Facing the heat: Africa pushed from talk to climate action

Participants of the Second Africa Climate Summit (ACS2) being held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from September 8 to 10, 2025 are examining ways to strengthen adaptation mechanisms in the face of escalating climate shocks on the African continent.

Co-convened by the Government of Ethiopia and the African Union, the three-day assembly aims to build on the momentum of the inaugural summit and shift the continent’s agenda from pledges to tangible outcomes.

The continent’s climate policymakers and other stakeholders attending the summit will want to discuss ways for the country’s continents to prioritise climate change adaptation through strengthening early warning systems, resilient agrifood systems and infrastructural adaptation.

The summit’s theme, Accelerating Global Climate Solutions: Financing for Africa’s Resilient and Green Development, underscores the summit’s dual purpose: to bolster Africa’s resilience through adaptation while harnessing its vast renewable potential for mitigation.

Ethiopian officials have emphasised that ACS2 must be more than a talk shop, it must deliver “practical solutions for our people.”

Africa bares the brunt

Africa emits under four percent of global greenhouse gases yet faces disproportionate impacts in the form of soaring temperatures, recurring droughts and devastating floods, all of which threaten food security, economies and public health, among others.

According to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), in 2024, Africa faced severe climate events including devastating floods in East Africa.

This displaced over 1.2 million people and caused widespread destruction and a prolonged, severe drought in Southern Africa that led to food insecurity for millions and critically low hydropower levels.

The continent recorded its hottest year on record, exacerbating these impacts.

Economically, Africa faces annual losses of up to five percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) due to climate disasters, with countries spending significant portions of their budgets on responses and adaptation efforts, such as in Nigeria and Kenya where damages reached billions of dollars.

Consequently, adaptation is not optional but it’s essential in Africa’s efforts to withstand the impacts of global warming.

Mitigation remains vital too. Africa’s clean energy and green growth opportunities, from solar power to nature-based solutions, are being pursued, but many require catalytic financing to scale.

ACS2 presents an opportunity

ACS2 builds on the foundations laid at the First Africa Climate Summit, held in Nairobi, Kenya, in September 2023.

The inaugural gathering produced the Nairobi Declaration, a call to reform global finance, unlock investment in renewables and redefine climate-development trajectories for the continent.

That summit brought in over US $20 billion (R351 billion) in pledges, including green energy investments, adaptation funds and debt-swap offers.

It appears none of the pledges have translated into cash, prompting analysts to remark that translating pledges into projects remained the continent’s truest test.

In this regard, develpments should be expected from ACS2, namely:

• Financial innovation and reform: Delegates expect discussions on unlocking public and private climate finance through green bonds, global funds and concessional loans, plus possible debt restructuring to free national resources for climate resilience.

• The Addis Ababa Declaration: This summit will culminate in a new continent-wide statement outlining climate action priorities for COP30 and beyond, signalling whether African leaders can cohere around a unified adaptation- and-mitigation agenda. COP30 will be held in Brazil on 10-21 November this year.

• Inclusivity and community-led solutions: Civil society, youth and indigenous voices will press for locally driven, adaptation-equity approaches to be embedded in outcomes—not just token statements.

African governments continue to grapple with debt burdens far higher than richer nations’, limiting their fiscal space to invest in climate resilience. Without systemic reform, adaptation and mitigation remain elusive.

Thus, ACS2 represents a crucial inflection point: either Africa begins to define its own climate strategy and financing architecture, or it remains dependent on unreliable external mechanisms.

Africa should unite in facing the Global North and present its climate change priorities rather than follow the dictates of developed countries, which have always emphasised their own priorities anchored in mitigation.

If Nairobi was Africa’s opening statement on climate leadership, Addis Ababa must be its pragmatic follow-through.

The outcomes of ACS2 — whether strengthened adaptation tools, an effective financing roadmap, or concrete green projects — will determine whether Africa seizes climate transition as an opportunity or remains trapped by vulnerability.

The clock is ticking.

• Dr Enock Sithole is the executive director of the Institute for Climate Change Communication.