Open session on the ‘Nexus between Climate Change, Peace, and Security in Africa’

Open session on the ‘Nexus between Climate Change, Peace, and Security in Africa’16 September 2025

Tomorrow (17 September), the African Union (AU) Peace and Security Council (PSC) is expected to convene an open session on the ‘Nexus between Climate Change, Peace, and Security in Africa.’

The session commences with opening remarks by Miguel Bembe, Permanent Representative of Angola to the AU and Chairperson of the PSC for September, followed by an introductory remark from the AU Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace, and Security (PAPS), Bankole Adeoye and a presentation by Moses Vilakati, AU Commissioner for Agriculture, Rural Development, Blue Economy and Sustainable Environment, among others, to provide an update on the outcomes of the 2nd Africa Climate Summit held on 8–10 September 2025 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Additionally, statements will be made by representatives of PSC member states, AU member states, and Regional Economic Communities. It is also anticipated that Amani Africa will deliver a presentation during the session.

Since the PSC’s 585^th session of March 2016, which decided to hold an annual session on climate change, it has held over 16 sessions on climate, peace and security. Tomorrow’s session is the second time that the PSC convenes on the theme of climate, peace and security during the year. Although framed differently, the last PSC meeting constituting the 1263^rd session held in March 2025 was also focused on the link between climate and peace and security, focusing on the challenges climate poses to peace and security. As captured in the analysis of the outcome of the session, the Council identified several key priorities: closing the adaptation financing gap, addressing loss and damage, ensuring a just transition, strengthening African financing mechanisms, and scaling up climate-security initiatives across the continent, including early warning and preparedness.

The PSC is also expected to follow up on its request from its last session on the matter for the AU Commission to expedite the finalisation of the study on the climate, peace and security nexus. It is to be recalled that it was during its 1240^th session on 30 October 2024 that the PSC discussed the Common African Position on Climate, Peace and Security (CAP-CPS). During its last session, the PSC emphasised that the finalisation has to be undertaken ‘following due process, and taking into consideration the contributions from all AU Member States, the African Group of Negotiators, and Regional Economic Communities and Regional Mechanisms for Conflict Prevention, Management and Resolution (RECs/RMs).’ While this process remains a work in progress, during the 2^nd Africa Climate Summit held on 8-10 September in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, a pre-summit forum on media and climate and peace and security was held and culminated in the adoption of a declaration.

Similar to many of the PSC sessions, including the last one, tomorrow’s session is expected to highlight the ways in which climate affects peace and security. Paradoxically, Africa contributes just 4% of global carbon emissions. Yet, it is one of the parts of the world that bears the brunt of the climate change crisis and its peace and security implications. For example, the International Rescue Committee indicated that seven of the ten countries most at risk from climate-related disasters are situated in Africa; sixteen countries are caught in the intersection of climate vulnerability and armed conflict, representing a staggering 44% of people impacted by natural disasters and 79% of those in humanitarian need. One in four of those countries is in West Africa: Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger and Nigeria.

This meeting comes shortly after the Africa Climate Summit 2 (ACS2), which was held last week (8-10 September 2025), in Addis Ababa under the theme ‘Accelerating Global Climate Solutions: Financing for Africa’s Resilient and Green Development.’ The Summit provided a platform for Africa to articulate its climate priorities, while also emphasising the necessity of home-grown solutions that drive adaptation and system-wide transformation in the lead-up to COP30. Of significance in this respect is the focus on financing and Africa’s role in climate action.

The summit adopted ‘Addis Ababa Declaration on Accelerating Global Climate Solutions: Financing for Africa’s Resilient and Green Development,’ which called for Africa-led solutions and fair finance. High-level statements underscored climate justice: AU Chairperson Mahamoud Ali Youssouf insisted that climate finance be ‘fair, significant and predictable,’ while Kenya’s President Ruto emphasised that ‘Africa is a source of solutions.’ Concretely, African development banks and lenders pledged up to USD 100 billion for a green industrialisation drive. The Africa Climate Innovation Compact (ACIC) and the African Climate Facility (ACF) were launched, aiming to mobilise USD 50 billion annually to accelerate African-led innovations in key sectors such as energy, agriculture, transport, water, and resilient infrastructure. The ACIC sets an ambitious goal of delivering 1,000 climate solutions by 2030, targeting to lead transformative climate action by leveraging home-grown science and entrepreneurship.

