Addis Ababa Declaration successfully adopted at African Climate Summit 2

The conclusion of the second African Climate Summit (ACS2) saw the African heads of state, policymakers, scientists, civil society leaders and international partners officially adopting the African Leaders Addis Ababa Declaration on Climate Change and Call To Action on September 10, 2025. It marked a milestone defining Africa’s position in the global climate debate.

African leaders closing ACS2 in Addis Ababa echoed the continent’s strong position and called for international justice in climate financing, equity and homegrown green development solutions.

While delivering a closing remark at the summit, Ethiopian President Taye Atske Selassie said that Africa’s climate action must begin with massive investment in renewable energy and a call for climate justice.

Indicating that over 600 million Africans still live without access to electricity, the president urged all African nations to be committed to forging a prosperous, resilient, and green continent.

President Taye emphasised the inequity in global climate funding, stressing that the continent possesses the determination, resources and solidarity to achieve its goals.

“Africa’s future is in Africa’s hands, and we are building it now and it will be a global centre for climate solutions,” said Selassie, officially closing the summit. The commitments enshrined in the Addis Ababa Declaration are unconditional, he added.

The Addis Ababa Declaration should not be a document to put in the archives but a plan for immediate and measurable action, monitored through an African Union dashboard to ensure transparency and accountability, he emphasised. 

According to the leaders, the declaration consists of three main elements: Speeding up the development of renewable energy, creating a coalition of Africa's critical mineral producers to secure fair value in global supply chains, and safeguarding natural heritage through reforestation and restoration collaborations.

African Union Commission Chairperson Mahmoud Ali Youssouf said that Africa has sent a clear and united message ahead of the 30th Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. “Africa’s climate finance demands are not charity appeals. They are calls for equity, for justice, and for shared global responsibility.” 

The Chairperson underlined that the Summit has moved Africa’s climate agenda from crisis to opportunity, from aid to investment and from external prescription to African-led innovation.

Kate Hampton, chief executive of the UK-based The Children's Investment Fund Foundation, told Down To Earth during the summit that Africa and the rest of the world needs much higher political commitment to climate change across the world. “I think with the challenges the world is facing on trade, security, climate change has fallen off the agenda a little bit at the highest political level. I think Africa Climate Summit is a real opportunity to elevate climate change back up the political agenda. And I think that's true not just for climate change in general, but also for a lot of the opportunities.” 

According to Kate, what's very unique about this summit is it's an Africa-led summit on climate change. “We are here mainly to listen to the African agenda that's emerging on opportunity in the green economy. We work with multiple partners and governments across Africa.”

Summit participants stressed that climate action on the continent must be backed by predictable, fair and accessible finance, not by loans that increase debt burdens.

Climate justice has been placed at the center of the Declaration making the case that those who pollute the least but suffer the most must have both the resources and the partnerships needed to adapt, recover, and thrive.

The Addis Ababa Declaration of ACS2 builds on the foundation laid by the Nairobi Declaration adopted at the inaugural Africa Climate Summit in 2023, yet the two documents reveal an important evolution in Africa’s climate diplomacy. 

The declaration is all about the shift of narratives where adaptation, resilience and nature-based solutions at the centre, explicitly calling for predictable and fair climate finance that reduces rather than adds to Africa’s debt burden.

The summit also launched the Africa Climate Innovation Compact, an ambitious new platform designed to catalyse investment and technology transfer across the continent. 

The Compact is expected to mobilise billions annually to drive clean energy development, green infrastructure, nature-based solutions and African-led innovation. 

Its unveiling was paired with the release of the Flagship Report on African Climate Initiatives, which documents progress already being made in areas such as renewable energy expansion, forest restoration, and sustainable agriculture.

Together, the Declaration, the Compact, and the Report paint a picture of a continent determined to move from vulnerability to leadership.

At the summit, leaders commend Ethiopia’s “Green Legacy” Initiative, the massive tree-planting campaign that has mobilised millions of citizens and adopted as an evidence of how local action can scale into transformative regional models with a proposal of a continental commitments to the African Union’s Great Green Wall Initiative and the African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative.