Climate-related disasters are worsening globally, and developing nations are hit the hardest, despite contributing the least to global emissions. Climate change already costs African countries an average of 2% to 5% of GDP, with some spending up to 9% of their budgets on climate disaster responses. By 2030, as many as 118 million of the continent’s poorest people could face the impacts of severe droughts, flooding and extreme heat.

Against this backdrop, the second Africa Climate Summit (ACS2) comes at a critical moment. During the gathering, African leaders are expected to advocate for greater influence in global climate decisions, call for fairer funding to respond to climate impacts and demonstrate the continent’s key role as part of the solution — especially through clean energy, carbon capture and locally led resilience. 

What to Expect from the Second Africa Climate Summit

Building on the momentum of the inaugural ACS, leaders from across Africa and around the world will gather in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from Sept. 8 to 10, 2025 for the second summit. Convened by the Ethiopian government and the African Union under the theme “Accelerating Global Climate Solutions: Financing for Africa’s Resilient and Green Development,” the event will focus on one of the most pressing challenges in climate diplomacy today: how to fund Africa’s transition to a low-carbon, climate-resilient future. 

Progress Since the First Africa Climate Summit in 2023 

Held in Nairobi in 2023, the first Africa Climate Summit (ACS1) brought together African leaders and international partners. It mobilized more than $20 billion in pledges and resulted in the Nairobi Declaration — a unified call to reform global financial institutions and introduce new international taxes to fund climate action. The summit emphasized Africa’s commitment to green growth and an inclusive future, with priorities such as renewable energy, climate-smart agriculture and land restoration.

To achieve these goals, the declaration called for major reforms to climate finance, including debt restructuring and relief tailored to Africa’s needs. 

Since then, Africa has made notable progress. New initiatives, such as Climate Investment Fund’s $1 billion Industry Decarbonization Program and Africa Development Bank’s Africa Climate Risk Insurance Facility for Adaptation, are helping de-risk investment, strengthen resilience and promote public-private partnerships. African countries are also scaling up nature-based action, with commitments to restore 130 million hectares of land through under the AFR100 global framework and conserve biodiversity under the global 30x30 framework.

Just days before ACS2, the second Africa Climate Week will take place in Addis Ababa from Sept. 1 to 6 under the theme “Dialogues for Ambition and Implementation.” This back-to-back timing is a major opportunity to link the outcomes of Africa Climate Week to the push for action expected at ACS2. 

By the end of the ACS2, leaders are expected to sign the Addis Ababa Declaration on Accelerating Climate Action and Finance for Africa’s Green Future. It will outline Africa’s unified position heading into this year’s UN Climate Summit (COP30), in Brazil. The declaration will turn summit priorities into concrete commitments, including expanding renewable energy, advancing green industrialization, sharing technology, building local capacity and enhancing regional cooperation on climate action. It will also reinforce long-standing calls for reforms to global financial systems that shift from debt-heavy models toward grants, concessional funding and partnerships aligned with Africa’s development needs.

4 Key Issues to Watch

With COP30 and the G20 summit on the horizon, ASC2 gives African leaders a pivotal opportunity to unite around a clear plan and push for fairer, more accountable global climate action. Here are four key themes to watch at this year’s summit.

1) Climate Finance: From Aid to Investment

Africa’s climate finance landscape is shifting, but not fast enough. In 2024, climate finance flows grew by 48%, with continent-led funds mobilizing more than $3.5 billion directly into African-led projects and fostering equitable global partnerships.

Still, the gap is vast. African countries need about $3 trillion by 2030 to deliver on their recently updated Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), and the UN estimates $1.3 trillion annually is needed for the continent to meet the Sustainable Development Goals. Despite pledges to double adaptation funding, Africa receives only 20% of global climate adaptation finance, well below the $2.8 trillion required between now and 2030 for the continent to prepare effectively for climate change impacts.