The ACS2 outcomes, the Declaration and the Compact highlight Africa’s ambition to turn the tide, leveraging its own agency to push global negotiators toward scaled-up, grant-based financing, nature-based solutions, and market reforms ahead of COP30. The PSC is expected to welcome these outcomes of the ACS2 and significantly urge prompt follow-up for translating commitments and ambition to action.

Building on the momentum and commitments made at the ACS2, the PSC session is expected to deepen discussions on the climate, peace, and security nexus by advancing priorities, building on its previous sessions. This includes advancing climate finance priorities to address the conflict risks posed by climate change impacts and to support integrated continental strategies ahead of COP30 negotiations.

The first aspect of the issues of financing is expected to draw attention to the imperative for narrowing down the enormous financing gap for climate action in Africa. It is to be recalled that at COP29 held in Baku in November 2024, leaders agreed to triple the annual global climate finance goal from USD 100 billion to USD 300 billion by 2035 and endorsed carbon trading rules under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement. Nevertheless, many African nations considered this target insufficient, as they had been pushing for a more ambitious target of USD 1.3 trillion annually. Even then, for tomorrow’s session, a lot of the emphasis is expected to be placed on the necessity of those most responsible honouring existing financing commitments. What makes this particularly pressing is the major policy changes in global development financing. Major funders have announced aid cuts: the OECD projects overall ODA could drop 9 -17% in 2025, with bilateral aid to Africa outside of North Africa possibly falling 16 -28%. This is expected to accentuate existing fiscal pressures facing African countries, which are facing a loss of an increasing percentage of their GDP to climate-induced disasters and in efforts to respond to such disasters.

Related to the issue of financing is loss and damage. As a continent where the increasing frequency and ferocity of climate events are resulting in increasing loss and damage, the imperative of capitalisation at an expanded scale and operationalisation of the loss and damage fund cannot be overemphasised.

Also, of concern for tomorrow’s session from a climate, peace and security nexus perspective is the question of access to climate finance. This concerns the need for easing the conditions and processes for accessing climate funds, particularly for fragile and conflict-affected countries facing increasing climate stress. Available statistics show that African countries, particularly those most affected by climate, fragility and conflict, receive the least climate funding on account of the prohibitive nature of the conditions of access to existing climate funds for these countries.

The other aspect of the session may focus on how to take the agenda of climate change and security forward, both at a global and continental level. This necessitates attention to integrating climate adaptation and resilience into peace and security frameworks, including strengthening early warning systems with climate-conflict indicators, to fostering support for building resilience for the most vulnerable regions of the continent in key social and economic sectors such as agriculture and rural economy, and promoting regional cooperation to build the capacity of vulnerable populations as well as explore ways to embed climate considerations into peacebuilding and development strategies.

Additionally, it may follow up on the decision of its 1114^th session that called for the inclusion of discussions on climate and security in the agenda of the meetings of the AU Assembly Committee of African Heads of States and Government on Climate Change (CAHOSCC). A necessary corollary to this is the need for ensuring the full integration of the climate, peace and security nexus in climate policy processes. This is a prerequisite for ensuring that the security dimension of climate change is fully factored in policy initiatives across the mitigation, adaptation, financing, loss and damage and transition streams of the COP processes.

The expected outcome of tomorrow’s PSC session is a communiqué reaffirming the imperative of enhanced cooperation among AU institutions, Member States, RECs, and partners to mainstream climate change into peace and security strategies, strengthen early warning systems, and improve climate communication for disaster preparedness at local, national, regional, and continental levels. The PSC is expected to reiterate its earlier request for the finalisation of the study on the climate, peace and security nexus, while welcoming efforts to advance the agenda through, among others, the adoption of the pre-summit declaration on media, climate, peace and security. Regarding financing, the PSC is likely to reiterate Africa’s demand for scaled-up climate finance, including grants for adaptation and loss and damage, while endorsing Member States’ positions from ACS2, such as the $100 billion green investment pact and the $50 billion African Climate Innovation Compact, and urging partners to close the remaining USD 3 trillion gap. The Council may further call on development banks, the private sector, and national governments to deliver on these commitments, emphasising the need for translating existing commitments into action. Finally, the PSC, echoing its 1114^th session, may also call for ensuring the full integration of the climate, peace and security nexus in climate policy processes as a necessary condition for addressing the peace and security implications of climate across all the work streams of the COP processes.