African leaders and the United Nations have urged the world to unlock investment and reforms that would allow the continent to drive global climate action, warning that its vast potential risks going untapped without urgent support.
Opening the second Africa Climate Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s Planning Minister Fitsum Assefa and UN Climate Change chief Simon Stiell declared that “Africa is ready to supercharge climate action, but COP30 must ensure Africa is fully enabled to do so.”
The joint statement, released at Climate Week in the Ethiopian capital, pointed to Africa’s renewable energy resources, natural wealth, and the world’s youngest population as assets that could power green growth. But it also highlighted a stark gap: of the $2 trillion invested globally in clean energy last year, only a fraction reached African countries.
President William Ruto, who hosted the inaugural summit in Nairobi in 2023, told delegates that Africa must be treated not as a victim of climate change but as a source of solutions. “Two years later, our potential is recognised, our voice is heard, and our solutions are being deployed,” he said, citing African advances in climate-smart agriculture, green industry and new technologies such as direct air capture.
Ruto pressed for reforms to global financial institutions to cut the cost of capital for African projects and open markets for African value-added climate goods. “Isolation is not a winning strategy; it is courting failure,” he said, calling for Africa to build a green industrial base while pressing the international system to dismantle barriers.
The Addis Ababa gathering comes just two months before the COP30 climate talks in Brazil, where governments are expected to hammer out new agreements on finance, decarbonisation and adaptation. African leaders want those commitments translated into results on the ground.