Interfaith Statement – Africa Climate Summit 2025

Preamble

We, faith leaders and communities across Africa, representing Christian, Muslim, Indigenous, Hindu, Baha’i, Buddhist and other spiritual traditions, gather in conscience and solidarity ahead of the Africa Climate Summit 2025 in Ethiopia. Guided by spiritual teachings of stewardship, compassion and intergenerational justice, and drawing on centuries of traditional ecological knowledge, we affirm our moral responsibility to protect creation and defend the dignity and rights of the most vulnerable. United, we call for urgent, just and faith-rooted climate action that centers people, planet and the common good.

Background & Context

Africa stands at a crossroads. Although the continent contributes less than 4% of global greenhouse gas emissions, its peoples and ecosystems are already experiencing the brunt of a climate emergency that is deepening poverty, displacing families, undermining food and water security, and eroding cultures and livelihoods that have sustained communities for generations. In recent years cascading floods across West and Central Africa, multi‑year droughts and famine‑level conditions in the Horn, and recurrent heatwaves and shifting seasonal patterns have driven mass hunger, forced migration, and acute humanitarian need. These climate shocks are compounded by structural restraints, crippling debt burdens, limited fiscal space, and inequitable access to climate finance, that leave governments and communities with insufficient capacity to adapt at the pace required.

Structural drivers amplify these climate harms. Continued approval and expansion of fossil fuel projects risks locking the region into decades of carbon‑intensive development while generating local harms: displacement, ecosystem destruction and rights violations documented across high‑impact cases in East and Central Africa. At the same time, climate finance flows remain far short of adaptation and loss & damage needs and are frequently channelled as loans or through complex modalities inaccessible to grassroots and faith‑based organisations. Debt servicing diverts public resources away from social protection, adaptation and resilient infrastructure, while investment models often bypass local priorities and customary systems of stewardship.

The impacts are deeply unequal. Women, who shoulder the majority of household food production and water collection in many communities, are disproportionately exposed to droughts and water scarcity. Youth, who comprise the majority of populations in many African countries, face lost livelihoods and stunted opportunities while being insufficiently included in decision‑making. Indigenous peoples and customary landholders frequently lack formal tenure recognition, making them vulnerable to dispossession and to the erosion of sacred natural sites that are vital for biodiversity and carbon storage. Persons with disabilities confront physical, informational and institutional barriers that heighten risk in disaster and recovery settings. These intersectional vulnerabilities demand an approach to climate action that centres equity, rights and meaningful participation.

Faith‑based organisations (FBOs) and religious communities are uniquely positioned to help meet this moment. Across Africa, faith institutions are trusted convenors with deep local presence, moral authority, and long histories of stewardship. FBOs and faith networks have already delivered practical resilience and mitigation work: congregation‑led reforestation, community water‑harvesting schemes, agroecological farming initiatives, decentralised renewable energy pilots, climate literacy programmes and mediation in land conflicts. Indigenous spiritual practices and the protection of sacred groves, forests and wetlands, upheld by faith and customary customs, have conserved biodiversity and supported ecosystem services critical to community resilience. Integrating these spiritual and traditional practices with scientific planning delivers culturally rooted, durable outcomes that scale.

Research and FBO experience converge on urgent policy gaps and priorities. Analysis from faith networks and allied institutions highlights four immediate needs: (1) dramatically scaled, grant‑based adaptation and loss & damage finance with direct access pathways for local and faith‑led actors and simplified application processes; (2) a rapid halt to new fossil fuel approvals and a strategic pivot to decentralised, community‑owned renewable energy that expands access and local livelihoods; (3) legal recognition and protection of customary land tenure, sacred sites and the rights of land defenders, with mandatory prior, free and informed consent for land‑intensive projects; and (4) structural inclusion measures; quota‑driven participation and tailored funding windows to ensure women, youth and persons with disabilities meaningfully shape climate planning and benefit from investments.

Evidence from FBO reports and independent studies also shows significant co‑benefits from locally led, nature‑based and faith‑anchored actions: watershed restoration and agroecology improve water availability and food security while sequestering carbon; decentralized renewables improve education, health and incomes while reducing pressures for destructive extraction; and community stewardship of sacred natural sites preserves biodiversity and cultural heritage. These approaches are cost‑effective, align with spiritual values that promote long‑term care for creation, and are readily scalable when paired with appropriate finance, technical support and rights protections.

