T he Africa Climate Summit, co-hosted by the government of Kenya and the African Union Commission, aimed to deliver innovative green growth and climate finance solutions for Africa and the world. Climate adaptation solutions and the finance to scale them were at the heart of this approach. They build on the outcomes of the Summit for a New Global Financing Pact held with world leaders in Paris in June 2023.

The Global Center on Adaptation and the African Development Bank, in close collaboration with the COP28 Presidency, the African Union, and the Africa Adaptation Initiative, led the high-level session on adaptation in the afternoon of the second day of the summit. Leaders, development partners, and heads of international organizations joined together to present innovative programs and scalable solutions to respond to the climate crisis.

The CEO of GCA Professor Patrick Verkooijen, and the President of the African Development Bank Group (AfDB) Dr. Akinwumi Adesina announced the creation of the Africa Adaptation Acceleration Program (AAAP) Country Compacts to address this financing gap at the Africa Climate Summit during the Leaders’ Dialogue on Adaptation, co-hosted with William Ruto, President of Kenya. The Leaders’ Dialogue resulted in a High-Level Communique in which African leaders confirmed adaptation is the climate priority for the continent and launched seven AAAP Country Compacts to drive the doubling down and scaling of adaptation action across the world’s most vulnerable continent.