Online Reporter
Claver Gatete
“AFRICA will not be defined by what it lacks, but by the solutions it provides. The continent will not wait for others to act. It will push forward its climate agenda with ambition, urgency, coherence and resolve, while demanding that others meet their respective duties and obligations under international climate agreements.”
This was the resounding message from two significant climate conclaves held under the banner of the Africa Climate Summit in recent years: the first hosted by Kenya in 2023, and the second by Ethiopia in September 2025.
It is also Africa’s message to the UN global conference on climate change in Belém, Brazil, running from November10 to 21. It signals the continent’s determination to be a provider of climate solutions and an investment destination, boldly asserting its rightful place in the global climate economy.
Africa has resolved to build modern, green and inclusive industrial economies by harnessing its vast natural resource endowment and fostering international partnerships and solidarity to secure jobs, opportunity and dignity for its people.
The continent is advancing this agenda with steadfast leadership and focus. Africa is among the most ambitious and committed actors in the Paris Climate Agreement. All African countries have signed the Agreement and many have adopted some of the boldest Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) — their national climate policies and strategies.
Ethiopia, for example, became the first country in the world to ban imports of internal combustion engine vehicles in 2023. Its Green Legacy Initiative on reforestation and climate resilience, launched in 2019, has planted over 40 billion trees. The country had already developed a robust Climate Resilient and Green Economy Strategy before the Paris Agreement was established in 2015.
Meanwhile, neighbouring Kenya — despite contributing only 0,16 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions — has adopted an ambitious third-generation NDC (NDC 3.0), aiming to reduce emissions by 35 percent and build a resilient green economy by 2035. The country already generates 90 percent of its electricity from renewable sources and is committed to reaching 100 percent by 2035.
Similar efforts are underway across Africa. These include large-scale renewable energy projects, extensive forest landscape restoration initiatives, locally led adaptation programmes, and innovative climate finance mechanisms.
Over the past decade, several African Governments, corporations and development finance institutions have piloted a range of green finance instruments, including green bonds, blue bonds, and debt-for-climate and debt-for-nature swaps. By 2023, more than two dozen green bonds had been issued in countries such as Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Seychelles, Tanzania, Rwanda, Gabon, Mozambique, Mauritius, Morocco, Namibia and Zambia.
Mutually reinforcing actions
For Africa, climate action, growth and development are not separate pursuits — they are mutually reinforcing and must be advanced together. Despite contributing less than four percent to global greenhouse gas emissions, Africa faces some of the most severe impacts of climate change. In a world increasingly shaped by environmental shocks, resilience is not optional and climate action cannot be delayed.
Climate change exacerbates existing social, economic and political challenges, which in turn hinder the ability of states and communities to mitigate or adapt. Investing in climate action is therefore a prerequisite for sustained economic progress. Delaying action will only magnify the costs of inaction, including far greater social and economic losses in the future.
This is not theoretical. On average, climate change already costs Africa up to five percent of its Gross Domestic Product annually, with more vulnerable countries forced to divert up to nine percent of national budgets to manage climate-induced damages. These are losses not only of wealth, but of stability, sovereignty and future opportunity.
Africa understands that resilience can transform vulnerability into viability. Investment in adaptation and resilience consistently delivers high returns, with every dollar yielding an estimated US$10 to US$14 in avoided losses and broader economic and social benefits.
Beyond mitigating loss, resilience protects natural capital, safeguards supply chains and stabilises economies. Ambitious and timely climate action by every country is not only vital to meeting global climate goals — it is foundational to inclusive global development, resilience and long-term prosperity.
In the fight against climate change, Africa does not lack ambition, clarity of purpose, leadership or innovation. What it lacks is commensurate leadership, partnership and solidarity from advanced economies.
This structural imbalance hampers the continent’s fight against climate change — and it must be addressed. One key example is climate finance, which remains the single most critical constraint to delivering Africa’s bold vision for climate-positive development.
