AFRICA JUST TRANSITION NETWORK (AJTN) POSITION STATEMENT FOR COP29

POSITION STATEMENT FOR COP29 BY

AFRICA JUST TRANSITION NETWORK (AJTN)

FORMERLY KNOWN AS AFRICA COAL NETWORK (ACN)

A CALL FOR CLIMATE JUSTICE AND

A JUST TRANSITION FROM FOSSIL FUELS TO RENEWABLE ENERGY

Introduction

Africa has produced less than 4% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions but is disproportionately affected by the negative consequences of climate change. This year, extreme drought has affected most of southern Africa while parts of South Africa experience unprecedented floods. Madagascar, Mozambique and the countries inland have suffered repeated hits from more intense cyclones. East Africa, West Africa and the countries of the Sahel have seen unprecedented flooding. At the same time, the Sahel and Mediterranean Africa have experienced extreme heatwaves. People’s access to food and clean water is compromised in all cases.

Despite its minimal contribution to emissions, Africa’s climate resilience is undermined by historic injustices and current global economic structures that exploit its resources at the cost of its people. Transnational corporations have extracted fossil fuels from Africa for decades. They have taken both the resources and the profits but have left immense damage to people’s environments and to their health. Some few Africans have been made rich, but most have been made poor in the process. And while energy resources are exported from the continent, 600 million people have no power supply.

The Africa Just Transition Network (AJTN) demands that these disparities are addressed by African Negotiators who need to place Africans impacted by climate emergency at the forefront. Agreements like the Paris Accord and Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) established at previous Conferences of the Parties (COPs) are questionable in advancing climate justice for Africa. COP28’s inability to meet many of these pressing needs, particularly for the global South, has intensified the demand for genuine climate justice to be the demand by all.

AJTN proposes a bold, Afro- and people-centric climate agenda that centres people’s leadership and ownership in the just transition to renewable energy that serves people first. We demand an end to fossil fuel dependency, subsidies, equitable climate financing, and a rejection of false solutions like carbon trading, which often enable further emissions and harm local communities. Our vision is for a regenerative, inclusive economy where African communities control their energy future and benefit from sustainable development.

The AJTN remembers Ken Saro Wiwa and his 8 friends murdered 29 years ago on 10 November for taking action on climate change – resisting the expansion of the fossil fuel industry. This resistance, at the point of extraction, and the resistance of thousands across the planet partaking in such acts and placing their lives in danger for the benefit of the global collective must be recognised. The people who resist must be honoured as climate justice actors.

Key Demands and Actions for COP29

1. Decolonizing Climate Policy and NDCs

• Redefine Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs): African countries’ NDCs must respond to the demands of their people and not be shaped by external pressures or interests. Developed nations should prioritize their own pledges to reduce emissions while supporting, not dictating, these targets.
• Empower Local Voices in Policy: Including the perspectives of African people at the decision-making table is essential for inclusive climate policies. Community leaders, young people, and civil society organisations that are directly touched by climate change should all contribute to this. Ubuntu values of cooperation and community should be upheld at local, national, regional levels, and at the COP29 to guarantee that climate policies promote African resilience and are guided by the voices of Africans who are affected, and not the African elite.

2. Ending Fossil Fuel Dependency

• Phase Out Fossil Fuels Completely: Fossil fuels must be systematically phased out, beginning with halting all new fossil fuel projects, including oil, coal, and gas. Dependency on fossil fuels, according to the AJTN, is incompatible with sustainable development and is frequently upheld by vested interests.
• Restore ruined lands and water: Oil, gas and coal corporations must restore the damage that they have done to people’s natural resources and provide reparations for ongoing health care costs.
• End Subsidies and Fossil Fuel Expansion: Current fossil fuel industry subsidies ought to be reallocated to renewable energy initiatives that serve community access to safe, reliable and affordable energy.
• Already, the extractive economy is reproduced in the mining of coltan, lithium and copper etc., often under the control of militias acting for local elites, ensuring the flow of cheap resources to the global market and leaving behind impoverished people and ruined environments; only serving the expansion of the renewable energy for the global elite.

3. Advancing Community-Led Renewable Energy

• Support Socially and Community-owned Renewable Projects: A just transition means prioritizing local energy projects that are owned and managed by communities. This will increase energy access and sovereignty, particularly in rural areas, while creating jobs and bolstering local economies.
• Develop Africa’s Renewable Energy Value Chain: Investment in renewable energy should include the development of a comprehensive supply chain – such as manufacturing, distribution, and technology – that leverages Africa’s vast solar, wind, and geothermal resources. This also requires technology-sharing partnerships that benefit African countries and people directly and which does not result in destruction of people’s lives and environments.

