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The Second Africa Climate Summit (ACS2) kicked off in Addis Ababa with powerful calls from African leaders for deeper collaboration, bold action, and investment to accelerate climate solutions across the continent. In his opening remarks, President William Ruto of Kenya and host of the inaugural Africa Climate Summit warned against isolation in addressing the climate crisis, underscoring the urgent need for bold and sustained collaboration at the regional and global levels in the face of the escalating climate crisis. Today, 8 September 2025.
The host of the summit, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, highlighted the continent’s potential to drive climate solutions and proposed the launch of an African Climate Innovation Compact bringing together universities, startups, rural communities, and innovators across the continent to deliver 1,000 African solutions by 2030 in areas such as energy, agriculture, transport, and resilience. Prime Minister Abiy further emphasised the need for Africa to be viewed as an investment partner, urging global partners to invest in visionary African climate solutions and replace climate aid with climate investment.
As the Summit begins, it sets the stage for critical discussions on finance, implementation, and Africa’s leadership in shaping global climate solutions. Leaders have also emphasized the importance of linking climate action with debt reform, fiscal space, nature restoration, and industrial transformation to ensure fair value for Africa’s resources and secure a resilient future.
The calls for collaboration from African leaders and references to improved investment and the intersecting climate and debt crises strengthen the case for international cooperation through the proposed Fossil Fuel Treaty. The Fossil Fuel Treaty proposal calls for global collaboration for a fair and financed transition from fossil fuels – specifically through debt alleviation, improved investment for renewable energy, and alternatives for fossil fuel-dependent nations. The Treaty would reinforce the Paris Agreement by providing a clearer pathway to transition within the 1.5 °C climate target.
Seble Samuel, Head of Africa Campaigns & Advocacy, Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative, said,
“It is clear that there is no shortage of solutions to the climate crisis on the African continent. We have an abundance of renewable energy potential to power our communities, drive development, while protecting our communities and ecosystems, and equitably shifting away from fossil fuels. But Africa’s opportunities to harness its massive potential are mired by systemic barriers. As emphasised by President Ruto, the scale of the climate crisis calls for greater collaboration at all levels to enhance partnerships that support local innovation.
The proposed Fossil Fuel Treaty can be the platform to build meaningful, just, international cooperation to make the equitable phase-out of fossil fuels possible. The Treaty will prioritise mechanisms to finance a just transition to renewable energy in the Global South, while bringing communities, governments, and other stakeholders closer together in a collective vision of change. The proposed Fossil Fuel Treaty could unlock finance needed to scale African innovation, and secure investments into solutions geared at a just transition to renewable energy.”
The proposal for a Fossil Fuel Treaty is anchored in three pillars a global just transition away from fossil fuels where wealthy nations provide technical support and finance for developing nations to transition and equitably expand renewable energy access, diversify their economies and harness alternative development pathways, a fair phase out which would require wealthy nations to phase out existing fossil fuel extraction first and fastest while providing support to fossil fuel dependent developing nations, and an end to the expansion of new fossil fuel projects.
