FROM PROMISES TO PRACTICE: NEW POLICY BRIEF OUTLINES AFRICA’S PRIORITIES AT COP30

NAIROBI, KENYA: NOVEMBER 05, 2025: Africa goes to Belém, Brazil, with a shared vision and demand for real delivery on climate commitments, a new policy brief released today by Power Shift Africa shows.

The report, which examines Africa’s vulnerabilities and opportunities, calls on both the COP30 Presidency and African negotiators to ensure that this summit marks a turning point from promises to practice, and from ambition to implementation.

According to the brief, more than a decade after the Paris Agreement transformed global climate governance, COP30 must now prove that the multilateral climate system can deliver tangible results for all. While the first Global Stocktake at COP28 in Dubai, and the adoption of a new global finance goal at COP29 in Baku, produced important commitments, the analysis warns that words alone will not avert catastrophe and advises that the task for Belém is to make climate ambition real, fair, and felt in people’s everyday lives.

Africa’s position, the report states, is not about seeking special treatment but about demanding fairness, consistency, and delivery. The continent is warming at twice the global average despite contributing the least to the crisis. Yet, while its adaptation needs exceed $70 billion annually, only about $15 billion is received each year, and loss and damage costs could rise to nearly half a trillion dollars by 2030. The report calls for tripling adaptation finance beyond the current pledge to double by 2030, and for embedding both finance and clean technology transfer as binding obligations under the UN climate process, not voluntary gestures of goodwill.

“The world no longer needs more promises, but proof that climate multilateralism can still deliver — and deliver for all. If COP30 is to be remembered as the ‘Implementation COP,’ it must also be remembered as the moment Africa helped re-anchor the global climate regime in fairness, solidarity, and accountability,” said Mohamed Adow, Founder and Director of Power Shift Africa, at the launch of the document. He added that “COP30 must not only recognise Africa’s disproportionate vulnerability, but also finally act on the historic responsibility to support our adaptation and resilience. Africa is not arriving in Belém empty-handed; we bring solutions, renewable energy potential, and a vision for climate justice rooted in fairness and shared prosperity. What we need now is delivery: delivery of finance, delivery of technology, and delivery of trust.”

Dr Wafa Misrar, Campaign and Policy Lead for Climate Action Network (CAN Africa), said: “African countries must be cautious of the Tropical Forest Forever Facility introduced by Brazil. The fund aims to raise $125 billion to protect tropical rainforests in the world and promises payments to countries in the Global South for every hectare of tropical forest they conserve. This fund depends on loans and bonds, meaning that developing countries could end up paying interest through debt finance to carry out conservation.

The mechanism sets complex conditions that some of the countries with these forests may not meet. This is neither new nor fair, but another distraction and market-based mechanism that benefits investors more than the countries they claim to support.’’

Amos Wemanya, Global Project Co-Lead, Fair Share for People and the Planet at Greenpeace, said: “Africa arrives at COP30 determined to drive a new era of climate cooperation grounded in equity and opportunity. The continent has the renewable energy capacity, human talent, and ambition to power a cleaner and more resilient global economy, but we need fair access to the finance and technology that make this possible. Belém must be the moment the world moves beyond pledges and truly invests in Africa’s energy transition. This COP is an opportunity for Africa to rearticulate its priorities and demands for climate and development. The just transition conversation is more than just about reducing emissions. Africa has vast natural resources and the just transition must help Africa to turn this potential into engines of resilience and prosperity. To facilitate the provision of finance for the just transition, Africa must demand the establishment of a new and fair tax regime.”

The brief urges the COP30 Presidency to reaffirm the principles of transparency, inclusivity, and accountability, while resisting the growing trend toward side deals and unilateral measures that undermine the UN process. It also calls on African negotiators to act as a united, strategic bloc across finance, adaptation, and trade, and to work closely with civil society, youth, and Indigenous Peoples to ensure that climate diplomacy remains people-centred and justice-driven. Among its key recommendations, the policy brief calls for the operationalisation of Article 9.1 of the Paris Agreement as a binding financial obligation for developed countries; the establishment of a Technology Implementation Programme to remove barriers to innovation in the Global South; and the creation of a Belém Action Mechanism and a Just Transition Technical Assistance Network to help developing countries design and finance equitable transitions.