Droughts, floods, wildfires and heat waves are already devastating lives, and the intensity and frequency of these disasters are expected to increase. Lack of adequate finance will exacerbate poverty, food insecurity and reverse development gains — deepening inequality and leaving millions more vulnerable. Without major scale-up in predictable and accessible financing, the world’s most resource-strapped communities will be hit hardest by the worsening impacts of climate change.

Farmers in the field attending crops in rural Kenya.
Farmers in rural Kenya. Africa's farmers are already feeling the impacts of climate change from droughts to flooding to extreme heat. Photo by Andrew Wu/WRI

Aid alone is no longer enough to meet Africa’s climate and development needs. The continent needs a decisive shift: from aid to fair finance. This must involve channeling larger, more predictable flows of finance toward African enterprises and communities, including blended finance, private capital and risk guarantees. Moving from aid to investment means foreign countries become partners in building a resilient economy in Africa. This type of financing helps not only Africa, but the whole planet, because without major emissions cuts from both wealthy and developing nations alike, the world won't meet its decarbonization goals.

At ACS2, African leaders are expected to set clear goals on climate finance, including making private investment in climate projects less risky; advancing new funding methods like blended finance and payments for ecosystem services that directly benefit communities and local institutions; and developing tools to protect African borrowers from losing money due to currency devaluation.

Uganda assumed the co-chairmanship of the Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action during the 2025 World Bank and International Monetary Fund Spring Meetings in Washington, D.C. — a development that raises expectations for strong African finance leadership at the summit and a unified push for a shared climate finance agenda. The summit could help reframe climate finance as an investment in global stability and shared prosperity and growth.

2) Africa-Led Climate Solutions 

Africa is redefining its path by finding innovative ways to finance nature-based solutions and scale practical initiatives that build both resilience and economic opportunity. Across the continent, communities, innovators and policymakers are driving homegrown approaches — restoring degraded landscapes, deploying solar mini-grids to power rural areas and drawing on indigenous knowledge to strengthen adaptation. Small and medium-sized enterprises already provide 80% of jobs and contribute more than half of GDP — proof that local innovation is one of Africa’s greatest assets.

The Great Green Wall, launched by the African Union in 2007, for example, aims to restore 100 million hectares of degraded landscape across 22 countries. To date, the initiative has mobilized more than $14 billion in funding and commitments. In Kenya, the government is working toward 100% renewable electricity generation and universal energy access by 2030, focusing on solar-powered mini-grids to reach remote communities. 

More Local Climate Solutions

  • Rwanda’s Ireme Invest, launched in 2022, is an investment facility that works with the country’s private sector to support green businesses and strengthen the country’s climate response.
  • Mission 300, led by the World Bank, African Development Bank and other partners, aims to provide electricity access to 300 million people in sub-Saharan Africa by 2030, with the goal of ending energy poverty and driving economic growth.
  • In 2025, the African Union adopted the Kampala Declaration, a new agricultural development strategy that aims to increase Africa’s agri-food output by 45% by 2035, transforming food systems as part of a broader food security plan.
  • The Africa Urban Resilience Programme, launched during the first Africa Urban Forum in September 2024, is mobilizing innovative climate financing to help Africa build resilient cities against climate shocks.
  • Ethiopia’s Green Legacy and Landscape Restoration Special Fund allocates 0.5% to 1% of its annual federal budget to the long-term efforts to restore degraded landscapes. It's part of the Green Legacy Initiative to boost food security, climate resilience and job creation, which has reportedly planted 40 billion tree seedlings since 2019, helping reverse deforestation rates while creating jobs for women and youth
Two people plant a tree seedling in the Lake Abaya in Ethiopia's Great Fift Valley.
Tree planting in Ethiopia's Great Rift Valley. Ethiopia is banking on restoration efforts like these to restore degraded landscapes. Photo by Aaron Minnick/WRI

ACS2 offers a high-level platform to showcase Africa’s most successful homegrown climate solutions — from pioneering renewable energy projects and large-scale land restoration to innovative adaptation strategies. Leaders are expected to highlight these initiatives as proof of Africa’s creativity and leadership in delivering real climate results, as well as creating investment and partnership opportunities.  

