It is two years since African leaders gathered in Nairobi for the first African Climate Summit. The
resulting pledges, amounting to $26bn, were strong evidence of a real commitment to Africa-led
climate solutions. But even more important was the summit’s assertion of African selfdetermination and specifically the need to mobilise Africa’s domestic private capital in the
continent’s climate efforts.
As leaders gather again for the second Africa Climate Summit (ACS2) in Addis Ababa, the world looks very diFerent. There is huge global uncertainty, and the economic headwinds are even stronger.
Never has the vision set out at that first summit, and in the subsequent Nairobi Declaration, of a green path to economic growth that delivers both prosperity and environmental benefits, been more relevant and more important.
This is why we wholeheartedly support the aims of ACS2 and hope to see emerging from it an
even greater consensus around the value of investing in climate. The summit is also a chance to
set out even more compellingly the argument that investing in climate and economic growth are
not mutually exclusive but rather complementary and to make the case for greater private sector,
particularly domestic, investment in the continent.
