Author Archives: sppnigeria

At the Implementation Lab on Cities at the ongoing Africa Climate Week in Addis Ababa, I joined the session and we reflected on the fact that cities are always at the frontline of the climate crisis, yet they also hold the solutions. Therefore, to unlock the full potential of cities, we must accelerate scalable, implementable actions across urban areas, backed by proper financing, governance capacity, and inclusive leadership.

It is obvious that cities continue to face a financing gap and weak local government capacity that is limiting their ability to take leadership. The people in informal settlements remain highly vulnerable to climate impacts, underscoring the need for inclusive planning. One thing that became clear to us was that ambition alone is not enough but implementation – this remains the true test of leadership for cities.

Several examples were showcased which include: the Durban’s community-based early warning systems to protect vulnerable residents; Dakar’s Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) solutions reducing emissions and improving mobility; Brazil’s “Adapt-a-City” initiative supporting 600 cities; and, Rwanda and Philippines partnerships fostered through the World Resources Institutes’ (WRI) “bringing national and subnational actors together”.

These examples did not just provide hope, but they also led us to some of the key barriers, such as: Sustainability of financing projects; project preparation gaps that hinder access to climate funds, and catalytic funds that are often misdirected to actors without financial expertise – this trend must be corrected.

For effective cities emancipation, key takeaways from the lab are that stronger collaboration between national and subnational governments is important; co-ownership of financial instruments for long-term resilience is ascertained; development partners aligning catalytic finance with real local needs is guaranteed and more importantly, SMEs and community-led groups are included in financing architecture – this is part of our ongoing dedication at the Society for Planet and Prosperity ensuring that the subnational are given adequate chance and recognition.

Therefore, for Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to drive real change, they must be localised. And because the NDCs are political statement of countries, the subnational governments need to be integrated into the process of developing them and national strategic financial frameworks that will enable them to attract sustainable investment outlined and strengthened.

The Green Climate Fund (GCF) and other global financial instruments must provide clear windows for national–subnational–SME collaboration. This is when climate ambition will translate into meaningful and equitable solutions for cities.

By Gboyega Olorunfemi, Senior Policy Analysts, Society for Planet and Prosperity (SPP), Addis Ababa

The abiding vision of COP30 is the Global Mutirão. This concept, birthed by the Brazilian COP30 Presidency, recognises the need for collective action built brick by brick from the local to the national, the regional, and the global. Mutirão therefore places its feet firmly on the grounds that nothing concrete can be attained in the global drive for climate resilience and sustainable growth without collective and collaborative actions.

This perhaps became extremely urgent as the world battled an attack on multilateralism following the change of government in the United States of America, earlier this year. As some are putting a knife on the things that held us together, it became increasingly important that the world rally and bring back that very important spirit of multilateralism as aptly captured by the Mutirão vision.

Significantly, this year too, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) brought back the climate weeks with the first one taking place in Panama. Currently, the second climate week is going on in Ethiopia – the Origin of Life and a significant venue to resurrect the spirit of humanity.

What immediately captures the attention of many participants during the high-level Opening Ceremony is the level of importance given to this by the international community with the event graced by Deputy Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Ms. Noura Hamladji; both High-level Champions for COP29 and COP30, Ms Nigar Arpadarai and Dan Ioschpe respectively; both COP29 and COP30 Youth Champions, Leyla Hasanova and Marcele Oliveira respectively; Chair of the SBI, etc.

Strikingly, the presence of these champions of climate action was underscored by a repetitive call for collaboration.

Accordingly, Ms. Noura Hamladji stressed that there is no solution to climate change at the scale needed without solidarity and enlightened that climate weeks are about harvesting innovation, sharing best practices, and turning pledges into action.

Ms Hamladji’s view was further echoed by the COP29 High-level Champion and Member of Parliament, Ms Nigar Arpadarai, who highlighted the risk of mistrust in the climate change process and why COP29 tried to ensure that the voices of the global south were heard loud and clear. She reiterated that, to succeed, the COP process must reinvent itself all the time and be deeply etched in honesty, humanity, and a deepening of trust.

This overwhelming emphasis on trust, solidarity and collaboration, becomes more significant when one takes into consideration the fact that, for the UNFCCC, the focus for this second climate week is “Finance for Adaptation” – a focus that resonates with African needs and vision which was highlighted by the Chair of the African Group of negotiators, Dr. Richard Muyungi, when he called for COP30 to make the Global Goal on Adaptation work for Africa. This was further backed by the COP30 Youth Champion.

