After three days of talks in Addis Ababa, African leaders have agreed on Wednesday to a common climate roadmap ahead of COP30 in Brazil. Their bold vision presents Africa as a “continent of solutions” and pledges to present a unified position to developed nations at the global negotiations later this year.
Africa is slated to be home to one-fifth of the world’s population by 2030. But it only produces a small fraction — currently about 3 percent — of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, and accounts for just 6 percent of energy use. Against that backdrop, the summit’s declaration made climate adaptation, justice, and energy access pillars of its platform.
”It’s inspiring to see Africa leaping forward with clarity, purpose, and determination,” said Mohammed Adow, the director of Power Shift Africa, a think tank focused on climate action. ”Africa is claiming its rightful space in the climate dialogue.”
This was the second Africa Climate Summit, with the first held in Nairobi, Kenya, in 2023. This year’s event established, expanded, or reaffirmed ambitious targets. The 54-nation group called for tens of billions in new investment from within the continent and abroad, and set a target of 300 gigawatts of renewable energy by 2030.
“Definitely it is a wish list,” said Omar Elmawi, with the civil society group Africa Movement of Movements. Getting more money from developed countries won’t be easy — according to the declaration, Africa has $84 billion a year in adaptation needs alone, yet only received $14 billion in 2021 and 2022. But the hope is that a more unified position at COP will amplify those requests.
Regardless, both Elmawi and Adow noted that Africa can progress toward the summit’s goals on its own too. Governments could, for instance, dedicate portions of their budgets to climate priorities to show that Africa is, as Elmawi phrased it, “putting our money where our mouth is.”
Ethiopia hosted what amounted to an African mini-COP the same week that the country inaugurated a massive, and contentious, hydroelectric dam on the Nile river, which at 5 gigawatts is now Africa’s largest. The country also announced a bid to host COP32 in 2027, pitting it against Nigeria, among others. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed also used the occasion to announce a goal of raising $50 billion a year for climate solutions, though it was unclear exactly where the money would come from.
“Only bold, united, and sustained collaboration can avert climate catastrophe,” Abiy said at Monday’s opening ceremony, where he set a goal of spurring 1,000 African climate solutions by 2030.
The summit’s final declaration also highlighted the Green Minerals Strategy that Africa adopted earlier this year. It is a coalition aimed at leveraging the continent’s vast deposits of critical minerals — the Democratic Republic of the Congo, for example, holds most of the world’s cobalt — as part of a green transition. “You can think of these as homegrown solutions to a climate problem that was largely caused by the rest of the world,” said Adow.
Still, some saw problems with the summit’s outcomes. For one, leaders recognized “the role of transitional energy sources in ensuring a just transition,” Elmawi said. To him, that likely meant relying on methane, also known as natural gas, which often requires building infrastructure that can last decades. He worries this “loophole” will lead governments and companies “to continue pushing and preaching fossil fuel.”
The declaration also specifically welcomes the use of carbon markets in Africa. They are essentially systems in which polluting countries can offset their emissions by trading carbon credits with developed nations. This has led to controversial exchanges, such as Zimbabwe signing away nearly 20 percent of its land to a company based in the United Arab Emirates.
What isn’t debatable, however, is that Africa has made its position clear heading into COP30. “This represents a very decisive moment for the continent,” said Adow. “Africa has shown that it’s moving from the margins of global climate decision-making to the center.”