Every year before the COP, the same question arises: what is the only thing Africa needs from this summit?
Before COP31, the answer from an Africa webinar from the Institute of Global Resources was clear: Africa must go beyond the simple question of what it can achieve from global climate negotiations and focus on what it can bring. With geopolitical tensions, energy disruptions and climate shocks exposing vulnerabilities across African economies, speakers argued that the continent should use this summit to promote concrete solutions that strengthen energy security, protect food systems and mobilize climate financing.
A reinvented agency
Olufunso Somorin, senior regional head for climate change and green growth at the African Development Bank, said these challenges were interconnected, warning that simultaneous disruptions in energy, food and economic systems could jeopardize the continent’s development progress. He described them as a triangle of reality: when one is affected, the others tense up, and when all three are affected, the development gains of recent years are threatened.
« Today’s COP is now a trade forum. It is now a market. «
He said Africa needed to rethink its approach to global climate negotiations and strengthen its partner position in defining climate solutions rather than simply seeking help. His answer was what he called a « reinvented agency ». Africa, he said, must move away « from this idea of Africa that must be helped for an Africa with which we must associate. «
He also questioned the pace of the process itself, asking that after 30 COP, how long does it still take to accomplish things?
It means understanding what the COP has become. « Today’s COP is now a trade forum. It is now a market. And what you get out of a market depends largely on who you are and what you bring to the market, » he said.
Strengthening energy security
Energy security was one of the key issues of COP31, the predominant situation of geopolitical tensions and disruptions in the global energy supply underlying the risks of dependence on external energy sources. Africa has significant potential in terms of renewable energy. However, the challenge remains to translate these resources into reliable and affordable electricity capable of supporting economic growth, business and industrial development.
Yasmin Abdulwassie, Chief Climate Director in Africa at the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, said high funding costs and limited public budgets remained major obstacles to increasing investment in renewable energy. « The challenge is really to translate this potential into affordable and reliable energy, which can be reproduced and scaled up, » she said.
She said philanthropy can help by funding project preparation, policy reform and investment pipelines, so that transition paths are led by countries. She mentioned the Partnership for the just transition of South Africa’s energy. The initiative, she said, initially announced with $8.5 billion, had exceeded $14 billion, proof that investors support credible country platforms.
She also highlighted the Senegal Renewable Energy Investment Fund as another emerging example of efforts to attract investment and support the country’s energy transition. « Thus, this catalytic role that philanthropy plays is not only about releasing funding, but helping countries achieve sustainable financing opportunities for economic reform, » Abdulwassie said.
Somorin said that achieving universal access to energy would require stronger partnerships linking national ambitions to clear financing strategies. He cited Mission 300, which aims to connect 300 million people in sub-Saharan Africa to electricity by 2030, as an example of how shared objectives and country-specific strategies can accelerate progress.
He said that 37 African countries had developed national energy pacts exposing their strategies to expand access to electricity, helping to attract investment from development finance institutions, the World Bank, the African Development Bank and philanthropic organizations. He said the initiative demonstrates the importance of having a collective goal while agreeing on practical measures to achieve it.
« It’s a new way of defining the partnership where you have a collective goal, but you also have a shared discussion on how. How do we get there? What should we do differently? » he says.
Beyond energy security, COP31 is invited to pay greater attention to adaptation, in particular by ensuring that climate funding reaches the countries and communities most vulnerable to climate change.
Abdulwassie said the climate summit should direct adaptation commitments towards « real and measurable results », particularly in food systems, water and subsistence infrastructure. She set three priorities. The first is a credible way of financing. Countries have committed to tripling the funding for adaptation by 2035, but Abdulwassie said this detail was missing. « How are we going to do it? How will progress be measured? She asked, adding that these questions must be answered at COP31 and at each important step that will follow it.
The second is better indicators, and here she mentioned the vision of Belém-Addis, a two-year process that leads to COP32 in Ethiopia. Current indicators, she said, tend to take into account activities, such as the number of farmers who have followed climate-appropriate agricultural training. She argued that the measure should determine whether a farmer’s livelihoods « remain intact or improve despite climate shocks », and that credible results of this type are what attract more funding.
