Bridging the Sevilla FfD Agreement and the Addis Declaration for Enhanced Climate Finance in Africa

Summary

The Compromiso de Sevilla on financing for development made a push to better integrate climate finance into global development frameworks but real concerns remain in terms of everything from gaps in equity to securing financial commitments for climate in a difficult budget environment. This brief distills the Compromiso’s climate-finance outcomes to inform the Addis Declaration at the Second Africa Climate Summit (ACS2) and spells out some actionable opportunities that are available via the Sevilla Platform of Action (SPA) that might help better align Financing for Development (FfD) processes with African climate priorities.

Some Useful Initial Steps

Based on our experience in the recent FFD4 negotiations and outcome, the following recommendationswould help ensure ACS2 further builds on the progress of the Compromiso de Sevilla and Ethiopia’s legacywith FFD3’s Addis Ababa Action Agenda to advance development finance outcomes for the Global South:

• Positioning African countries as early adopters of Sevilla Platform of Action (SPA) initiatives as a means to access pilot funding and technical support in advance of COP30.

• Establishing ACS2 monitoring mechanisms to track whether FfD4 commitments effectively translate into actual climate finance flows to Africa.

Key Climate-Finance Outcomes from the Compromiso de Sevilla

This analysis from ODI helpfully identifies critical climate finance elements within Seville that warrantattention for African priorities. The Compromiso reaffirms UNFCCC and Paris obligations while calling for scaled resources including the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) of $300 billion by 2035 and $1.3 trillion from all sources. It promotes clean energy transitions through MDBs and IFIs, advances blendedfinance mechanisms, and supports debt-for-climate swaps with state-contingent clauses.

Unresolved Issues and Gaps in Climate Finance for African Priorities

While the Compromiso produced commitments on climate finance, the limitations of these agreements were also evident during the negotiating process. The EU dissociated itself from key climate-related paragraphs in the final agreement, citing inconsistencies with Paris Agreement language on equity and Common but Differentiated Responsibilities and Respective Capabilities, underscoring the fact that interpretation of some of the key language on climate justice and the responsibility of different states for addressing climate change remain deeply divisive.

In addition, African negotiators consistently raised what they viewed as a number of other critical gaps throughout the FfD4 talks. These included what they saw as:

• The preference of the international financial institutions to provide loans rather than grants to address climate at a time when much of the Global South is already shouldering unsustainable debt servicing obligations;

• A tendency of donors to recategorize or double-count existing ODA funding to count against climate needs rather than actually providing additional funding; and,

• Insufficient capitalization commitments for Loss and Damage Fund and adaptation finance windows.

These shortfalls, consistently highlighted by African delegations during negotiations, signal areas where ACS2 can call for stronger implementation commitments.

Recommendations: Leveraging Seville for the Addis Declaration

The Sevilla Platform of Action (SPA), launched alongside the Compromiso, presents concrete initiatives that African countries can leverage for climate finance mobilization. Two initiatives hold particular relevance for Africa and may be considered for wider adoption:

1. Country-driven approaches to financing sustainable development and climate action: These platforms support the integration of national development plans with Nationally Determined Contributions and National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans, creating unified investment pipelines. This offers a mechanism to streamline funding access and reduce transaction costs. South Africa and Egypt have endorsed this initiative.

2. Global Solidarity Levies Task Force: Co-championed by Kenya, with Djibouti, Senegal, Sierra Leone,Somalia, and Zambia as members, this initiativ e proposes levies on airline tickets and private jets to generate climate finance. With multiple African countries already supporting this initiative, early implementation could demonstrate African leadership while creating a predictable revenue stream.

Implementation: Establish monitoring under the Addis Declaration for tracking SPA-derived finance flows and pilot program outcomes, reporting to both AU and UNFCCC mechanisms.

At a time when the impact of climate change looms large, and both African and ODA budgets are stretched thin, ACS2 has every reason to build upon the recent financing for development agreement and drive more effective, equitable, and durable action on climate change that advances the continent’s development priorities.