Africa Climate Summit Africa Climate Summit – Germany will remain reliable partner for the green transformation and climate action in Africa

Press release 8 September 2025 | At the invitation of the African Union (AU) and the Government of Ethiopia, the second Africa Climate Summit will be opened in Addis Ababa today. Germany will be represented by Dr Bärbel Kofler, Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), who chairs the German delegation, and Jochen Flasbarth, State Secretary responsible for climate action. Two months ahead of COP30 in Brazil, leading representatives of African countries, partner countries of Germany's development cooperation, the private sector and civil society are meeting to develop new solutions to tackle the climate crisis. That crisis is hitting many regions in Africa particularly hard. The Summit will therefore focus on adaptation strategies, financing for the green transformation in Africa, and support for new growth markets.

Kofler said, “Climate change is posing a threat to human lives worldwide. Investing in climate change mitigation and adaptation means investing in a safe future for us all. The African continent is providing impressive evidence of how innovative investment can protect the climate and simultaneously create economic growth and new jobs. A lot of progress has been made since the first Africa Climate Summit two years ago. More and more African countries are opting for renewable energy. Germany is assisting them as a reliable partner, providing support to a socially just transition, for example through climate partnerships. Through these efforts, the German government is contributing its fair share to international climate and environmental finance and sending a strong signal for international climate policy.”

Flasbarth said, “The Africa Climate Summit in Addis Ababa is an important milestone on the road to COP30 in Belém. Two years ago, the first Africa Climate Summit lent important impetus to quicker expansion of renewable energy generation, thus helping to pave the way for the adoption of the historic global energy goals in Abu Dhabi. Now it is vital to realise these goals worldwide and in Africa, reduce the dependency on imported fossil fuels, and seize the social and economic opportunities that this entails. This also means aligning financial flows with the climate goals and channelling all investment exclusively into sustainable technologies. The Addis conference can make an important contribution to these objectives. The German government will continue to stand by its African partners.”

The Summit is also very important for Germany and Europe, as the climate crisis in Africa has a massive impact on international migration, food security and European energy markets. According to OECD and UNDP projections, implementing ambitious climate and development goals could enable some sub-Saharan countries to avoid climate damages amounting to over 15 per cent of GDP by the end of this century. In addition, more than 45 million people in Africa could be lifted out of extreme poverty by 2035.

This year's Africa Climate Summit is taking place in a geopolitical setting that is very different from that of the first summit in 2023, especially in terms of declining international funding and attacks on global climate policy. In view of this, the countries of Africa – at the initiative of the AU – want to jointly define their position on climate change, their solutions, and their adaptation strategies. Key goals of the Summit include fostering African climate solutions and securing fair international funding. One central output of the conference will be the African Leaders Addis Ababa Declaration, which is intended to lay down a common African position for COP30 in Belém in November and to position Africa as a key player in fighting climate change.

Germany is one of the largest donors to climate projects in Africa and will remain a reliable partner, especially in the field of international climate finance. The German government supports, for example, efforts in many developing and emerging economies to create a conducive environment for mobilising private and public funding for climate change mitigation and adaptation. In the long term, this will also benefit Germany's private sector through new investment opportunities in Africa and more jobs in Germany. The German government is also advocating for innovative approaches such as levies for carbon-intensive sectors and the reduction of subsidies that are harmful to the climate. Another focus is on the conservation of African forests, especially the Congo Basin forest, which is a vital carbon sink. In 2023, the German government committed nearly 1.5 billion euros in bilateral climate finance from official budget funds. This funding is going primarily to key sectors such as energy, agriculture, biodiversity conservation, environmental protection, and water.

Examples of German activities in Africa in support of climate action and energy security

Expansion of renewable energy generation. Africa has huge potential for renewable energy generation. The development of a reliable energy supply and climate action go together. However, there are still over 600 million people who have no access to electricity. Germany therefore supports the ambitious targets of the AU to create an extra 300 gigawatts in renewable energy capacity by 2030 and 760 gigawatts by 2040. At the Summit, the German Development Ministry and the EU will jointly present a new regional project to support the AU in creating an African single electricity market and establishing a coordinated energy policy. Energy is also one of the core areas of Germany's bilateral cooperation programmes in 16 African partner countries. Often, activities in that sector focus on expanding renewable energy generation. One example is Côte d'Ivoire, which put its first grid-based solar power plant into operation in 2024 with support from Germany. The plant provides electricity for 150,000 people, saving 35,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions every year. Another example is Germany's close cooperation with South Africa on realising a just transition. This also benefits the German business community. There are over 600 German companies with business operations in South Africa. Germany is providing assistance for the development of green sectors, for support programmes for local energy sector companies, and for training for workers in regions heavily affected by structural change, to train them for climate-friendly jobs that have a future.

Adaptation to climate change. Africa is the continent with the fastest-growing metropolitan areas in the world. In order to make them more resilient to droughts, floods and disruptions in vital infrastructure services, Germany is supporting African cities' adaptation efforts, for instance by assisting them with climate risk assessments for urban planning. In Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe, for example, Germany supports community-based adaptation (CBA) programmes in more than 100 communities in order to improve their resilience to climate change. The programmes focus particularly on vulnerable groups.