Addis Ababa, 4 September 2025 — Africa is ready to supercharge climate action, but global leaders must ensure the continent has the resources and support to do so. This was the central message of a powerful joint statement issued on Thursday by the Government of Ethiopia and the United Nations Climate Change Secretariat, as anticipation builds for the Africa Climate Summit starting Monday in Addis Ababa.
The joint call — signed by Ethiopia’s Minister of Planning and Development, H.E. Dr. Fitsum Assefa, and UN Climate Change Executive Secretary, Simon Stiell — urged nations to seize the upcoming COP30 climate conference in Brazil this November as a turning point. The leaders stressed that the world cannot achieve its global decarbonization goals unless Africa is fully enabled to take part.
“This Climate Week has shown that no continent holds greater potential than Africa for climate actions that transform lives and economies for the better,” the statement declared. With the world’s youngest population, vast natural resources, unparalleled renewable energy potential, and extraordinary human ingenuity, Africa is described as a “colossal coiled spring of climate action possibility.”
While African innovators are already putting forward pioneering solutions — from renewable energy to climate-resilient farming — the leaders noted that only a fraction of the continent’s potential has been realized. Globally, clean energy investments reached a record $2 trillion in 2024, but only a small portion flowed into Africa. The joint statement underscored the need for COP30 to go beyond pledges and secure “ambitious outcomes which convert agreements into results on the ground, and scalable solutions which drive a new era of implementation.”
During the Climate Week, Ethiopia also formally announced its bid to host COP32 in 2027, positioning itself as a leader in global climate diplomacy. “We have the capacity, the facilities, the location, and the connectivity to host the much-anticipated climate summit,” said Ethiopian President H.E. Taye Atske-Selassie. The announcement caps a highly productive Climate Week in Addis Ababa, attended by delegates from 119 countries, alongside hundreds of representatives from NGOs, investors, and international organizations.
Unlike previous gatherings, this year’s Climate Week focused heavily on implementation. Over 40 initiatives were showcased in “implementation labs” and workshops designed to connect climate pledges with real-world action. From community mini-grids in rural Africa to recycling innovations in Nairobi’s Kibera settlement, and from Morocco’s green bond market to digital platforms tracking progress across the continent, the examples demonstrated that climate action can be “profitable, scalable, and irreversible,” according to UN Climate Change Deputy Executive Secretary Noura Hamladji. Hamladji emphasized that the week’s discussions aimed to link the intergovernmental process with the realities of daily life. “By working together here in Addis, we’ve helped translate pledges into actions,” she said.
The Climate Week also advanced negotiations on key issues that will feature prominently at COP30 in Brazil, including adaptation, climate finance, and just transition pathways. Solutions-focused workshops brought negotiators into direct dialogue with practitioners, bridging the gap between global commitments and practical implementation. Mukhtar Babayev, President of COP29 in Azerbaijan, highlighted the importance of this Africa-focused dialogue: “Each region has its own challenges and solutions. This high-level ministerial event will serve as an important space for in-depth engagement on Africa’s core challenges, with a focus on potential solutions through maximizing opportunities for effective action.”
In hosting the Climate Week, Ethiopia reaffirmed its central role in Africa’s climate and diplomatic landscape. As a founding member of the United Nations and home to the African Union and the UN Economic Commission for Africa, Addis Ababa was described by Hamladji as the “ideal setting” for the week’s critical work. Minister Fitsum Assefa framed the summit as a bridge between negotiation and implementation. “This Climate Week is not just an event. It is where ambition meets action, where commitments are translated into real solutions that reach communities, restore ecosystems, and advance sustainable development,” she said.
Looking ahead to COP30, the joint UN–Ethiopia statement called on all nations to commit to ambitious, concrete outcomes that empower Africa to fully participate in the global climate transition. “Because when all nations are empowered to take bold climate actions, this strengthens the entire global economy and lifts up all the world’s 8 billion people,” the statement concluded.
