AGN Chair demands urgent climate adaptation and food systems integration on road to COP32

The Chair of the African Group of Negotiators on Climate Change (AGN), Nana Dr. Antwi-Boasiako Amoah, has called for integrating climate adaptation and food systems into global climate negotiations during Africa's critical years of climate diplomacy. Speaking in Addis Ababa, Dr. Amoah emphasized that Africa cannot choose between feeding its people and protecting the planet, and urged leaders to build resilient, inclusive, and low-emission food systems.

He warned that a COP held in Africa must be shaped by African priorities and solutions, improving lives beyond conference halls. Dr. Amoah highlighted four key gaps in global climate policy: implementation, adaptation funding, finance access, and frontline community struggles. In Ghana, unpredictable rainfall has left farmers unable to trust seasons, resulting in lost seeds, wasted investments, and debt.

In the Sahel and Horn of Africa, drying water points force pastoralists to travel further for grazing, creating localized resource competition and tensions. Climate shocks quickly impact urban areas, affecting market women due to extreme heat, rising supply costs, and spoiled produce. Africa needs between USD 310 billion and USD 365 billion annually for adaptation by 2035, but only USD 26 billion was available in international public adaptation finance in 2023.

Dr. Amoah outlined seven priorities for COP31, including protecting adaptation balance, turning the Global Goal on Adaptation into funded action, securing meaningful outcomes for agriculture through the Sharm el-Sheikh joint work program, delivering climate finance at scale, ensuring a just transition, strengthening action on loss and damage, and defending fair cooperation for civil society, women, and Indigenous groups.