Addis Ababa — As we prepare for COP30, Africa must stand not as a bloc of negotiators, but as a continent of solutions, fulfilling the vision of Agenda 2063 for a prosperous, resilient, and innovative future, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed underscored.
The second Africa Climate Summit has kicked off in Addis Ababa today in the presence of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and heads of states and governments of various African countries and beyond.
In his inaugural keynote address at ACS2, Prime Minister Abiy noted “We must make Africa the place where the world sees climate goals achieved.”
Prime Minister Abiy called, urging a new narrative that focuses on the continent’s immense strengths rather than its perceived deficiencies.
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The Prime Minister reframed the common narration of Africa at climate summits, stating “Too often, Africa’s story at climate summits begins with what we lack: lack of finance, lack of technology, lack of time. Let us begin instead with what we have.”
To this effect, Abiy cited Africa’s “youngest population in the world, bursting with creativity and innovation,” as well as its rich natural resources and vast potential for renewable energy.
The Prime Minister also outlined several home-grown initiatives of Ethiopia as examples of Africa-led solutions that are already yielding results.
The Green Legacy Initiative has seen the planting of over 48 billion seedlings in seven years, and the ‘Yelemat Tirufat’ (Bounty of the Basket) program is “reshaping food systems, reducing imports and growing rural incomes with climate-smart irrigation and sustainable practices,” Prime Minister Abiy elaborated.
He also described the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), whose inauguration is nearing, as “a continental symbol of self-reliance, unity and clean energy”, generating over 5,000 megawatts of renewable power.”
Prime Minister Abiy called on global partners to shift from a model of aid to one of investment. “We ask our world partners not to fund us because we are impacted, but to invest with us because we are visionary,” he stated.
He proposed a bold new initiative, the African Climate Innovation Compact, a “bold continental-wide partnership, uniting our universities, research institutions, startups, rural communities and innovators.”
The compact’s goal is ambitious: “By 2030, the compact should aim to deliver 1000 African solutions to tackle climate challenges in energy, agriculture, water, transport, and resilience,” Abiy said.
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With regards to data and power, the Prime Minister asserted, “We’ll also claim climate data sovereignty, mapping our own forests, measuring our own carbon in pricing our own ecosystems.”
Prime Minister Abiy emphasized the strategic importance of this data, stating that “Climate data is not just science. It is the new currency of power.”
