At a landmark hybrid summit linking State House in Nairobi with capitals across Africa, Ghana’s Minister of State for Climate Change and Sustainability, Seidu Issifu, delivered a powerful address on behalf of President John Dramani Mahama, calling for urgent action to close Africa’s climate-adaptation financing gap and accelerate resilient development across the continent.
The intervention took place during the special African leaders’ meeting on climate adaptation, chaired by Kenyan President William Ruto in his capacity as Chair of the Committee of African Heads of State and Government on Climate Change (CAHOSCC).
While proceedings were anchored in Nairobi, the majority of African leaders joined the dialogue virtually, reflecting both the scale of continental participation and the urgency of coordinating responses across borders.
The gathering came on the heels of COP30 in Belém, Brazil, and aimed to galvanize political momentum behind the next phase of the Africa Adaptation Acceleration Program, AAAP 2.0, designed to mobilize major investments in resilience, food security, and climate-smart infrastructure.
From COP30 to continental resolve
In his remarks, Hon. Issifu painted a stark picture of the pressures facing African economies as droughts, floods, and heatwaves intensify. “Africa faces unprecedented climate impacts, droughts, floods, and rising temperatures which threaten lives, livelihoods, and our developmental gains,” he said, underscoring Ghana’s conviction that adaptation is not optional, but a development imperative.
His call echoed the summit’s wider purpose: to secure new financing commitments and strategic partnerships at a time when adaptation funding is falling, debt burdens are rising, and traditional aid flows face growing constraints.
A frank assessment of global finance gaps
Addressing the global negotiations that followed COP30, the Minister highlighted growing concerns around the revised Global Goal on Adaptation and the weakness of loss-and-damage provisions in the final texts.
Finance discussions, he noted, remain fragmented and inadequate to match the scale of Africa’s needs.
“The overall finance package is still viewed as insufficient to close the widening gap between needs and delivery,” he told fellow leaders. His remarks aligned with the Nairobi meeting’s focus on forging new resilient-financing frameworks, including AAAP 2.0 and partnerships with multilateral development banks and the IMF’s Resilience and Sustainability Facility.
Ghana’s Domestic Agenda: Green growth at scale
Beyond diplomacy, Hon. Issifu spotlighted Ghana’s national reforms, embedding climate resilience into development plans, expanding renewable energy, and promoting sustainable infrastructure under the country’s emerging 24-hour economy agenda.
He framed green industrialisation not as a constraint, but as a pathway to jobs, competitiveness, and energy security. Still, he was candid about the challenges confronting African countries: high technology costs, limited access to finance, and uneven global trade rules. Ghana, he said, “cannot do it alone.” What Africa requires, he argued, is fair financing, technology transfer, and genuine partnerships.
Not debt, not aid —partnership
One of the most resonant moments of the address came when the Minister reminded participants that Africa contributes less than four percent of global emissions while bearing the brunt of climate disruption. “This injustice must end,” he declared. “We need fair, accessible climate finance, not debt, not aid, but partnership.”
Calling AAAP 2.0 a historic opportunity, Issifu urged leaders and partners to mobilize $100 billion annually for African adaptation and mitigation, transforming climate action into a catalyst for industrialisation and economic transformation.
A continental call to unity
With heads of multilateral institutions, development banks, philanthropies, and partner governments dialling in alongside African presidents and prime ministers, the hybrid summit underscored the scale of coordination now required to safeguard Africa’s future.
Issifu pledged Ghana’s full commitment to regional and global climate efforts, pressing for the adoption of a bold communiqué and concrete partnership offers. He closed with an appeal to Africa’s youth, calling on them to innovate, organise, and lead climate action in their communities. “The time for action,” he said, “is as urgent as yesterday.”
Positioning Ghana at the heart of Africa’s resilience push
By coupling domestic green-growth reforms with pointed critiques of global finance systems, Ghana’s intervention positioned the country as a vocal champion for a new adaptation compact, one anchored in African leadership, credible investment, and real partnership.
As leaders prepare to translate the outcomes of the hybrid Nairobi summit into concrete programmes under AAAP 2.0, Ghana’s message rang clear: Africa’s resilience is non-negotiable, and the moment to finance it is now.
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