Africa leads, but others must act too
Africa is not attending COP30 in Belém empty-handed, nor with a begging bowl. In addition to its highly ambitious NDCs, the continent is already advancing other homegrown climate solutions, as outlined in the Addis Ababa Climate Leaders’ Declaration. These include the Africa Climate Innovation Compact, which aims to deliver 1 000 homegrown climate solutions by 2030 by mobilising US$50 billion annually in catalytic finance for resilient solutions in renewable energy, water, agriculture and transport.
This also includes a US$100 billion Green Industrialisation Initiative, backed by a consortium of African financial institutions including the African Development Bank (AfDB) and Africa Finance Corporation (AFC), to help transform Africa into a climate-smart growth engine. Furthermore, the continent is positioning itself to leverage its vast natural resource endowment — including critical minerals and nature-based solutions — to advance its climate and development agenda.
As the world convenes in Brazil, Africa’s demands of the conference are grounded in its vision for climate-positive development.
First, COP30 must elevate and prioritise adaptation and fast-track implementation of all pre-agreed commitments, including the full operationalisation of the Loss and Damage Fund and finalisation of a Global Goal on Adaptation by 2026. Resilience must be recognised as a fiscal asset and a productive investment in growth.
The quality and quantity of adaptation finance must be significantly enhanced, based on measurable needs and the negative impacts of climate change. By integrating the long-term economic benefits of resilience into macroeconomic fundamentals, the world can not only reduce fiscal pressures but also unlock the capital — both public and private — needed to build sustainable and inclusive economies.
Second, the global financial architecture must be reformed to align with global climate goals; to lower the cost of capital; to facilitate mobilisation of the capital necessary for both development and climate action by crowding in and de-risking private investment; and to enhance resilience to climate shocks.
Africa reiterates the call made in the Nairobi African Climate Leaders’ Declaration for the adoption of principles of responsible sovereign lending and accountability, encompassing credit rating, risk analysis and debt sustainability assessment frameworks.
For multilateral development banks (MDBs) and other development finance institutions (DFIs), this means aligning their portfolios with country-specific national climate targets and exploring innovative instruments — particularly those aimed at reducing the predominant reliance on non-grant financing — alongside other measures to lower the cost of capital and mitigate the risk of a vicious climate-debt cycle.
MDBs and DFIs should deploy a diverse range of climate finance instruments to better respond to individual country needs. Specifically, rather than relying heavily on expensive debt instruments, MDBs should consider increased use of concessional grants and alternative mechanisms such as debt-for-climate or debt-for-nature swaps, resilience bonds, and the rechannelling of existing Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) into climate finance, or the issuance of new climate-focused SDRs.
For world leaders, we reiterate the Nairobi African Climate Leaders’ Declaration proposal for a global carbon taxation regime, including levies on fossil fuel trade, maritime transport and aviation, alongside a global financial transaction tax (FTT) to provide dedicated, affordable and accessible finance for climate-positive investments at scale.
We also reaffirm the Declaration’s call for a revaluation of the concept of Gross Domestic Product through the proper valuation of natural capital and ecosystem services, including — but not limited to — forests that sequester carbon. Finally, the global climate governance architecture must be fundamentally fair, just and adapted to today’s challenges. The world deserves a climate governance system that recognises, with urgency and without equivocation, that climate change is the single greatest challenge facing humanity — a system that demands and undertakes bold, concerted action from all nations to reduce emissions and lower the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
It is widely acknowledged that Africa is not historically responsible for global warming, yet it bears the brunt of climate change impacts. Nevertheless, neither African leadership nor its people are interested in playing the victim card. The continent is focused solely on finding solutions and leading with action and urgency. For the sake of planetary health and human well-being, we demand that other nations, leaders and peoples do the same.
If Belém is to live up to its billing as the “Delivery COP”, it must deliver on this simple proposition. Given the scale of interconnected crises, the world has no choice — and no time. The time to act, and to act boldly, is now. Africa has heard the message and is already on the move. Will the rest of the world join Africa in this singular generational task to secure our collective futures — and that of our beautiful, fragile planet? — New African Magazine
Claver Gatete is the Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa.
Londile Moyo