Assessing the impact of the Africa Climate Summit: From commitments to concrete action

13 Sep 2023 --- Several African leaders recently came together to address climate issues, which strongly affect agriculture and food security. The first Africa Climate Summit culminated in a joint Nairobi declaration outlining their position on climate change, commitments and calls to action. 

International organizations have welcomed the summit and its resulting statement but stress that more is needed to stem the tide of climate change.

The summit’s main focus was to drive green growth and climate finance solutions for Africa and the world. Nutrition Insight discusses the positive and negative outcomes and next steps with representatives from CGIAR, a global agricultural innovation network, and NGOs Care International and Oxfam International. 

“This was the first summit of its kind, and all African nations unanimously signed the Nairobi Declaration,” says Dr. Aditi Mukherji, director at CGIAR Climate Change Impact Platform. 

“As far as declarations go, this one is quite comprehensive and touches upon various important aspects for Africa.”

She notes that the declaration calls for enhanced funding for climate action to the continent by reminding the global community of their commitment to provide US$100 billion in annual climate finance. “It also calls for operationalizing the loss and damage funds and creating tangible indicators for measuring adaptation effectiveness in the face of negative climate impacts.” 

“In agriculture, it calls for redoubling ‘... efforts to boost agricultural yields through sustainable agricultural practices, to enhance food security while minimizing negative environmental impacts,’” Mukherji continues. “It also urges support for ‘….smallholder farmers, indigenous peoples and local communities in the green economic transition, given their key role in ecosystems stewardship.’” 

Obed Koringo, climate policy advisor at CARE International, adds: “One of the strongest, most positive outcomes of the message from the summit was for the developed countries to honor their commitments and the call for the restructuring of the global finance architecture, including debt relief to free up more funding to address climate change.” 

Africa is one of the lowest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions causing climate change but faces its strong impacts.Climate change in Africa 
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assessed in 2022 that although Africa is one of the lowest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions causing climate change, the continent has experienced “widespread losses and damages attributable to human-induced climate change, including biodiversity loss, water shortages, reduced food production, loss of lives and reduced economic growth.”

The committee estimates that limiting global warming to 1.5°C will substantially reduce damage to African economies, agriculture, human health and ecosystems.

Bringing all African leaders together in place to have this discussion is an excellent step, underscores Elise Nalbandian, regional advocacy manager for Oxfam in Africa. 

“This was an important event which saw over 370 organizations, predominantly local entities spanning across Africa, actively participating in the People’s Assembly, including several of Oxfam’s partners.” 

She adds that the Nairobi declaration had some “excellent points,” such as the urgent need for radical change to mitigate the adverse impacts of climate change on the continent. 

The African Climate Summit has put Africa on the global map on climate change matters, agrees Koringo.

“African leaders have sent a strong message to the world by providing a platform for Africa to renew its call to rich nations to honor their commitments while providing homegrown solutions for the climate crisis. The summit saw the largest mobilization of African civil society organizations who rallied for an outcome that puts the interests of the African people first.” 

Missed opportunity? 
At the same time, Koringo stresses that the summit did not meet the majority’s expectations. It left the issue of adaptation at the periphery as most discussions focused on “decarbonization, energy transition, etc., which are mostly mitigation.” 

“The summit also missed an opportunity to call for enhanced finance for adaptation and the call for developed countries to honor their commitments to double adaptation finance as per the Glasgow Pact.”

Bringing African leaders together, the summit’s main focus was to drive green growth and climate finance solutions.Nations adopting this pact aim to turn the 2020s into a decade of climate action and support. It included a package of decisions, including strengthened efforts to build resilience to climate change, curb greenhouse gas emissions and provide necessary finance for both.

“We feel the summit did not put the vulnerable people at the center of discussions,” continues Koringo, “since most discussions focused on businesses, engaging the private sector and big investments including carbon markets, which negated the real issues that vulnerable communities are facing such as food insecurity.” 

Although the Nairobi declaration called for the swift operationalization of the Loss and Damage fund, Nalbandian from Oxfam laments the statement did not operationalize this fund yet. It was established during the United Nations Climate Conference last year (COP27) to provide financial assistance to nations most vulnerable and impacted by the effects of climate change. 

“Another fundamental concern pertains to the necessity of a ‘reversal of global financial flows.’ It is recognized that meaningfully addressing the climate crisis requires reparations and financing on a scale of trillions, rather than the billions that have been promised but remain undelivered.” 

She underscores: “The Nairobi Declaration and discussions at the Summit, in this regard, would have benefited from a more robust articulation of the need for reparations and a comprehensive approach to addressing financial flows related to climate change.” 

The road to COP28 
CGIAR hopes the Nairobi declaration will be leveraged by the African negotiators when negotiating various provisions during the COP28 in the United Arab Emirates later this year, shares Mukherji. 

Participants will take stock of progress made since the Paris Agreement 2015 at this United Nations Climate Change Conference. The primary long-term goals of this agreement were to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions to limit global temperature increase in this century to 1.5° C and provide financing to developing countries to mitigate climate change. 

“Climate finance and sustainable agriculture are two major pillars of the upcoming COP and hopefully, Africa will get its due share of climate finance needed to combat climate change on the continent,” says Mukherji. 

Oxfam’s Nalbandian urges African leaders to communicate at COP28 that “radical changes are needed to the global systems to mitigate and adapt to climate change.” 

The Nairobi declaration calls for enhanced funding for climate action from the global community.“As with any summit, we always hope that the right message will be taken up and result in meaningful changes. I would also like to see more funding for humanitarian life-saving activities and climate finance to adapt and mitigate the worst effects of climate change.” 

“After these meetings, people are still in dire need, having lost their livestock and crops and undertaking longer journeys just to get to where help might arrive.” 

Climate finance demands 
In the Nairobi declaration, African leaders call upon the “global community to act urgently in reducing emissions, fulfilling its obligations, keeping past promises and supporting the continent in addressing climate change.” Specifically, the declaration asks the global community to honor the commitment to provide US$100 billion in annual climate finance, as promised at the Copenhagen Conference 2009. 

Care International applauds the pressure for increased international support on climate finance. Koringo adds that the organization hopes the Nairobi declaration will serve as a stepping stone to amplify further Africa’s demands in the global climate change processes.

“We expect that the African heads of state and governments that did not attend the Africa Climate Summit will join forces in coming up with a unified position and speak in one voice to achieve the ambitious commitments laid out in the Nairobi declaration.”

“We also expect that the implementation framework for the Nairobi Declaration will be developed soon for Africa to start realizing and tracking the implementation of the declaration.”

Oxfam recently released its “Unfair Share: Unequal Climate Finance” report, which Nalbandian notes highlights “the urgent need for greater and equal climate finance to support vulnerable communities in East Africa and address the inequalities brought about by climate change. It underscores the importance of global collaboration and financial commitments to achieve climate justice and mitigate the impacts of the climate crisis.”

At the Africa Climate Summit, various governments and organizations committed funding to support the continent in addressing climate change. 

For example, the EU committed US$156 billion in a Global Gateway Investment Plan for Africa, the African Development Bank announced a US$1 billion facility to accelerate climate financing for Africa’s youth businesses, and the US announced several investments, such as an additional US$20 million to the Africa Adaptation Initiative Food Security Accelerator. 

By Jolanda van Hal