Africa faces a critical climate adaptation finance crisis, with funding needs outpacing current levels and trust in international commitments eroding. We examine how Europe can improve its support for Africa’s climate adaptation needs amidst rising African disillusionment and geopolitical and domestic challenges.
We explore how Europe can support Africa in addressing its critical climate adaptation finance crisis. The EU remains a major global climate finance provider – providing €28.6 billion in 2023– but unmet financial pledges, a lack of transparency around funding and limited local impact have fuelled growing disillusionment in Africa. Meanwhile, Europe grapples with its own climate adaptation finance gaps, domestic political pressures and shifting priorities favouring middle-income countries and short-term economic gains. Amidst these various challenges, the EU can still make use of innovative financing mechanisms such as debt-for-climate swaps and blended finance while improving the quality of finance. It stresses the need for stronger Africa-Europe climate cooperation to help drive reforms to the multilateral financial system.
Key opportunities in 2025, including EU budget negotiations, COP30, and the foreseen AU-EU ministerial and summit with heads of state, offer critical moments for the EU to address Africa’s urgent adaptation challenges. Sustained cooperation and diplomacy are vital to responding to Africa’s climate adaptation challenges and reinforcing the EU’s positioning as a global actor in an increasingly competitive world.
In the midst of a broader debt crisis, Africa faces a growing climate adaptation finance crisis. By 2025, the continent’s financing needs for climate adaptation are projected to be eight times greater than current funding levels, exacerbating vulnerabilities in the world’s most climate-affected region. Since COP28, extreme weather events in Africa have claimed over 2,500 lives and caused $41 billion in damages, underscoring the urgency of scaling up support and effectively deploying these resources. Yet, despite the EU and its member states mobilising €28.6 billion in climate finance in 2023, challenges in transparency in commitments, actual disbursements and delivery, and quality persist, fueling African disillusionment and affecting EU-Africa climate diplomatic relations.
