By Dawit Endeshaw and Duncan Miriri
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) – African leaders aim to offer a global model for tackling the climate crisis through green investments, they said on Monday, after the United States’ withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement deflated the fight against climate change.
The continent, which has been buffeted by landslides, floods and droughts this year, is holding its second climate summit in Ethiopia, seeking a common voice before global climate talks in Brazil, COP30.
“We are not here to negotiate our survival. We are here to design the world’s next climate economy,” Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed told the opening ceremony.
Africa’s development lenders and commercial banks signed a deal at the summit to mobilise up to $100 billion to power a “green industrialisation” using renewable energy, said Kenyan President William Ruto.
Participating institutions include the Africa Export-Import Bank, the African Development Bank and commercial lenders like Ecobank Transnational and KCB Group, Ruto said.
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,” said Abiy, who wants his country to host COP32 in 2027.
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 the continent is still badly short of funding, receiving just 1% of the annual global climate financing, officials say.
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.
“Climate finance must be fair, significant and predictable,” said Mahamoud Ali Youssouf, chair of the African Union Commission.
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pulled out of the landmark Paris agreement on climate change for the second time earlier this year and has also withdrawn from clean energy partnerships with countries such as South Africa.
“Commitments are broken and international solidarity is dismissed as weakness precisely when the scale of the climate crisis demands enhanced cooperation, not less,” said Ruto.
(Reporting by Dawit Endeshaw in Addis Ababa and Duncan Miriri in Nairobi; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
