Africa Climate Summit 2023 will begin today in Kenya | Photo: AFP/Luis Tato

Africa Climate Summit 2023 begins today in Nairobi, Kenya.

The two-day event will be the largest gathering of heads of state, ministers, UN agencies, development organizations, and the private sector in Africa’s history. Ahead of the summit, representatives from African countries and international institutions have begun meeting to discuss restructuring global finance to address increased human mobility, food crises, and other consequences of climate change.

According to the International Organization for Migration, over 7.5 million internal disaster displacements were recorded in 2022. In Nigeria, floods displaced over 1 million people. Increasingly harsh weather conditions are also expected to affect agriculture as rainfall-dependent crops like wheat, maize, sorghum, and millet are affected.

The summit, an unprecedented showing of commitment to climate action on the African continent will be an important platform step in the development of the Nairobi Declaration which will likely focus on innovative climate financing strategies on the continent and outline Africa’s position ahead of COP 28 in Dubai. In Dubai, expect African leaders to push for the implementation of the loss and damage fund discussed at COP 27. Moving forward strategies like the loss and damage fund will be critical in addressing the major consequences of climate change on the continent like climate-induced displacement and food insecurity.