African climate negotiators meeting at the Fourteenth Conference on Climate Change and Development in Africa (CCDA-XIV) are outlining a four-pillar strategy to move the continent from reactive participation to genuine agency in global climate governance.
The conference, running from the 7th to 9th of September, 2026 at the United Nations Conference Centre in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, is convened by the UN Economic Commission for Africa, the African Development Bank and the African Union Commission under the theme “From Pledges to Implementation: The Belém–Antalya–Addis Roadmap”. It is expected to produce a COP31 strategic framework, a COP32 Presidency options paper and a unified African Common Position.
Organisers frame CCDA-XIV as a turning point where the next phase of African climate influence requires more than effective negotiation. The conference therefore shifts focus from strengthening African climate leadership to strengthening African agency in shaping the rules, institutions, norms, implementation architectures and political bargains that define global climate governance.
Former Nigerian lawmaker Sam Onuigbo, sponsor of Nigeria’s Climate Change Act 2021, told delegates that climate priorities describe what Africa needs, while climate agency defines what Africa itself decides, designs, builds and governs. He urged that pledges must translate into laws, budgets, bankable projects, accountable institutions and measurable outcomes for African people, with each commitment specifying what must be delivered, by whom, at what cost and how it will be financed.
CCDA-XIV is structured around four strategic purposes: consolidating African priorities for COP31 in Antalya, developing African propositions for improving global climate governance, testing these propositions with other negotiating groups and partners before COP31, and generating options for Ethiopia’s future role as an impartial COP32 Presidency. The overall objective is to strengthen Africa’s climate leadership by advancing coordinated policy, partnerships, investments and implementation that accelerate climate-resilient and low-emission development.
Opening the conference, ECA Executive Secretary Claver Gatete said climate finance must be scaled up to meet Africa’s estimated $277 billion annual need, stressing that the continent cannot implement its climate plans without adequate funding. Delegates are reviewing outcomes from recent UN climate meetings and aligning African positions on adaptation, finance, just transition and the Global Stocktake with the continent’s development priorities.
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