Africa Can’t Wait Campaign Demands Fairer Climate Finance and Influence

What changed

Africa Can’t Wait: Interfaith Voices for Just Climate Action launched on 8 September, bringing together faith leaders, civil society groups and climate activists. The campaign wants one million signatures before COP32 in Addis Ababa next year, pressing governments to make climate finance, adaptation, loss and damage, renewable energy, clean cooking and nature restoration fairer, locally led and rights-centred.

Why it matters

The dispute is not over whether climate promises exist. It is over who controls the money and the decisions behind them.

Wealthy countries reached $115.9-billion in annual climate finance in 2022 after missing their $100-billion pledge for 2020. About two-thirds came as loans rather than grants, adding to debt burdens. Adaptation finance is even further behind: roughly one dollar is provided for every $12 to $14 needed.

That gap lands hardest where floods and droughts are becoming more frequent and intense. It also shifts costs into households. Zambian faith leader and youth activist Chansa MK Bwalya said climate shocks damage women’s livelihoods and health, while restricting access to food, land and water and increasing exposure to abuse.

The campaign’s sharper demand is political as well as financial. African voices may be present in negotiations, activists say, but decision-making power remains largely in the Global North. Africa should not be treated simply as a recipient of technology or rescue. Its communities are already developing ways to withstand climate shocks.

COP31 is the immediate test of whether that argument changes negotiations. The campaign’s signature count and influence are still unknown, and there is no indication yet that developed countries will change financing terms or decision-making structures. But the measure of progress will be practical: whether commitments reach communities as usable support, rather than returning as another promise wrapped in debt.