Against a backdrop of accelerating climate damage that continues to devastate vulnerable frontline communities across the continent, African leaders, policy specialists and climate researchers have issued a urgent, unified call for immediate locally rooted climate action, warning that further delays will have catastrophic consequences for millions.
Across Africa, intensifying climate-driven disasters – from record-breaking temperature spikes and multi-year droughts to devastating flood events – have already exacerbated long-standing food insecurity, forced mass displacement of local populations, and destroyed critical public and private infrastructure. Stakeholders warned that without swift, coordinated cross-border and regional intervention, climate change could erase decades of hard-won development progress, stall inclusive economic growth, and push already strained food systems, freshwater reserves and household livelihoods past breaking point.
The call to action was delivered during a high-level Nairobi-based sensitization conference focused on clarifying state obligations in the context of climate change, convened just months after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued its landmark 2025 advisory opinion on global climate responsibilities.
Issued on July 23, 2025, the historic ICJ ruling formally confirmed that all UN member states carry binding legal obligations to safeguard the global climate system, and can be held legally and financially accountable for cross-border climate harm their emissions contribute to. Experts attending the three-day conference, which concluded on April 24, 2026, framed the ruling as a transformative turning point that will force governments to embed rigorous climate risk assessment into core national planning, public budget allocation, and large-scale infrastructure project approval processes.
Kenya’s Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary Korir Sing’Oei explained that the ICJ opinion has fundamentally shifted the global conversation around climate policy, moving it from a framework of voluntary national pledges to a system of enforceable legal obligations that carry tangible economic and legal consequences for non-compliance.
Sing’Oei reiterated that these binding climate obligations must be implemented comprehensively, including through full alignment with countries’ Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) outlined under the Paris Agreement. “The ICJ advisory opinion leaves no room for ambiguity: State obligations are legal, binding and enforceable – they are not optional,” he told delegates during the conference. He added that Kenya, working alongside Rwanda, spearheaded the push to bring the question of state climate obligations before the ICJ, to address the longstanding pattern of selective implementation of international climate commitments by wealthy developed nations.
“Developing countries, particularly those in Africa, bear the brunt of a climate crisis we did almost nothing to create. We contribute less than 4 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, yet we suffer the earliest and most severe impacts. The devastating recent floods that submerged large parts of Nairobi are a stark reminder of how high the cost of inaction already is,” Sing’Oei said.
Conference participants also raised sharp concerns over the United States’ withdrawal from key global climate commitments, warning that this move could significantly reduce much-needed climate financing for low-income developing nations – even as the ICJ ruling confirms that the US remains bound by its international climate responsibilities regardless of its withdrawal from multilateral arrangements.
George Wamukoya, team leader of the African Group of Negotiators’ Expert Support, emphasized that no nation can escape its legal climate obligations simply by exiting international climate agreements. “The ICJ has made clear that even if a country withdraws from a multilateral climate arrangement, it remains bound by foundational international legal principles. That means even the United States can face climate litigation for failing to deliver promised financing and support, when climate harm has occurred as a result of that inaction,” Wamukoya said. He added that many African nations are already forced to divert limited public funds to cover climate adaptation costs, all while grappling with unsustainable sovereign debt burdens that leave little room for new green investments.
The Nairobi conference centered on elevating homegrown African solutions as the core of any effective regional climate response. Key locally led interventions highlighted by delegates include expanding climate-smart agriculture programs to stabilize food production amid erratic weather, scaling up landscape restoration projects to improve freshwater security across drought-prone regions, and accelerating utility-scale renewable energy investments to reduce costly dependence on imported fossil fuels.
Eliane Ubalijoro, chief executive officer of the Center for International Forestry Research, noted that climate change is far more than an environmental or legal challenge – it is fundamentally a crisis of human development and equity. “Addressing this crisis effectively requires the integration of scientific expertise, legal frameworks and inclusive policy design working in lockstep, so that we can move beyond high-level principles to deliver tangible, life-changing solutions for frontline African communities,” Ubalijoro said.