African Group of Negotiators (AGN) Convenes in Zanzibar to Strategize for COP30

Zanzibar, Tanzania – April 28–30, 2025

Under the leadership of the United Republic of Tanzania, the African Group of Negotiators (AGN) on Climate Change is holding a critical strategic meeting at Hotel Verde, Zanzibar, to chart Africa’s collective position ahead of COP30 and other global climate negotiations.

Dr. Richard Muyungi, newly appointed Chair of the AGN, assumed office at the opening session. Delegates recognized his leadership at a moment of heightened global instability, amidst ongoing geopolitical conflicts, economic crises, and a shifting political landscape marked by the rise of right-wing movements in the West.

In his address at the forum. Dr. Mithika Mwenda Executive Director of the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance  emphasized that climate change now compounds existing global crises and demands a coordinated African response. Drawing historical parallels to Zanzibar’s past as a center of slavery and emancipation, he stressed that Africa today faces a different, borderless threat: the climate emergency.

The strategic meeting focuses on solidifying a unified African agenda for COP30.

The Priorities include:

• Adaptation and Resilience: Africa must maintain adaptation and resilience building at the center of climate negotiations. With the continent on the frontlines of climate impacts, delegates emphasized the need for outcomes at COP30 that directly address the vulnerabilities of African communities, ecosystems, and economies.
• Climate Finance: In his opening remarks Dr.Mithikam reiterated the urgent demand for accessible, predictable, and scaled-up adaptation finance. Africa will push for the new collective quantified goal on climate finance to be ambitious, needs-based, and reflective of the scale of both adaptation and mitigation challenges. Moreover, Africa will continue to advocate for a clear roadmap toward mobilizing USD 1.3 trillion annually by 2030, ensuring adaptation finance achieves parity with mitigation.
• Just Transition: The director reaffirmed that Africa’s just transition must be context-specific, nationally determined, and aligned with development aspirations. Energy transitions must generate jobs, foster economic resilience, and prevent new forms of dependency or marginalization.

Beyond formal negotiations, the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance is scaling up interconnected campaigns that link climate justice with debt justice, tax justice, feminist movements, and youth mobilization. The emphasis is on building broad alliances across movements to confront global inequalities that undermine sustainable development and climate resilience.

Delegates underscored that climate action cannot be separated from economic transformation. Climate finance, adaptation support, and just transition measures are matters of global justice and historical responsibility, not charity.

As day one of the meeting concludes, AGN members are committed to advancing Africa’s unified position with clarity, solidarity, and urgency. With COP30 on the horizon, Africa is determined to ensure that global climate ambition is matched by meaningful action on climate justice.