With COP32 headed to Addis Ababa, Africa’s climate future depends on leaders who can structure finance, build coalitions and turn sustainability into jobs and resilience.
As negotiators prepare to gather in Antalya for COP 31 on 9 November, the African Group of Negotiators will be pushing for an “implementation COP”. This means a focus on the delivery on commitments made in the past. This makes sense as Africa produces less than 4% of global greenhouse gas emissions, yet needs an estimated $277 billion a year through 2030 to implement its national climate plans. Current climate finance flows cover roughly 11% of that. But leaders in African boardrooms, ministries and banks need to be getting ready for action – if the money arrived tomorrow, would we be ready to use it well?
The gap behind the gap
We love to argue about the size of the cheque or commitment. COP29 settled on at least $300 billion a year for developing countries by 2035, and Antalya will be the next step in that process. We need to be asking critical questions of this process – is the commitment enough? Who pays, and by when? How much of the commitment is a loan dressed up as assistance?
Africa’s negotiators have pointed out that finance can hardly be called accessible when the communities hit hardest by climate change can’t…