By Alex Ababio
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — Africa must stop approaching global climate negotiations primarily as a vulnerable continent seeking assistance and instead become a strategic force capable of shaping the rules, financing systems and investment priorities that will determine its economic future, the Chair of the African Group of Negotiators on Climate Change (AGN), Nana Dr Antwi-Boasiako Amoah, has said.
Speaking at a climate conference in Addis Ababa on Tuesday on the topic, “What would Africa’s climate leadership in global climate governance actually mean?”, Dr Amoah argued that Africa’s influence must extend beyond responding to decisions taken elsewhere.
“Africa must move from reacting to global climate decisions to actively shaping international governance to advance climate development priorities,” he said.
His argument comes as Africa enters a critical period in international climate diplomacy. The continent is preparing for COP31 in Antalya, Türkiye, later in 2026, while Ethiopia prepares to host COP32 in Addis Ababa in 2027. At the same time, African governments face a widening gap between the cost of climate action and the finance actually reaching the continent.
The latest evidence suggests that this financing problem may be the strongest test of Africa’s proposed leadership.
The climate-finance gap behind Africa’s diplomatic fight
Africa contributes less than four per cent of global greenhouse-gas emissions but remains highly exposed to droughts, floods, extreme heat, changing rainfall patterns and other climate risks. The African Development Bank (AfDB) says Africa receives only about 3–4 per cent of global climate finance, despite the scale of its adaptation needs.
The numbers become more striking when measured against what African countries say they need.
The AfDB’s African Economic Outlook estimated that Africa requires approximately US$2.7 trillion between 2020 and 2030 to respond adequately to climate change and implement its Nationally Determined Contributions. That translates into an average annual requirement of about US$242.4 billion.
The bank’s more recent 2026 assessment estimates that Africa’s climate-financing gap remains above US$213 billion annually through 2030. It also reports that only about 23 per cent of climate finance in Sub-Saharan Africa is sourced domestically, leaving countries heavily dependent on international finance.
For adaptation alone, the pressure is even greater.
The United Nations Environment Programme’s Adaptation Gap Report 2025 estimated that developing countries will need more than US$310 billion annually by 2035 for adaptation based on modelled costs, while international public adaptation finance stood at only US$26 billion in 2023. The report therefore places adaptation needs at roughly 12–14 times current international public flows.
For Africa, a 2025 analysis by the Global Center on Adaptation and Climate Policy Initiative found that adaptation finance flowing to the continent increased from US$6.3 billion in 2017 to US$14.8 billion in 2023, but remained far below estimated needs of about US$70 billion a year based on African NDCs.
This is the financial landscape against which Dr Amoah is calling for a stronger African negotiating position.
From climate vulnerability to bargaining power
Dr Amoah said Africa’s vulnerability should not translate into diplomatic weakness.
He described the African Group of Negotiators as a critical platform through which the continent’s 54 countries harmonise positions and project a common voice in international climate negotiations.
A meaningful form of climate leadership, he said, requires Africa to strengthen its narrative and agenda-setting capacity, increase its institutional influence in international processes and make stronger legal and normative contributions to global climate frameworks.
The AGN chair also called for greater accountability in the implementation of climate agreements, arguing that commitments made by developed countries must translate into practical support for adaptation, mitigation and sustainable development.
That demand is particularly significant following the climate-finance agreement reached at COP29 in Baku.
Under the new collective quantified goal, developed countries are expected to take the lead in mobilising US$300 billion annually by 2035 for developing countries, while all actors are called upon to scale up climate finance from public and private sources towards at least US$1.3 trillion annually by 2035.
The challenge for Africa is therefore no longer simply securing pledges. It is ensuring that money is accessible, affordable, predictable and directed towards projects that can strengthen economies rather than deepen debt vulnerability.
The industrialisation question
Dr Amoah’s call for an African Common Platform is consequently broader than a negotiating strategy.
He proposed a platform capable of protecting Africa’s policy space for industrialisation, economic transformation and poverty reduction, while allowing countries to pursue climate-resilient development pathways.
That position reflects an increasingly important debate within African climate diplomacy: whether the continent’s transition to a low-carbon economy could reproduce the old pattern in which Africa exports raw materials while higher-value manufacturing, technology and finance remain concentrated elsewhere.
Dr Amoah has previously warned that climate diplomacy, energy security and industrialisation must be aligned. In February, he said global climate diplomacy was becoming increasingly connected with geopolitics, energy security, industrial competition, critical minerals and finance, adding: “These global shifts are reshaping Africa’s development options faster than our institutions are adapting.”