Selected initiatives will be featured in a flagship report showcasing African-led climate innovations and presenting concrete, scalable solutions that can be replicated across the continent and globally.

By elevating these solutions, ACS2 aims to reshape global narratives — positioning Africa not only as a continent disproportionately affected by climate change, but also as a hub of innovation, resilience and leadership central to solving the world’s climate crisis. 

3) Stronger Systems for Climate Action and Unlocking Capital at Scale  

To scale up climate action and attract more and better financing, Africa needs new ways to mobilize resources and improve coordination. Country Platforms are emerging as a key tool to achieve this, aligning funding and policies with each country's climate and development priorities. Country Platforms are country-led and bring together development partners around a shared vision, encouraging better coordination and stronger climate and development results.

More than a dozen countries worldwide have launched Country Platforms, and a growing number of African nations are now exploring, designing, updating or putting their own in place. More than just financial tools, Country Platforms represent a new model of African-led partnership — allowing governments to lead their climate and development plans, bring together differente finance partners around national priorities and turn those priorities into projects ready for investment.

The strength of Country Platforms lies in their country-led approach, which brings together governments, the finance sector and other partners to ensure investments match national priorities. When backed by policy reforms, these platforms can help shift climate finance flows from fragmented, donor-driven projects to coordinated, long-term strategies that promote adaptation, build stronger institutions and advance sustainable development.

ACS2 will highlight regional institutions and Country Platforms as critical tools to coordinate climate finance and drive action. The summit will focus on strengthening these institutions to ensure climate efforts have real impact. Civil society is expected to push for greater transparency, accountability and good governance — including building more effective climate finance systems and fundraising; adopting enabling policies; strengthening institutional capacity in areas like trade, innovation, adaptation and resilience; and ensuring youth and marginalized populations are involved in decision-making. 

4) Continental Unity in Climate Governance 

With major global events coming up this year — including COP30, the G20 summit and the UN General Assembly — Africa must stand together to advocate for a reformed global financial system, better access resource allocation and the recognition that climate change is a matter of justice. This aligns with the African Union’s 2025 theme: “Justice for Africans and People of African Descent Through Reparations.”

ACS2 will encourage African nations to work more closely together, strengthen leadership across borders and connect national efforts within a shared continental vision. By aligning with long-term plans such as Agenda 2063, “The Africa We Want”, the summit aims to support inclusive climate leadership and ensure Africa’s priorities on finance, adaptation and renewable energy are clearly represented and advanced.

The summit will also encourage greater involvement from African communities, especially youth and Indigenous groups, in shaping a climate-resilient future that reflects local needs and experiences. By working together, governments, civil society, youth and the private sector can make sure that Africa’s voice is heard in global climate conversations.  

Setting the Stage for Africa’s Future 

In the face of growing climate impacts, the stakes are high for Africa — but so are the opportunities. The continent is home to the world’s youngest population, vast renewable resources and holds 30% to 40% of the world’s minerals essential to the green energy transition. With the right partnerships and investment, Africa can accelerate progress toward its climate and development goals.  

ACS2 marks a major turning point for Africa, shifting from making promises to taking action. It's a key moment to secure fair, accessible financing, drive green industrial development that adds value to Africa’s resources and reshape the global narrative — recognizing Africa is not just as a victim of climate change, but a leader in solutions. The real test of the summit's success will be whether there's follow-through in accountability, inclusion and real results that improve lives across African communities.

Africa is entering a new chapter, one built on partnerships and agency. Governments, civil society and entrepreneurs are already leading local solutions, while African-led funds are directing finance into projects that reflect the continent's own priorities. Through ASC2, African leaders are amplifying these efforts, attracting investments and urging the world to form fair partnerships that support both Africa and the planet. This summit is a key step toward a more a prosperous future for Africa.