‘We’re not victims, we’re part of the solution’: the first Africa Climate Summit – in pictures

Delegates gather in Nairobi for the inaugural Africa Climate Summit, hosted this week by the Kenyan government and the African Union. It brought together world leaders to discuss how they can better influence global climate commitments.

A delegate waits to enter the Kenyatta International Convention Centre, the venue of the three-day summit, from 4 to 6 September.

Workers stretch out the VIP red carpet inside the venue.

Members of the Kenya police service band get ready to take the stage.

Africa’s renewable energy resources ‘can uplift millions from energy poverty, all while reducing our carbon footprint, continentally and globally,’ Kenya’s preisident, William Ruto, said in his opening speech. The president wants African countries to no longer be seen as victims of the climate crisis, but as central to providing solutions.

Ruto poses with world leaders and delegates on the summit’s opening day.

Environment campaigners hold peaceful protests on the streets of Nairobi. Civil society groups are demanding governments and industries transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy. The summit was told that Africa accounts for 4% of global carbon emissions, but suffers some of the worst effects of global heating.

Climate activists wave placards and shout slogans during a demonstration in Nairobi. Civil society groups were unhappy they were excluded from the climate talks.

In a statement published at the end of the summit, a civil society network that convened the Africa People’s Climate Assembly said: ‘The first-ever African Climate Summit ended with a weak and inadequate declaration and [it is] clear that old colonial attitudes from global north continue to dictate Africa’s climate policy, imposing failed and dangerous carbon markets on the continent.’

John Kerry, the US special presidential envoy for climate, talks to Rwanda’s president, Paul Kagame, and the European Commission’s president, Ursula von Der Leyen. Kerry acknowledged the ‘acute, unfair debt’ Africans were paying, adding that 17 of the 20 countries most affected by the climate crisis were in Africa. The US announced $30m to support initiatives under the US President’s Emergency Plan for Adaptation and Resilience (Prepare) in Africa.

Maasai men stand waiting for the summit’s opening session to begin.

The president of the forthcoming Cop28 climate summit in Dubai, Sultan Al Jaber, delivers his remarks to the summit in Nairobi. Al Jaber’s appointment to the presidency has been criticised as he is chief executive of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company.

Delegates wait for a session to start.

The former UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon meets Graça Machel, co-founder and deputy chair of the Elders, an independent group of global leaders working for peace, justice, human rights and a sustainable planet, founded by Nelson Mandela, and founder of the pan-African Graça Machel Trust.

Von Der Leyen told the summit: ‘We are not only interested in extracting resources. We want to partner with you to create local value chains, to create good jobs here in Africa. We want to share European technology with you. We want to invest in skills for local workers. This is crucial for the young people. Because the stronger you are as suppliers, the more Europe will diversify supply chains towards Africa, and the more we will both de-risk our economies.’

In her summit speech, the Tanzanian president, Samia Suluhu Hassan, told delegates: ‘The stakes are high and actions have to take place today, not tomorrow, literally now. As Africans we have no choice but to seize the moment.’

(From left, front row) the Ethiopian president, Sahle-Work Zewde; the leader of the Western Saharan Polisario Front, Brahim Gali; and the South Sudanese president, Salva Kiir Mayardit.

Zewde meets with the UN secretary general, António Guterres. Guterres told the summit the multilateral system did not ‘reflect today’s Africa’. ‘Global governance structures reflect the world as it was, not as it is. Global institutions were created in the aftermath of world war two when many African countries were still ruled by colonial powers and not even at the table. We see this injustice playing out in the African context today. Global institutions need to step up, guarantee African representation, and respond to African needs and African potential.’

In his speech, the president of the African Development Bank, Akinwumi Adesina, said: ‘As we gather today, if we strain our ears enough, we will hear the calls for urgency from farmers whose crops and livestock are being destroyed. The voices of fishing folks whose catch is reducing, and livelihoods are being imperilled. The voices of the youth whose future is being compromised; the voices of women and children who bear the brunt of climate change; the voices of economies unable to cope with the ever-rising costs of climate-induced shocks.’

(From left) the Eritrean president, Isaias Afwerki; the Comorian president, Azali Assoumani; and President Ruto.

Delegates and security personnel at the VIP entrance to the convention centre.

Delegates watch a presentation on the last day of the event. In their concluding declaration, African leaders called for debt relief to allow countries to respond to the climate crisis immediately. They also want global carbon taxes, and more representation in multilateral organisations.

Delegates from the United Arab Emirates, which will host Cop28 in November and December, address a press conference. The UAE has pledged $4.5bn to develop clean power in Africa.

Attendees of the Children’s Climate Summit, held ahead of this week’s conference, present their demands to President Ruto and the African Union chairman, Moussa Faki Mahamat. Their declaration, developed by children from across the continent, called on leaders to protect them the effects of global heating to the fulfil their promise.