The third is to match the national adaptation plans with the investment plans. She cited a philanthropic initiative from Malawi, supported by the African Climate Foundation, in which more than 20 of the country’s priority adaptation proposals were associated with potential investors. The goal, she said, is to give adaptation the same investment pipelines as mitigation projects are increasingly successful.
Closing the financing gap for adaptation
The challenge of mobilizing climate funding for adaptation was also highlighted by Somorin, who said that African countries needed to rethink how adaptation projects are funded and how their economic value is presented to investors.
« The adaptation is very complex, » said Somorin, and the sector has made this more difficult by grouping it all under the term « climate action ». He said that adaptation remains more difficult to finance than mitigation, as projects often lack clear financial returns that attract private investors.
Put all climate projects in one funding basket, he said, and about nine out of ten projects that will emerge would be mitigation projects. They are simply easier to finance and attract capital more easily. Africa also faces a structural handicap. In all other regions, he said, private capital is the engine of climate action. Africa is the only place where public money leads.
His first proposed solution is to stop treating the two as separate. « You’re using mitigation funding to achieve adaptation goals, » he said. He gave the example of a solar irrigation system in a semi-arid region that reduces emissions thanks to clean energy, but also allows farmers to cultivate and earn money all year round, which is a result of adaptation. The more deliberate adaptation is integrated into mitigation projects, he added, the more capital will be reached.
« I argue that you are using mitigation funding to achieve adaptation goals, » he said.
Somorin also called for a change in how investors assess adaptation projects, arguing that their broader economic benefits should be taken into account with their immediate financial returns.
He indicated that financiers needed to understand the distinction between financial viability and economic viability, especially when investments generate long-term profits that do not immediately translate into income. Somorin said the task is to help financiers see that economic value is real and can be monetized, now or later, as new markets emerge to derive financial returns.
Africa has documented 11 financial instruments for mitigation projects but, at best, three for adaptation. Expanding these financing options, he said, would allow more resources to circulate and attract non-traditional investors in the field of adaptation.
Philanthropy can help unlock larger investments
Although development finance institutions play a role in mobilizing investment for climate action, Abdulwassie said philanthropic capital could help overcome some structural barriers preventing African countries from accessing climate financing. « Philanthropy alone, we know, cannot bridge this gap, » she said. However, it identified three areas where this could have a catalytic impact: strengthening national institutions, investment platforms led by developing countries, and building stronger partnerships across the climate finance ecosystem.
The first is institutional capacity. Where African institutions do not exist, or need to be strengthened, she said, philanthropic money is better used to build them. This leads to national appropriation and brings « the local voice, the local agenda » to the table, alongside partners such as the African Development Bank. She again mentioned the Partnership for the Fair Energy Transition of South Africa, where philanthropic and multilateral partners helped the government negotiate what international funding would look like. She also made a remark: more subsidies should be allocated directly to countries to help expand these efforts.
The second is the construction of investment platforms with countries rather than for them. Philanthropy can provide technical expertise, bring partners together and help design funding mechanisms and instruments. The models must be contextual, she said, because the energy pathway, the food system and the growth path of each country are different.
The third is to strengthen the broader ecosystem of African climate leadership. She cited the philanthropic support for the first two African Climate Summits, the resulting statements from Nairobi and Addis Ababa, as well as efforts to give African countries a collective voice through the African Union during the presidency of the South African G20.
The stakes, she said, are high: climate financing entering Africa represents less than 2% of what is needed, far from the needs of the continent. Without African leadership in these rooms, she argued, financial ambitions cannot be achieved.
« Making this collective voice heard because I believe it guarantees that African leadership is there to shape African priorities, » she said.
Turning country platforms into actions
Somorin said his experience working with national platforms at the African Development Bank had shown that strong national leadership was essential to their success.
He outlined three factors that can help these platforms go beyond coordination. First, governments need clearly defined and realistic climate goals that reflect their national capabilities, political circumstances and development priorities.
« Nothing replaces strong leadership, » he said. He named the difference it makes when comparing Rwanda to Niger. Clear and well-structured country objectives count, he said, but honesty about capacity is just as important. Countries that still ask their partners to help train their populations, when they should implement, are not ready to act. The objectives must also correspond to the political and socio-economic realities of a country. He said, « We can’t ignore them, » even when they seem unrelated to the climate.
