ActionAid welcomes Africa Climate Summit’s Declaration but warns about carbon markets and debt swaps

Addis Ababa - ActionAid welcomes the second Africa Climate Summit declaration's collective calls for debt cancellation, on rich countries to meet their climate commitments through adequate, predictable, and accessible climate finance in the form of grants, not loans, as well as a unified African approach to COP30. 

However, while the leaders acknowledged that climate interventions must prioritise equity, climate justice, and social inclusion, they must ditch plans to expand experiments with carbon offsets and debt swaps which are short term distractions from real, long-term and sustainable systemic reforms needed to enable Africa to meet the financial cost of climate adaptation for its communities on the frontlines of the climate crisis.   

Emmaqulate Kemunto, the Africa Regional Campaigner at ActionAid International, said 

“There are positives to take from the summit, such as the clear calls for debt cancellation and the need for grants and not loans in climate finance. We still call for real solutions to the climate crisis.  It is worrying for the continent that the roots of carbon markets are getting deeper.” 

A recent report by ActionAid USA, "Caution Required: Protecting Communities from Carbon Markets," revealed that carbon markets don’t reduce emissions and barely benefit communities. For instance, the report found that in Kenya, only 2% of total project revenue reaches community conservancies, while middlemen, certifiers, and foreign companies pocket the rest. 

Emmaqulate added that, “African leaders must wake up and smell the coffee - carbon markets and debt swaps are not viable climate solutions. They are short-term distractions.”  

The declaration’s commitment to the implementation of the Kampala Declaration on Agriculture and to support smallholder farmers, especially youth and women, to boost sustainable agricultural practices, is commendable. ActionAid believes that adequate investment in agroecology is the solution and must be adequately financed. 

Nigus Simane, the Interim Country Director at ActionAid Ethiopia, said, 

“The commitments to sustainable agriculture must move from being mere rhetoric. Governments must put their money where their mouths are and increase public financing of agroecology and embrace the practice in national policies."  

With COP30 on the horizon, the messages of solidarity and commitment for a unified Africa position at the negotiations in Brazil are a bold and welcome development.  

Bavon Christopher, the Country Director at ActionAid Tanzania, said,

“Gone are the days of the rich polluting countries and corporates folding their hands at the crisis they created. At COP30, African negotiators must unequivocally demand climate financing for Africa's just transition that is adequate and ensures that the needs and rights of the people of Africa are not compromised.”