For Oliveira the youths’ focus is on adaptation finance, with the local communities and people directly impacted part of the decision process.

This unified call for adaptation finance remains a key pillar of Africa’s climate demands. But it must come in the form of grants, and not loans disguised as climate finance.

What one then expects is that this rekindling of the spirit of multilateralism must transcend beyond talks to action. There is an urgent need to mount the right pressures and ensure that the right support is delivered to Africa’s most vulnerable. This is critical as we move from Addis to Baku, to Belém, and beyond.

Thankfully, Ethiopia’s efforts at championing homegrown options and showing conscious leadership on climate action, including through its “Green Legacy Initiative” and the targeted generation of over 5,000 MWs of power through its “Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam,” shows Africa’s commitment to champion climate action even as a low-emitting continent. It further sends a message to other African leaders to take up the gauntlet and run with the idea that the continent’s sustainable development is anchored on well-structured climate action.

By Nnaemeka Oruh, Senior Policy Analyst on Climate Change, Society for Planet and Prosperity (SPP), in Addis Ababa

The UNFCCC’s Africa Climate Week (ACW) 2025 is in full swing at the Addis International Convention Centre (AICC). Participants from all over the world have gathered to hold conversations centred on moving beyond ambition to implementation.

Although relatively different from the city-wide nature of the London Climate Action Week and even recently, the Rio Climate Action Week (RCAW), ACW is packed with loads of programmes aimed at motivating engagements, especially bilaterally, that will further advance Africa’s position in the landscape of global climate action.

Within the first two days, we have witnessed key events such as NDC clinics with high-level engagement by key stakeholders and donor organisations working on providing implementation support for key aspects of the NDCs 3.0 of countries; the breakout sessions on the UAE Just Transition Work Programme; brainstorming sessions on adaptation finance; and critically, series of open-access meetings aimed at capacity building for accessing climate finance.

Aware that this is a critical year for NDCs and bearing in mind that this iteration must reflect not only increased ambition, but also address implementation challenge – finance being key – the NDC clinics take on added importance as they present an interactive clinic for shared ideas and careful mapping of the way forward hinged on professional expertise and local experiences.

Conversations on adaptation finance in particular and capacity building on how to access climate finance are both also central and align with the NDC issue. Africa needs climate finance to not only tackle climate adaption challenges, mitigate emissions, seek for ways to deal with the losses and damages from climate impacts, but also to position itself for sustainable development. These sessions, from NDC clinics to capacity building on accessing climate finance are thus critical and as expected, at the soul of the Africa Climate Week.

Curiously, as you navigate from one room to the other, and interact with participants from across the world, one thing immediately strikes you as an African – the absence of subnational actors at these very important sessions. This absence resoundingly points to an ongoing pattern of limited subnational participation in key climate conferences where they can learn, build alliances, and position themselves to be more impactful.

At almost every key climate change event, representatives of the national government dominate with little or no participation by the subnational actors who, indeed, should be at the frontline of climate action.

This absence of subnational actors’ voice – the real implementers of climate action and those who bear the direct brunt of extreme climate change vulnerabilities – is reflective of not just national disregard of their importance, but also of the lack of awareness by the subnational of their own importance.

This blatant disregard of the subnational and the key role they play has been the subject of many international, regional, national, and subnational engagements by the Society for Planet and Prosperity (SPP) most of which are geared towards enhancing the capacity and awareness of subnational actors in the climate discourse, while also consciously ensuring that they retrieve their right of place at the table.

It is often the case that at the end of gatherings such as this, many are quick to tag them as climate “razzmatazz” with no concrete impact on the continent. Yet, we forget that oftentimes, what makes a gathering impactful does not necessarily have to be the line up and depth of events, but also how much each country makes concrete efforts to ensure that the right people – in this case the subnational actors – are part of the process.

Indeed, it is important that subnational actors should not be missing during these technical sessions of knowledge sharing and exchanges hence it is highly imperative that priority is accorded them to participate at these events with adequate funding. It is only when the right people are in the room, will they be able to learn, contribute to shaping the process, and finally lead implementation.

By Nnaemeka Oruh and Gboyega Olorunfemi, Senior Policy Analysts, Society for Planet and Prosperity (SPP), in Addis Ababa