Second, countries must understand the strengths of their development partners, including multilateral institutions, philanthropic organizations and NGOs, and bring them together around clearly assigned responsibilities.
Third, governments must demonstrate their own commitment by contributing to the resources they want partners to support. Somorin said countries that tell their partners that they need support for 80% of a project because they will provide 20% progress faster than those that give nothing and ask for everything. A government that commits a fixed share of its budget over five years, and that assigns people to learn and deliver, finds it much easier to take advantage of what others bring.
Building towards an African COP32
Ethiopia is expected to host COP32 in 2027. Abdulwassie said African countries should start preparing now to ensure the summit exceeds political commitments. She said COP32 should not be seen as just an Ethiopian event, but as an opportunity for African countries to unite around shared development priorities and strengthen the continent’s influence on global climate discussions.
« COP32 is not only an Ethiopian COP, but an African COP, » she said.
Abdulwassie outlined three priorities for the road to COP32. First, African leaders must work together to agree on key priorities. She referred to the African Union summit in February and the period leading up to the COP as opportunities to agree on priorities that can survive the political cycles, including the agenda of action and the initiatives that each presidency will announce.
Second, Africa should take advantage of the period before COP32 to highlight successful climate initiatives already underway, demonstrate the results and identify which approaches can be adapted or developed in other countries.
Third, it called for greater recognition of local voices, especially those of young people and communities already behind climate action. She said that community ambitions and practices must reach leaders and be translated into action. « How can we ensure that the voice of youth in particular… translates into action? She asked. She warned that the decisions made today would shape the world inherited by future generations.
Development partners, she said, should engage Africa not through aid but as real partners, in a relationship where Africans have resources to trade and with which to engage, at COP32 and beyond.
To make COP31 a success for Africa, Abdulwassie highlighted enhanced continental unity, partnerships and visibility in global climate discussions.
She said that African countries should speak out with a stronger collective voice while building momentum around energy, food security and water resilience. She also stressed the importance of welcoming more Africans at the summit to share their ambitions, experiences and progress.
Somorin said that Africa’s voice and leadership must be at the heart of global climate discussions, especially given the continent’s limited contribution to climate change and its disproportionate exposure to its impacts. The voice, autonomy and importance of this continent, he argued, can never be ignored, but the starting point is Africa affirming its own autonomy, because the global climate equation is incomplete without the development and resilience of Africa.
He urged African countries to move away from the perception of a continent ready to be helped.
« Africa must be recognized not only for its vulnerability, but also for its potential to contribute to global solutions, » said Somorin. « If there is a region that could play a significant role in the global solution, it is Africa. «
Protection of Africa’s industrialization ambitions
Soha Benchekroun, researcher and advisor on climate resilience and industrial development policy, argued that climate negotiations must pay greater attention to Africa’s right to industrialize and progress in global value chains.
The goal for COP31, and for the « African COP » in Ethiopia a year later, said Benchekroun, is to ensure that climate action « does not compromise our industrialization trajectories ». Most African countries are just beginning to climb global value chains and develop manufacturing and processing capabilities at home. Many have taken steps to restrict commodity exports and promote local processing, a trend she described as positive.
The threat, she said, comes from unilateral trade measures adopted in the name of climate policy by industrialized countries: adjustments to carbon boundaries, carbon pricing and associated regulations. She said the negotiated rules should aim to limit the harm of these measures for African economies and other developing countries. Time is pressing, she noted, with more carbon boundary mechanisms in preparation, including those in the United Kingdom, which are expected to begin in January 2027.
« Justice and a good result consist above all of not harming any path of African and industrial development, » she said.
Benchekroun also said that the debate on the just transition focused on wider access to energy while paying marginal attention to the right to development, and in particular industrial development. « We do not expect COPs to solve our energy infrastructure challenges, nor to promote our own industrialization, » she said, « but at least a good start would be not to slow them down. « What gets a continent out of poverty, » she said, is infrastructure, industrial development and local added value, combined with ways to make a profit for society.