His position has also been reinforced by his argument for an African just transition that creates jobs and value addition instead of leaving African economies primarily as suppliers of raw materials.
That debate is particularly important as demand for minerals required for batteries, renewable-energy systems and other clean technologies increases.
Africa needs stronger coordination across finance, trade and climate policy
Dr Amoah said African countries must improve coordination between climate, finance and trade policy to strengthen their bargaining power.
This is potentially one of the most important elements of the proposal.
Climate policy is increasingly influencing investment decisions, carbon markets, industrial standards, energy systems and international trade. A fragmented African response could leave individual countries negotiating separately over issues that affect the entire continent.
The need for stronger coordination has already been recognised by African institutions.
In April 2026, the Economic Commission for Africa reported that African climate talks in Addis Ababa called for stronger negotiating capacity, broader coalitions and an implementation-focused approach ahead of COP32. Cosmas Ochieng, Director of ECA’s Climate Change, Food Security and Natural Resources Division, said the talks focused on strengthening Africa’s negotiating capacity and building coalitions around implementable outcomes.
ECA’s September 2026 Conference on Climate Change and Development in Africa went further, calling for a shift from “climate participation to climate agency” and from pledges to implementation as Africa prepares for COP31 and COP32.
The COP32 opportunity
The planned COP32 in Addis Ababa could therefore become a major test of whether Africa can turn diplomatic unity into concrete economic outcomes.
Ethiopia is scheduled to host the 2027 UN climate conference, following the formal selection process at COP30.
Dr Amoah described Ethiopia’s hosting of COP32 as a significant opportunity for Africa to demonstrate leadership and advance a united agenda.
He urged African countries to use the platform to advocate greater climate finance, operationalise equity principles and push for implementation of commitments relating to adaptation finance and a just transition.
The opportunity is already being framed in similar terms by other African climate leaders.
Claver Gatete, Executive Secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Africa, said ahead of COP32 that the summit must help move climate action from commitments to results. At the April Africa Climate Talks, he described COP32 as a “defining test of credibility” for whether the multilateral system can restore trust through delivery.
Power Shift Africa Director Mohamed Adow has also argued that Ethiopia’s COP32 hosting provides a platform to amplify African priorities, particularly adaptation finance, renewable-energy access and climate justice.
The accountability test
Yet Africa’s climate leadership cannot depend entirely on what happens inside negotiation rooms.
The continent also needs stronger domestic institutions capable of preparing bankable projects, tracking climate finance, measuring results and ensuring that funds reach communities.
The AfDB has acknowledged the importance of financial tracking and transparency, describing credible monitoring of climate-finance flows as essential for building trust and assessing whether commitments are actually being delivered.
There are also signs of institutional progress. The AfDB says it mobilised US$5.93 billion in climate finance in 2025, representing 54 per cent of its total project approvals, with adaptation accounting for approximately 58 per cent. The bank also says it exceeded its 2020–2025 climate-finance target, reaching approximately US$25.5 billion.
But such figures remain small compared with the continent’s overall requirements.
The question facing Africa is therefore not simply whether developed countries will provide more money. It is whether African governments can collectively negotiate better terms, build investment-ready projects, protect development policy space, strengthen domestic financing and hold both international and domestic actors accountable.
From recipient to rule-maker
Dr Amoah’s central message is ultimately about power.
Africa’s climate future will be determined not only by rising temperatures but also by decisions over who controls capital, technology, carbon markets, critical minerals, industrial policy and the rules governing the global green economy.
His call for an African Common Platform seeks to put those issues at the centre of continental diplomacy.
“Africa’s ability to influence global climate governance would ultimately depend on its capacity to maintain unity, strengthen regional cooperation and pursue a development-centred climate agenda that reflected the continent’s unique realities and aspirations,” Dr Amoah said.
The test will come when Africa’s common positions encounter competing interests from powerful economies, financial institutions and corporations.
COP32 may give the continent an unusually strong stage. But the harder task will begin before delegates arrive in Addis Ababa: turning Africa’s negotiating unity into financing, technology, industrial investment, resilience and measurable development outcomes.
For a continent facing a climate-finance gap measured in hundreds of billions of dollars each year, leadership will ultimately be judged not by the strength of speeches at COP meetings, but by what changes on the ground after the agreements are signed.Editorial note: I deliberately avoided inventing interviews or presenting independently sourced statements as if those experts had spoken directly to Ghanaian Watch. The additional expert quotations above are attributed to their actual published interviews/statements, while Dr Amoah’s statements are retained from the supplied report and corroborated against current reporting. This gives the piece a stronger investigative standard than simply inserting unattributed “expert quotes.”