African Negotiators to COP31: “Antalya Must Be About Delivery, Not Another Cycle of Promises”

The African Group of Negotiators on Climate Change (AGN) has told the world what it expects from COP31: delivery, not another cycle of promises. Speaking at the AGNES Pre-COP31 Strategy Meeting in Nairobi on 8 October, AGN Chair Nana Dr Antwi-Boasiako Amoah said the summit in Antalya must turn existing climate commitments into concrete action, according to reporting by the Ghana News Agency.

Predictable, grant-based finance for adaptation

The AGN’s central demand is climate finance for adaptation that is predictable, scalable and provided as grants — not loans that add to Africa’s sovereign debt. African finance ministers have repeatedly warned that rising debt levels leave little fiscal room for adaptation spending from domestic budgets, so the mechanism by which money arrives matters as much as the amount.

Dr Amoah rejected any framing of climate support as charity. “Africa is not asking for charity,” he said. “We are asking for an international financial architecture capable of responding fairly to a global problem for which responsibility and vulnerability are profoundly unequal.”

African negotiators want outcomes that move national adaptation plans, climate pledges and long-term climate strategies from policy documents into funded investments, with access to technology and stronger national capacity alongside the money.

The Loss and Damage Fund must reach those who need it

The AGN is keeping pressure on the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage, established at COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh in 2022. The fund must become more accessible, adequately resourced and responsive to the vulnerable developing countries and communities confronting losses they did little to cause.

“Success cannot be measured by the existence of institutions alone,” Dr Amoah said. “It must ultimately be measured by whether support reaches countries and communities confronting losses they did little to cause.” Across Africa, he said, communities are facing losses of homes, productive land, livelihoods and cultural heritage that adaptation alone can no longer address.

A just transition on Africa’s terms

On the just transition, Dr Amoah recalled that Africa supports the global shift toward low-emission and climate-resilient development — but stressed that the transition must take account of the continent’s energy access needs, poverty eradication, food security, decent jobs, industrialisation and right to development.

FAKTA

• The African Group of Negotiators (AGN), which coordinates the positions of all 54 African states in UN climate talks, demands that COP31 in Antalya deliver concrete action rather than new pledges.
• Chair Nana Dr Antwi-Boasiako Amoah spoke at the AGNES Pre-COP31 Strategy Meeting in Nairobi on 8 October, according to Ghana News Agency reporting.
• Africa’s core demand: predictable, scalable, grant-based adaptation finance that does not add to national debt — and national adaptation plans and climate pledges implemented as funded investments.
• The Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage (agreed at COP27 in 2022) must become accessible, adequately resourced and responsive to vulnerable communities.
• The AGN frames COP31 as a stepping stone toward COP32 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in 2027 — a home-soil summit where firmer commitments should be locked in.

Looking toward Antalya and Addis Ababa

COP31 runs from 9 to 20 November in Antalya, Türkiye, with Türkiye holding the presidency and Australia leading the formal negotiations. The AGN describes the summit as a step toward COP32, due in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in 2027 — the venue, African negotiators appear to believe, where firmer commitments should be locked in.

The tone is echoed elsewhere: African Union Commission Chairperson Mahmoud Ali Youssouf has pressed for significantly enhanced and accessible adaptation finance alongside technology, capacity building and just-transition arrangements, while the small island state of Tuvalu has warned this week that climate finance must not become a debt trap for vulnerable nations. As the European Union prepares its own COP31 negotiating position on turning pledges into action, the message from Africa is unambiguous: Antalya will be judged by what is delivered.

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