Around 30 African heads of state and government will take the floor in Baku (Azerbaijan) on Tuesday, November 12, and Wednesday, November 13, the day after the curtain rises on the 29th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29). This "high-level segment," during which a total of about 100 leaders will speak, is expected to give political impetus to negotiations which, in addition to an explosive agenda on the North's future financial aid to developing countries, look set to be difficult with the election of Donald Trump and the likely withdrawal of the US from the Paris Agreement.
Far from boycotting the event – like Papua New Guinea, which intends to denounce the futility of the UN process – African leaders have turned out in force. Alongside well-known figures such as the Congolese president Denis Sassou-Nguesso, who will speak on the issue of tropical forest protection, other personalities are expected to attend. In particular, Kenyan president William Ruto, host of the first African Climate Summit in Nairobi in September 2023: His talk of green growth and overcoming the North-South divide is reassuring industrialized countries, which bear historical responsibility for climate change.
Beyond national tones, Africa can play its part in the climate arena because its 54 countries speak with one united voice. Over the years, its diplomats have learned to master extremely technical subjects. "Africa could have blocked the signing of the Paris Agreement. It agreed to take part in a process that required it to contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, with no guarantee of compensation," said Marta Torres Gunfaus, director of the climate program at the Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations in Paris. Its unity has enabled it to push issues such as adaptation, but its capacity to influence the industrialized and emerging countries remains limited.
The African negotiators' group, which brings together delegates from each country and has a solid secretariat, is the linchpin of this common position, endorsed before each COP by the environment ministers and then the heads of state, as was the case in September, on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. While it is ultimately the ministers who take the lead on the most difficult issues in the final stretch of negotiations, the bulk of the decisions adopted are based on the balance struck upstream between negotiators from the 195 member states of the convention.
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