Africa Climate Summit 2023: Hit, Miss or Hit-Miss?

The inaugural Africa Climate Summit, held in Nairobi from September 4 to September 6, 2023, has elicited sentiments ranging from cautious optimism to outright pessimism. As with any conference of such magnitude and anticipation, the Summit produced an exceptional list of hits and misses (real, perceived and in-between). In this article, we explore the hits, the misses, the verdict on the Summit (hit or miss) as well as the next steps in Africa’s journey to forging a united front in the fight against climate change.

Hits:

1. United African voice on climate change: this was the first climate change-related conference for Africa by Africans in Africa. The aim was to cement a common negotiating position that African states can rally behind in subsequent climate change conferences including COP 28 in December 2023.

2. Rethinking global climate financing: African countries currently receive a miniscule portion of the $100 billion annual climate financing promised during COP15 in 2009. Carbon markets were floated as a possible solution to raise more funds for climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts.

3. Climate movement mobilization: various African stakeholders including civil society groups, youth forums and small-scale climate entrepreneurs came out in their numbers to voice their opinions on the continent’s path to climate security.

4. Funding commitments and announcements: a total of $26 billion dollars from public, private sector, multilateral banks, philanthropic organizations and others was allocated to renewable energy, e-mobility and agriculture.

5. Country-specific commitments: various countries set targets towards reducing greenhouse gas emissions, increasing renewable generation, biodiversity conservation, increasing electricity access, coastline protection and regenerative blue economy development.

Misses:

1. Top-down approach: elite African politicians and technocrats carried the day while the civil society, indigenous communities and grassroots movements were largely relegated to spectating. The exclusion of meaningful public contestation will go down as the biggest miss. The underwhelming outcome of the Summit and the exclusion of major stakeholders led to the creation of a parallel declaration - the People’s Declaration - that rivals the official Nairobi Declaration.

2. Funding commitment compared to funding requirement: the Summit managed to raise only $26 billion (across multiple years) of the required $100 billion annual funding.

3. Near-hijack: a platform for internal stakeholders to realize and streamline Africa’s capabilities was overrun by external interests (i.e the Global North) leaving Africa to play a fiddle yet again. This is purely based on panel participation and funding announcements.

4. A united front?: only approximately half the number of heads of states and governments in Africa showed up! An even lower proportion of African countries announced their commitments. Truant leaders are definitely a bad sign if we are to succeed in forging a common voice as a continent (unacceptable even if they skipped the Summit out of skepticism of the Summit’s chances at success).

5. Extraction agenda: yet again the conversation centered around exploiting Africa’s green wealth - carbon sinks, critical minerals etc (just in more subtle language, of course). In hindsight, it almost looks like a bidding match between the UAE and the West.

6. The African Carbon Markets dilemma: the carbon markets are not a good or an evil by themselves. Their totally nature depends on implementation. Poor implementation of the carbon markets (quite likely) would look like Africa’s subtle surrender to the Global North’s reluctance to assume full responsibility. We would be saying in a very sophisticated manner: “You (Global North) created a climate mess and we are desperately trying to raise funds to mitigate and adapt to the consequences of that mess by selling you ways to grow the mess.” It is not a dilemma for us Africans because the ethical choice is not ours to make in any case.

7. Carbon markets against food security: a classic David vs Goliath duel. Change of land use, that will most likely follow the establishment of formal carbon sinks and processes, will further weaken Africa’s already frail food situation. I expect a deluge of promises in the coming years on why and how land use will not be negatively impacted.

Where do we go from here as a continent?

1. The saving grace is that the Africa Climate Summit will be a biennial event. Let us hope that this was a rookie attempt at negotiating by African leaders and that they will do a better job going forward.

2. African leaders ought to have realized by now that the voices of the people, not the technocrats, should be the core of any solution. Any solution designed will be as good as the inclusivity of the process. This is not to say all 1.2 billion+ of us need to have a seat at the table but rather all major stakeholders must be represented.

3. Outstanding commitments such as the net zero target (by 2050) by Kenya, South Sudan and Ethiopia as well as the $60 million mini-grid project by Nigeria show that we have the right intentions.

4. Lastly, we might not be moving fast but we are moving forward. There’s a lot of solace in that.

References:

1. Government of Kenya, African Union & ACS23 (2023). An overview of agreed commitments and announcements from the Africa Climate Summit, Nairobi, September 4-6, 2023.

2. African Union & Government of Kenya (2023). The African leaders Nairobi Declaration on climate change and call to action.