By Donald Nyarota
In Addis Ababa, at the Africa Climate Summit (ACS2), from 8 to 10 September 2025, African leaders drew a red line in the sand. In post post-summit declaration, African heads of state have affirmed that the continent will no longer be treated as collateral damage in the climate change crisis.
Whether the Addis Ababa African Climate Declaration will be more than another glossy communiqué remains to be seen. Too often, such declarations have remained mere manifestos for climate justice, hollow demands for reparations, and a shrill warning of a revolutionary stance.
The summit brought together global leaders, intergovernmental organizations, Regional Economic Communities, United Nations agencies, the private sector, civil society organizations, Indigenous Peoples, Local Communities, farmers’ organizations, children, youth, women, and academia.
It ran under the theme “Accelerating Global Climate Solutions: Financing for Africa’s Resilient and Green Development”.
At the close of ACS2, the African Leaders Addis Ababa Declaration on Climate Change and Call To Action was officially adopted, heralding a historic moment that puts Africa at the forefront of global climate action.
The Leaders Declaration called for “strengthened and sustained support to scale up the implementation of African-led climate initiatives such as the African Union Great Green Wall Initiative, the African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative, and the Ethiopian Green Legacy Initiative.
Let us consider the facts. Africa produces less than 4% of global greenhouse gases but pays the heaviest price in the fastest warming rates, collapsing harvests, swelling floods, and deadly droughts.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) confirms what African farmers already know: climate shocks are gutting economies, eroding food security, and fuelling instability. Yet, while Africa needs $3 trillion by 2030 to meet its climate goals, it received just $30 billion in 2021-22. Worse, most of it arrived as loans, another chain of debt for countries already suffocating under interest payments.
This is not aid. It is exploitation with a green face. Climate finance must be grants, not loans. Anything less is double punishment: first for emissions we did not cause, then for debts we cannot pay.
Now in the communique, Africa is rejecting what is seen as “green protectionism.” This is seen in the contentious EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism and deforestation rules masquerading as climate action, yet they threaten to wipe 1.1% off Africa’s GDP each year and slash exports by 6%. Rich countries cannot preach justice while rigging trade rules to lock Africa out of green markets. That is not the envisioned just transition but a new form of economic colonialism.
Now Africa is not only resisting but also leading. The Addis Declaration unveiled a Green Minerals Strategy to ensure lithium, cobalt, and other critical resources fuel African development, not just Western supply chains. It demands Africa’s fair share of renewable finance: 20% by 2030, up from today’s measly 2%, despite Africa holding 40% of global renewable potential. It pushes for industrialisation powered by solar and wind, not coal and oil. This is Africa claiming its right to green prosperity.
The Declaration also makes clear that climate justice is inseparable from peace, food, and dignity. Droughts and floods are conflict multipliers. Rising seas displace communities. Failed harvests deepen hunger. Yet within the same crises lies an opportunity: to build climate-smart agriculture, restore forests, and put people—not corporations at the heart of nature-based solutions.
What the Addis Declaration has done is to embolden Africa to go to COP30 in Belém as a bloc speaking with one voice. The message is clear on demanding climate justice, reforming the rigged financial system, and stopping the imposition of unilateral trade rules that strangle African exports.
The climate fight cannot be won without Africa’s forests, minerals, and sunlight. But Africa will no longer play the role of sacrificial continent. The global north must choose partnership or plunder. Addis Ababa has made Africa’s choice clear.
“This summit has shown Africa and the world that when nations come together to seek solutions, better outcomes follow. The summit’s success is proof that Africa can convene, lead, and deliver outcomes that reverberate globally, that will directly carry into COP30 and beyond.”