African Leaders have made a resolution aiming to offer a global model for tackling the climate crisis through green investments after the United States’ withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement deflated the fight against climate change.
The high resounding resolution was made be the leaders of Africa continent, which has been buffeted by landslides, floods and droughts this year, who are holding its 2nd climate summit in Ethiopia, seeking a common voice before global climate talks in Brazil COP30.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed told the opening ceremony in Addis Ababa that they are not meeting to negotiate survival but to design the world’s next climate economy.
This comes after Africa’s development lenders and commercial banks signed a deal at the summit to mobilise up to US 100 billion dollars to power a “green industrialisation” using renewable energy.
Kenyan President William Somomei Ruto said that participating institutions include the Africa Export-Import Bank, the African Development Bank and commercial lenders like Ecobank Transnational and KCB Group.
“Commitments are broken and international solidarity is dismissed as weakness precisely when the scale of the climate crisis demands enhanced cooperation, not less,” President Ruto said.
Prime Minister Abiy proposed a new Africa climate innovation initiative, funded by the continent, bringing together African universities, research institutions, startups, rural communities and inventors to deliver 1,000 solutions to tackle climate challenges by 2030.
“If we make the right choices now, Africa can be the first continent to industrialize without destroying its ecosystems,” Prime Minister Abiy, who wants his country to host COP32 in 2027 said.
It should be remembered that the African Leaders sought more financing at the inaugural summit in Nairobi two years ago to help governments to tackle climate challenges amid fiscal constraints and heavy debt burdens, but officials say that the continent is still badly short of funding, receiving just 1% of the annual global climate financing.
African countries, which are among the most vulnerable to the adverse effects of manmade global warming despite being among those least responsible for it, have long demanded that COP meetings yield more funds to help them adapt.
The Chairperson of the African Union Commission Mahamoud Ali Youssouf said that Climate financing must be fair, significant and predictable and the leaders also expressed concerns about the potential damage from a fraying of the multilateral approach to tackling climate change.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration pulled out of the landmark Paris agreement on climate change for the second time earlier this year and has also withdrawn from clean energy partnerships with countries such as South Africa.
