COP31 comes at a critical moment for Africa and the international climate regime. Ten years after the Paris Agreement, the priority should now shift decisively from negotiating commitments to implementing them. For Africa, the test of COP31 will not be the number of new initiatives or declarations announced in Antalya, but whether existing commitments translate into tangible improvements in resilience, energy access, livelihoods and prosperity, backed by the finance, technology and capacity-building needed to deliver them.
Africa approaches COP31 while facing intensifying climate impacts alongside profound development challenges. Droughts, floods, heatwaves and other extremes are already undermining food and water security, infrastructure, livelihoods and development gains. At the same time, many African countries face high debt burdens, constrained fiscal space, high borrowing costs, inadequate energy access, and structural inequalities in global finance, trade and technology.
Africa should therefore enter COP31 not simply as a vulnerable continent seeking support, but as a rights-holder, climate leader and solution provider. The continent has enormous renewable energy resources, critical minerals, adaptation knowledge, and the potential to build new green industries. Realising that potential requires a climate regime that addresses the structural barriers constraining African development and enables countries to pursue nationally determined, equitable and prosperous development pathways
Africa’s central priorities for COP31 are:
Adaptation and resilience: Deliver the commitment to at least triple adaptation finance by 2035; operationalise the Belém Adaptation Indicators transparently and with strong African representation; back National Adaptation Plans with predictable, additional and predominantly grant-based finance; keep agriculture and food security centered on adaptation, development and the needs of smallholders and frontline communities; and turn the loss and damage architecture into rapid, direct support for affected countries and communities.
Climate finance: Treat developed countries’ obligations under Article 9 of the Paris Agreement as central to COP31, with public finance forming the foundation of support, particularly for adaptation and loss and damage. Finance must be accessible, predictable and high quality, with grants and highly concessional resources prioritised over debt. COP31 should strengthen the Adaptation Fund, advance replenishment of the major climate funds, and improve accountability for delivery of the New Collective Quantified Goal.
Just transition, energy and industrialisation: Ensure that Africa’s transition advances energy access, industrialisation, decent work, poverty reduction and resilience. The Just Transition Mechanism should move towards implementation, with representative governance, clear functions and pathways to finance, technology and capacity-building. Electrification should expand affordable and reliable clean electricity and productive energy use, while green industrialisation should enable African countries to manufacture technologies, add value to transition minerals, and create jobs.
Mitigation and the fossil-fuel transition: Continue the Mitigation Work Programme while preserving its facilitative, non-prescriptive, and non-punitive character. Implementation should support renewable energy, grids, storage, clean cooking, and productive electrification. The transition away from fossil fuels must be just, orderly and equitable, addressing employment, fiscal dependence, energy access and economic diversification rather than focusing on fossil fuel supply in isolation.
Technology and transparency: Technology transfer must extend beyond importing finished products to co-development, knowledge transfer, licensing, local adaptation and manufacturing capability. Developing countries also need predictable support to meet Enhanced Transparency Framework requirements.
Global Stocktake: As the second Global Stocktake begins, adaptation and means of implementation should receive comparable attention to mitigation, with equity and CBDR-RC applied throughout and differences in reporting capacity recognised.
Trade and participation: Climate-related trade measures must not shift the costs of climate action onto developing economies or restrict the policy space needed for African industrialisation. Trade should instead enable Africa’s participation in emerging low-carbon value chains. Across all workstreams, African youth, women, workers, farmers, Indigenous Peoples, local communities and other frontline groups should be able to shape and implement climate action, not merely be represented in consultation spaces.
Ultimately, COP31 should be judged by implementation. Africa does not need another layer of ambitions, declarations and initiatives without the means to deliver them. A successful COP31 will begin closing the gap between commitments and implementation and enable African countries to build resilience, expand clean energy access, industrialise and pursue climate-compatible development on fair and equitable terms.