Is Africa’s climate crisis a resounding gong at climate summit II

_____________________

OPINION

By Blaise Amony and Emily Arayo Arieitwe

From September 8 to 10, 2025, the Africa Climate Change Summit II was held in Addis.

The Call to Action was delivered two years after the first Africa Climate Change Summit in Nairobi, Kenya, in 2023.

Under the theme Accelerating Global Climate Solutions and Financing for Africa’s Resilient and Green Development, the 2025 summit adopted the Addis Ababa Declaration on Climate Change and Call to Action.

Hyped as a stark departure from the usual rounds of bland promises, the declaration took the tone of Africa losing its patience.

For decades, the continent has been politely asking the world to take climate justice seriously.

The tone has shifted; Africa is not begging but demanding. This declaration matters because it reframes Africa as an actor, not an afterthought. Rooting that climate finance is fair, adaptation prioritised, and Africa’s resources to benefit Africans first.

Delegates issued five non-negotiable demands to:

1. Ending new coal, oil and gas projects since they lock pollution and make 1.5°C impossible.
2. Binding 2030 fossil fuel phase-out plans and not vague 2050 targets.
3. Scaling up climate finance through grants, not debt traps.
4. Rejecting carbon markets and offsets that profit polluters, not communities.
5. Cancelling Africa’s debt to unlock billions for renewables and resilience.

Emphasises that adaptation to the climate crisis is Africa’s foremost priority and this has been the stand at COPs before.

Nairobi Declaration in 2023 amplified the Paris Agreement and reaffirmed the principles set out in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Paris Agreement, namely equity, common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities.

The emphasis is that Africa is not merely a victim of climate change, but a resource-endowed and proactive force in developing innovative, sustainable, and inclusive solutions.

Africa needs over $3 trillion to meet its climate goals by 2030, but has received only $30b between 2021 and 2022.

The need for stronger international commitments and partnerships to close the finance gap, with a strong emphasis on grants rather than loans to avoid worsening Africa’s debt.

The debt is growing every year, and this is becoming the ugly face of Africa.

The Nairobi Declaration of 2023 sounded a similar call:

(i) We call upon the global community to act with urgency in reducing emissions, fulfilling its obligations, honouring past promises, and supporting the continent in addressing climate change, specifically to:

1. Accelerate all efforts to reduce emissions to align with the goals of the Paris Agreement.
2. Honour the commitment to provide $100b in annual climate finance, as promised in 2009 at the UNFCCC COP15 in Copenhagen, Denmark.

ii) Uphold commitments to a fair and accelerated process of phasing down unabated coal power and phase out of inefficient fossil fuel subsidies while providing targeted support to the poorest and most vulnerable in line with national circumstances and recognising the need for support towards a just transition.

What has happened since COP 28, COP29?

The need for accelerated reform of Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) to ensure they are fit for purpose in this age. Unilateral, punitive, and discriminatory protectionist measures, such as the European Union’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, could lead to an immediate decline in Africa’s exports to the EU by up to 6%. Commitment 6 reaffirming Africa’s exceptional potential in renewable energy makes the continent not only a key actor, but a global leader in the just energy transition. 

The collective ambition of reaching 300GW of renewable energy capacity by 2030, Africa seeks to combine the transition towards green industrialisation, job creation, universal access to energy, and environmental protection.

The contradiction is glaring because, despite accounting for an estimated 40% of the world’s renewable energy resources, Africa still has more than 600 million people without access to electricity and 900 million lacking access to clean cooking.

The energy crisis in Africa is increasing. Not just renewable energy, but any form of energy is a challenge in Africa. Even biomass is threatened. The same trees we grow to protect the environment are the same trees we run to cut down to make firewood and charcoal.

SDG Goal 13 on taking climate action is too slow for the year 2030 midpoint for implementing policies and actions to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees C.

On agriculture, adapt or collapse sounds the tone. If African farming does not change, millions will starve. Rainfall patterns are collapsing, pests are spreading, and soils are degrading under climate stress.

There is a call for climate-smart agriculture, utilisation of indigenous knowledge, and resilient food systems as the only way to stop climate change from gutting Africa’s food supply. Farming is the backbone of most African economies and livelihoods, and adaptation is not optional. Either farming evolves, or hunger becomes the defining story of Africa’s next generation.

Declaration 63. welcomes the implementation of the Kampala Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) on Building Resilient and Sustainable Agrifood Systems in Africa and its associated Strategy and Action Plan (2026-2035), which calls on developed countries and global funds to provide direct grant-based support to national funds that channel finance to smallholder farmers, particularly women for access to climate-resilient seeds, irrigation, and insurance. Hopefully, COP 30 will ponder on the remaining five years to the magical 2030 year.

The writers work with the Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA) and the National Agricultural Research Organisation (NARO) Uganda