As the world prepares for COP30 in Belem, Brazil (10-21 November 2025). This years theme is focusing on implementing climate action with a strong emphasis on forests, justice, and finance. Key themes include reducing emissions, adapting to climate change, and preserving forests and biodiversity. The conference will also address climate finance for developing countries, renewable energy, and climate justice.
In this preparations, African nations find themselves at a stark crossroads. The continent has contributed less than 4% of historic and current global emissions, yet it bears the brunt of climate shocks, from droughts in the Horn of Africa, cyclones in Mozambique, to devastating floods in East, West and Central Africa. With worsening climate events threatening livelihoods, infrastructure, and economic stability, the time has come to shift focus from broad commitments to practical governance. The real challenge for Africa is not whether climate policies exist, but whether they are implemented, financed, and locally owned.
As of 2025, almost every African country has adopted at least one national climate policy instrument, such as a Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), and dozens have developed National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) to address climate vulnerabilities. However, fewer than ten African nations have enacted comprehensive stand-alone national climate laws, underscoring a significant implementation gap between policy intent and legally binding climate governance across the continent. The countries with stand-alone climate change legislation include: Kenya (2016),Benin (2018),Mauritius (2020), Uganda (2021), Nigeria (2021), Gabon (2021), South Africa (2024) and Zambia (2024)
Kenya for instance, its Climate Change Act of 2016 sets a legal framework that mandates national and county governments to integrate climate considerations into planning, budgeting, and sector policies. Similar progress can be seen in countries such as South Africa and Nigeria, where national climate policies are aligned with global climate commitments under the Paris Agreement. These foundations are significant because they enable the integration of climate action into government machinery but as Africa’s own experiences show, policies alone are not enough to protect communities from climate risks.
The biggest hurdle for climate implementation in Africa remains the finance gap, compounded by governance and capacity challenges. Climate finance flows into Africa remain well below what is needed. In 2020, only $29.5 billion in climate finance was committed to the continent far shy of the estimated $277 billion required annually by 2030. Adaptation finance, which is especially crucial for climate-vulnerable countries in Africa, accounted for just 39% of that amount. Meanwhile, the continent continues to face severe losses: Kenya, for instance, experienced drought losses of over $650 million in 2023, followed by floods in 2024 that cost an estimated $1.4 billion. Across Africa, similar losses to agriculture, infrastructure, wildlife, and health expose the urgent need for scaled-up and better-aligned climate finance.
Across Africa, the challenge of advancing climate action extends beyond financial limitations to encompass complex governance and structural issues. While many countries have established robust climate strategies, implementation is often hindered by fragmented institutional roles, limited local capacity, and insufficient mechanisms for coordination and accountability. These internal challenges are further compounded by external financial systems that are not always aligned with Africa’s needs and priorities.
As highlighted by Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary for Environment, Climate Change and Forestry, Dr, Deborah Mlongo Barasa, during the African Climate Investment Summit in Nairobi, access to climate finance can be “slow, complex, and sometimes counterproductive,” often contributing to debt burdens rather than long-term resilience. Her remarks underscore a pressing need for reforms both within African governance frameworks and the global climate finance architecture to ensure that support is not only available but also accessible, equitable, and responsive to Africa’s development pathways.
To move from ambition to action, the continent must strengthen its institutional capacities, while global partners must engage in meaningful reforms that enhance trust, transparency, and mutual benefit. A collaborative approach remains essential for ensuring that Africa is not just included in global climate efforts, but empowered within them.
Barasa underscored a stark imbalance in the global climate regime: African nations are encouraged to pursue deep emissions cuts, yet are denied the financial means to build the clean and resilient economies required to achieve them. Kenya, for example, needs an estimated $62 billion by 2030 to meet its emissions reduction targets — a burden not shared by those who historically fueled their development through high emissions. She noted that climate finance remains “inefficient, inequitably distributed, and often tied to debt,” describing it as the single greatest barrier to Africa’s climate adaptation and long-term resilience.
Africa’s Climate Finance Demands Ahead of COP30
In COP30, Africa is preparing to articulate its strongest mandate yet on climate finance—one rooted in justice, equity, and urgent need. With the continent facing escalating climate disasters despite contributing less than 4% of global emissions, African leaders are calling for a transformative shift in the global climate finance system.
Africa is demanding a new global climate finance goal of at least $300 billion annually, overwhelmingly in the form of grants, not loans. This funding, they insist, must be accessible, predictable, and tailored to the continent’s unique vulnerabilities. Currently, there is a staggering $160 billion annual adaptation finance gap, and Africa will push for parity between adaptation and mitigation funding, including a dedicated stream for achieving the Global Goal on Adaptation, vital for sectors like agriculture, water, and infrastructure.
The continent is also set advocate for substantial resources for loss and damage, to support communities facing irreversible climate impacts such as droughts, floods, and crop failures. For Africa, this funding should be understood not as charity, nor as debt, but as compensation for climate harm inflicted by historic emitters.Alongside funding, Africa is calling for deep reforms to the global financial system. This includes reshaping governance structures in institutions like multilateral development banks to give African nations more equitable access and voice. The push will also include lowering the cost of capital through mechanisms such as guarantees and blended finance, and increasing direct investment in African financial institutions.
“Africa’s negotiators should go beyond calls for more funding they should demand funding that matches Africa’s governance and development realties at cop30” said the Executive Director of the Climate Governance Movement and Research (CGMR) during the Climate Action Summit at the Kenya School of Government in Nairobi last week.
Ultimately, Africa’s stance at COP30 is clear: climate finance must move from promises on paper to real pathways that empower developing nations to build resilience, reduce emissions, and recover from climate harm. As African negotiators have emphasized, this is not a plea—it is a demand for justice.
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