President of GLOBE Legislators International, Rt. Hon. Sam Onuigbo, has urged African leaders to take ownership of initiatives to mitigate climate change and move the continent from participation to climate agency.
Onuigbo made the call at the 14th Conference on Climate Change and Development in Africa (CCDA-XIV), held at the United Nations Conference Center in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
The conference, whose theme was “From promises to implementation: African agency and the Belem-Antalya-Addis roadmap”, brought together dignitaries and climate stakeholders from around the world.
Onuigbo said Africa’s climate challenge had gone beyond vulnerability to one of agency, noting that although the continent had contributed less to historic greenhouse gas emissions, it was still experiencing some of the most severe effects of climate change.
He said the situation should continue to inform Africa’s demands for climate justice, finance, technology transfer, adaptation support and compensation for loss and damage.
He identified three key areas for African leaders: setting the tone and shaping the rules and institutions governing climate action; translate climate commitments into laws, budgets, projects and measurable results; and build climate leadership around African institutions, capital and authority, backed by fair international financing.
According to him, Africa, with its critical mineral resources and vast oceans and seas, must go beyond participation in global climate discussions and exert greater influence over the policies and institutions that shape its future.
“Implementation is now the true test of climate ambition: promises must become laws, budgets, projects, accountable institutions and measurable results for Africans,” he said.
Onuigbo, who sponsored the Nigerian Climate Change Act of 2021, said Africa’s climate future should not depend solely on commitments made elsewhere or interventions that must wait.
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He recalled a statement by former Nigerian Head of State, General Murtala Mohammed, at the Extraordinary Summit of the Organization of African Unity in Addis Ababa on January 11, 1976, when he said: “Africa has come of age… It is in our hands to make or mar the fortunes of Africa.”
According to Onuigbo, the declaration is still relevant to Africa’s climate fight 50 years later.
“Fifty years later, that accusation is the argument of this presentation, not its embellishment. Africa’s climate future will not be guaranteed by promises made elsewhere, nor rescued by interventions we hope for.
“It will be built, financed, governed and defended by Africans, on the terms that Africa itself has written,” he said.
He praised the ClimDev-Africa Program and the institutions supporting the conference, including the African Union Commission, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, the African Development Bank, the Pan-African Alliance for Climate Justice and Afreximbank, for providing a platform for dialogue and collective action.
The former lawmaker said Africa had reached a point where it needed to go beyond presenting its climate priorities to the international community.
“Climate priorities describe what Africa needs. The climate agency defines what Africa decides, designs, builds, finances, governs and defends for itself,” he said.
Onuigbo cited Nigeria’s Climate Change Act 2021 as an example of how to translate climate ambition into laws and institutional actions.
He explained that the legislation established a statutory framework for climate action and created institutional accountability through the National Council on Climate Change (NCCC), which coordinates climate-related activities at the highest level of government.
He said placing the council under the presidency, with the president as chairman, was aimed at addressing what he described as a common governance challenge in Africa: inter-agency rivalry.
According to him, competition between ministries and agencies for visibility, budgets and authority could undermine climate action when institutions should instead coordinate implementation.
Onuigbo said that for more than three decades, international climate diplomacy had strengthened the language of ambition through conventions, agreements, Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and net zero commitments.
“But the central question facing Africa today is different: it is no longer a question of whether governments recognize the climate crisis, but rather whether the institutions, financing, technologies and political will necessary to implement those commitments really exist and who controls them,” he said.
He emphasized that participation and representation were not synonymous with agency, arguing that Africa could be represented in global institutions without having the power to shape the systems that govern climate action.
“Agency is different. Agency means Africa sets terms rather than simply responding to terms set elsewhere. It means designing instruments rather than qualifying for instruments designed by others.
“It means deciding who evaluates, who approves, who disburses and who benefits. A continent can be well represented in a system that does not shape. Climate leadership means moving from being consulted to being an author,” he said.
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