4. Accessible, Innovative, Reformative and Ethical Climate Financing

• Demand Fair and Non-exploitative Funding: Developed countries have a historical obligation to provide debt-free climate financing to developing nations. Current financing mechanisms, like loans with interest (even concessional loans), only deepen Africa’s debt. Instead, financing should focus on grants and contributions that align with the urgency of climate adaptation and mitigation.
• Operationalize the Loss and Damage Fund (LDF): African negotiators must demand the financing and implementation of the Loss and Damage Fund to address the economic and environmental costs Africa already faces due to climate change. The fund must be readily accessible and include mechanisms for accountability and transparency.
• Develop Innovative Funding Channels: We demand that climate debts are paid proportional to the Fair Share calculations and to ensure climate resilience is developed. Also, that billionaire and Petro-Trans-National Corporate taxes go into climate funds. Processes such as “green bonds” for renewable energy projects and risk-sharing funds to incentivize investment currently place private profit above people and government – and the public –  who must then pick up the risk of return on profit.
• Simplify Access to Funding for African Nations: AJTN urges that funding applications and processes be streamlined to remove bureaucratic barriers. Financing structures should be accessible and manageable for African governments and community organisations, with fewer requirements that typically delay or prevent disbursement

5. Rejecting False Solutions

• End Carbon trading: Wealthy countries are able to offset their emissions rather than cut them by trading carbon credits. Restoring damaged natural ‘sinks’ is urgently needed but ‘nature based solutions’ for carbon ‘removals’ cannot compensate for continued fossil fuel emissions. Carbon markets result in “carbon colonialism” by enabling corporate land grabs in underdeveloped countries.
• End false technology fixes: Likewise, carbon capture & storage (CCS) and various ‘clean coal’ technologies have failed at great cost to reduce GHG emissions and frequently hurt local communities. Green hydrogen is now added to the list of failed energy technology fixes. Proposals for geo-engineering fixes such as solar radiation management or industrial carbon removals are both speculative and dangerous.
• Stop Land Grabs for Carbon Projects: Projects that displace communities, such as those managed by companies like Blue Carbon in Tanzania and Zimbabwe, violate land rights and disrupt local livelihoods. Protecting land rights and stopping the continued exploitation of African resources for false climate solutions should be top priorities for African negotiators at COP29.
• Enforce Stronger Regulations Against “Greenwashing”: Financial commitments should be scrutinized to prevent corporations and nations from greenwashing their contributions. To guarantee that all monies are actually allocated toward significant climate action, transparency procedures must be in place.

6. Reparations and Accountability for Historical Emissions

• Hold Polluters Responsible: Developed countries, whose industrial activities are largely responsible for today’s climate crisis, should be accountable for reparations that address Africa’s climate vulnerabilities. This includes support for adaptation projects and reparations for communities that have suffered environmental degradation and displacement.
• Stop New Climate Debt Traps: Funding should not exacerbate Africa’s debt. Rather, wealthy nations should honour their financial commitments, without the use of loans or interest-bearing arrangements. The existing pledge to ‘mobilise’ $100 billion a year has not been honoured; it relies heavily on private funding and debt funding and is entirely inadequate to the need for a global just transition. Climate finance needs to be in the order of $5 trillion a year in public finance.

7. Promoting Technology Transfer and Just Job Creation

• Facilitate Equitable Technology Transfer: Africa’s renewable energy development requires access to clean energy technologies. We demand that African negotiators must demand the promotion of technology-sharing arrangements that build African expertise and ensure that Africans benefit from green technologies and are not harmed by them, as with the extractive modality presently in place in Africa.
• Invest in Just Workforce Development: The transition to renewable energy will create significant ‘green’ job opportunities especially for the youth. These opportunities must be JUST and benefit the workers. African negotiators at COP29 should prioritize training and resources for African workers in the RE energy sectors, supporting long-term employment and sustainable economic growth.

8. Ensure Financial Autonomy for African Nations

• Strengthen African Leadership in Climate Fund Allocation: African people should have greater decision-making authority in climate finance allocation. This would ensure that funding is directed toward initiatives that reflect Africa’s true needs rather than the interests of donor countries. A financial system led by Africans would facilitate a more impactful, efficient, and culturally relevant use of climate funds.
• Promote Regional and Continental Funding Solutions: AJTN supports the creation of Africa-led funding bodies that pool resources from African countries and diaspora contributions. This could reduce dependency on Western funding and foster greater financial autonomy within Africa

Conclusion

The AJTN’s position for COP29 reflects Africa’s urgent need for an equitable, just approach to climate action. Our demands emphasize a decolonized climate strategy where African people lead their own path toward energy sovereignty. Through renewable energy investments, equitable financing, and the rejection of extractive practices, African negotiators at COP29 have the opportunity to transform climate action and secure a sustainable future, for Africa.

The message is clear:  The outcome of COP29 must prioritize African voices, commit to ending fossil fuels, and ensure funding mechanisms that support – not exploit – African nations. True climate justice requires ethical commitments, meaningful reparations, and policies that empower communities. Africa’s future depends on it, and the world’s path to climate justice and just transition will only be possible when there is solidarity and justice for and with Africans and the global majority.

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