African unity central to tackling climate crisis
Africa has the assets: what it needs is the political alignment, financing mechanisms, and accountable implementation tools to mobilise them at scale.
By Ali Mohamed, Richard Muyungi & Abay Yimere
African heads of state and global leaders will meet 1-6 Sept at the African Climate Summit 2 (ACS 2.0) at a pivotal moment for the continent. The summit’s agenda is both urgent and transformative, with calls for energy access for the 600 million Africans without, resilient and clean industrialisation, and the need for a unified continental response to the climate crisis, which can attract scaled public and profitable private investment.
The urgency is clear. The world is failing to meet its own climate targets, yet the costs of inaction are being offloaded onto the most vulnerable. Together, we can turn this around through a strategy where the world meets its climate targets and Africa meets its human development goals.
Having contributed less than 4% of cumulative global greenhouse gas emissions, African countries now face a disproportionate share of climate-induced disasters, from prolonged droughts and erratic rainfall to devastating floods and food insecurity.
The financial gap to address this is vast: Africa has an annual climate finance shortfall of over $450 billion and in the last years, only $29.5 billion in annual climate flows reached the continent. According to the African Development Bank, Africa’s share of global climate finance has been just between 2-3% (2023).
These challenges demand more than expressions of solidarity at ACS 2.0; they require structural change. Ethiopia, the host of this year’s summit, is emerging as a critical convener of a new climate paradigm that benefits the whole continent, one that is African-led, justice-centered, and action-oriented and builds trust with partners including those managing the European energy market.
Accelerating transition
Ethiopia brings a different vision to the table: a vision rooted in resilience, self-reliance, and solidarity. The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), planned to be officially launched in September 2025, stands not only as a marvel of African engineering but as a symbol of the continent’s capacity to power its development through renewable energy.
With over 5.150 megawatts of generation capacity, the GERD positions Ethiopia as a renewable energy anchor within the East African Power Pool (EAPP), reinforcing the continent's shift toward renewable electrification and playing a transformative role in decarbonizing household energy consumption for Ethiopia’s 128 million people.
Ethiopia’s leadership extends to green transport policy, where it has taken a bold step by banning the import of combustion engine vehicles and prioritizing electric mobility.
Complemented by the Green Legacy Initiative, one of the largest ecosystem restoration efforts in the world, with over 32 billion seedlings planted since 2019. This audacious afforestation program offers African nations a model for restoring degraded lands, preventing erosion, protecting biodiversity, and enhancing climate resilience.
But Ethiopia's leadership does not stand alone. Its energy progress complements Kenya’s global leadership in geothermal energy, which powers nearly half of its electricity supply. Together, our two nations exemplify a diversified, renewable energy model that other African countries can adapt.
Vision, finance
Africa has the assets. What it needs is the political alignment, financing mechanisms, and accountable implementation tools to mobilise them at scale. In 2024, out of about 600GW of new renewable energy capacity added globally, only 4.1GW or 0.7% of the total was deployed in Africa. The high cost of capital and perceived (and real) risks continue to hinder infrastructural development at scale.
The African Climate Summit 2.0 must go beyond declarations and consider bold structural reforms, chief among them, the transition from fragmented Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to a unified regional action platform informed by national climate plans.
Africa's economies, while diverse in detail, share fundamental structural features, resource-dependent sectors, climate-vulnerable livelihoods, and constrained fiscal space. These commonalities argue compellingly for a collective climate strategy that transcends borders.
A Regionally Determined Contribution would serve as a continental instrument, coherently aligning mitigation and adaptation goals, streamlining investment pipelines, and elevating Africa’s bargaining power in global climate negotiations.
In practice, it would allow African countries to pool their strengths, scale successful initiatives across regions, and attract climate finance at a transformative scale. Crucially, it would shift the narrative: from fragmented national pledges toward a continental pact anchored in solidarity, ambition, and African agency.
One concrete example lies in Africa’s energy transformation. The continent could electrify the 600 million people currently without access to power by leveraging a unified electricity market through the African Single Electricity Market (AfSEM) anchored on African regional power pools grid interconnection.
The message from the first Africa Climate Summit, which issued the Nairobi Declaration two years ago Nairobi Declaration from the ACS1.0 emphasised continental integration of infrastructure, regional power pools, and grid interconnectivity to enable energy trade and smoother renewables integration to drive development, create jobs, and avoid future climate costs.
This could deliver affordable and clean energy at scale using abundant renewable resources. For instance, Morocco’s vast solar capacity could supply electricity through the North-West African power grid, while Ethiopia’s hydropower potential could provide reliable backup through the Eastern African power pool, mirroring the Nord Pool’s model, where Norway’s hydropower underpins the Nord Pool grid. Africa’s energy could also be exported to Europe via existing infrastructure, such as the Morocco–Spain interconnection and the Egypt–Cyprus- Greece grid link, by 2030.
Addis to Belém
The critical question is how Africa can build the trust of European markets as a reliable supplier of clean energy. To do so, Africa must strengthen regional power pools, harmonise regulatory frameworks, and invest in resilient infrastructure—an objective made more achievable through a coordinated regional approach defined by a Regionally Determined Contribution.
Calling for a continental climate compact and a regional climate plan is also a moment for Ethiopia to revive its Pan-African legacy. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed should draw on Ethiopia’s hand in creating the African Union and invite African leaders to collectively own a regionalised climate strategy.
The path from Addis to the COP30 in Belém in November is not just geographic; it is symbolic. It represents a journey from marginalisation to leadership, from fragmented interests to continental vision, from climate victimhood to climate agency and prosperity.
ACS 2.0 must not be remembered as an event. It must be remembered as a turning point. Ethiopia can help make it so, if it chooses to lead not only with ambition, but with unity and shared vision.
Ambassador Ali Daud Mohamed, Special Climate Envoy for Kenya ; Dr Richard Muyungi is the African Group of Negotiators Chair; Abay Yimere is a postdoctoral scholar at the Climate Policy Lab at The Fletcher School, Tufts University.