Nigeria’s silence rings loud
To the surprise of some, Nigeria has yet to recommit to its bid to host COP32 since Ethiopia announced its plan to do so. At ACS2, Nigerian President Bola Tinubu’s opening-ceremony speech – delivered by Faruk Yusuf, permanent secretary for solid minerals development – made no mention of hosting COP32.
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Campaigners said this could mean the West African country has backtracked on its initial intentions to host the conference.
Nnaemeka Oruh, a senior policy analyst at the Nigeria-based Society for Planet and Prosperity, agreed with others that Ethiopia is ahead on logistics and political support for now, adding that “nothing has shown that there is political backing to Nigeria’s bid”. However, if that were to change, Nigeria “can be ready in less than six months”, he added.
