The second Africa Climate Summit ended in Addis Ababa today, 10th October 2025 delivering two landmark financial commitments to accelerate sustainable development across energy, agriculture, water, transport, and resilience.
The green investments include a $50bn investment through the Africa Climate Innovation Compact (ACIC) and the African Climate Facility (ACF) in catalytic finance for local climate solutions; as well as a $100 billion pledge from African financial institutions and Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) to back the continent’s green industrialisation plans.
From the onset of the summit, the focus has been on Africa emerging as a leader in driving sustainable development and trailblazing green economic growth. These commitments signal the growing mobilization of domestic financial resources for renewable energy and the clean transition.
Moreover, in the final Addis Ababa Declaration, leaders set their priorities for COP30 in Brazil, expecting it to provide clarity on delivering quality climate finance for developing countries, facing worsening debt crises due to climate impacts, despite being the least contributors to GHG emissions.
The Leaders called for scaled up, grant-based and concessional finance for Africa’s adaptation and loss damage needs. Africa requires an estimated $579 billion in finance through 2030 for adaptation alone.
Wamkele Mene, Secretary General, African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat said applauded the feat saying, “By mobilising African capital first, we change the dynamic. We show the world we are not applicants, but investment partners inviting global capital to join an initiative that is already underway, structured and de-risked by Africa itself.”
He further added that the continent is no longer a recipient of external blueprints. “We are architects of our own green future, demonstrating African leadership and ownership,” he said.
Speaking on the Addis Ababa Declaration, Richard Muyungi, Chair of the African Group of Negotiators on Climate Change, said it is a beacon for Africa’s climate diplomacy, and makes clear that Africa’s vast resources, from critical minerals to abundant renewable energy, can help power global solutions, but only if developed in a way that benefits our people and our continent.
Rachel Kyte, UK Special Representative for Climate, said this is green growth moment for Africa and the global community have to meet it.
“I go away from this understanding exactly the importance that we have to put on speeding up debt restructuring, on investing in the green opportunity, and supporting governments to get the investment climate right, and then encouraging UK-based and other businesses internationally to invest in Africa, understanding the real risk, not the perceived risk of investment,” he added.
However, Seble Samuel, Head of Africa Campaigns & Advocacy, Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative cautioned that as African nations demonstrate critical renewable energy ambition, these plans risk being undermined by inadequate financing, an unjust global financial architecture and so-called transitional fuels that would only serve to delay a real transition.
To realize the continental ambition, he said the conditions must be favourable.
“As noted in the declaration, international cooperation is essential to unlock a global energy transition rooted in justice,” he concluded.
The summit closed with a clear message: Africa has placed its green bets on the table. Now, the world must respond with just, adequate, and timely climate finance to make this vision a reality.