For these reasons, faith actors call for a partnership‑oriented architecture for climate action in Africa; one that bridges spiritual leadership, traditional ecological knowledge and scientific expertise; that channels finance directly to communities and faith‑led initiatives; and that embeds human rights, gender and disability inclusion into the design, governance and accountability of all climate investments. Ahead of the Africa Climate Summit 2025, this evidence and these lived realities shape our demands: prioritise grant‑based adaptation and loss & damage funding, halt further fossil fuel expansion, legalise and protect community land rights, and guarantee meaningful participation for the most affected constituencies. Faith communities stand ready to mobilise their congregations, convene frontline voices, and partner with governments, financiers and civil society to ensure that commitments made at the Summit translate into accountable, community‑led action that secures a just, resilient and regenerative future for Africa.

Energy & Just Transition

• We call for an immediate, time‑bound end to new fossil fuel exploration and major carbon‑locking infrastructure across Africa, and for African states to endorse and align with global efforts such as the Fossil Fuel Non‑Proliferation Treaty.
• We demand accelerated investment in decentralised, community‑owned renewable energy (solar, wind, geothermal, small hydro) that prioritises energy access, local jobs and energy sovereignty, especially for rural and informal settlements.
• Energy transitions must be rights‑based and just: workers, host communities and Indigenous peoples must receive fair livelihoods, transparent consultation and legally enforceable compensation, with strong social protection and reskilling programmes.

Gender- Women, Youth & PWDs

• Women, youth and PWDs are essential leaders and rights‑holders in climate responses. We call for guaranteed, meaningful participation of these constituencies in national climate planning, NDC revisions & implementation, project design and governance of finance mechanisms.
• Climate finance must include targeted support for women‑led and youth‑led initiatives and accessible funding modalities for organisations of PWDs; grant‑based funding should be prioritised to avoid exacerbating debt and inequality.
• Faith institutions will partner in gender‑responsive climate education, leadership formation and community recovery programmes that defend dignity, end discrimination, and harness youth innovation and Indigenous knowledge.

Justice- Land, Human Rights & Communities

• Land rights, community tenure and the protection of sacred sites are core to climate justice. We demand legal recognition and enforcement of community and Indigenous land rights, immediate moratoria on displacement for extractive projects, and transparent, prior and informed consent for all land‑based investments.
• Climate and development policies must uphold human rights, protect defenders, and include robust grievance and redress mechanisms. We oppose projects that drive dispossession, undermine food sovereignty or criminalize community stewardship.
• Faith actors commit to accompanying affected communities as mediators, monitors and advocates, ensuring that restoration and development initiatives are community‑led and rights‑respecting.

Climate Resilience- Water & Agriculture

• Water security and agroecological food systems are fundamental to resilience. We call for large‑scale investment in nature‑based solutions: watershed protection, communal reforestation, wetland restoration, sustainable pastoralism and soil‑regenerating agroecology that centres smallholder farmers.
• Climate adaptation finance must prioritise water infrastructure for households and agriculture (including rainwater harvesting, micro‑irrigation and groundwater recharge), drought‑resilient seed systems, and ecosystem‑based approaches that protect biodiversity and cultural heritage.
• We urge the integration of traditional ecological knowledge with scientific planning, and the extension of technical support and accessible finance to faith‑led and community‑led resilience initiatives.

Call to Action

As the Interfaith Community, we commit to:

1. Mobilise congregations and networks to educate, advocate, plant, restore and implement community‑led renewable and resilience projects.
2. Serve as transparent partners and watchdogs for equitable climate finance disbursement and accountable implementation.
3. Promote intergenerational, gender‑sensitive leadership and inclusive decision‑making across all faith institutions.

We urge Governments, financing institutions and partners to:

1. Deliver climate finance at scale and fully honour and accelerate the USD 100 billion. Ensure at least 50% of new finance is for adaptation and loss & damage, prioritise grants over loans, and operationalise participatory governance for funds.
2. End new fossil fuel expansion immediately and adopt binding timelines for a just phase‑out, while massively scaling decentralised renewables and community ownership models.
3. Implement debt‑for‑climate swaps and debt relief tied directly to investments in renewable energy, adaptation, and nature‑based solutions.
4. Legally recognise and protect community and Indigenous land tenure, sacred sites and customary stewardship; require prior, free and informed consent for all extractive and land‑intensive projects.
5. Ensure meaningful, quota‑driven inclusion of women, youth and PWDs in climate decision‑making, and tailor accessible funding streams for grassroots and faith‑based organisations.
6. Scale up financing for water security and agroecological approaches, privileging locally led, nature‑based resilience projects.

A Sacred Appeal

 We call on African heads of state, regional bodies, multilateral institutions and global partners to heed the moral urgency of this moment: invest in life‑affirming pathways that reject extractive models and uplift human dignity and ecological integrity. Let the Africa Climate Summit 2025 mark a covenant, a binding turn toward a just, renewable, resilient and regenerative future for Africa and for all creation.

Endorsements and Partnership

This statement is championed by GreenFaith Africa, Laudato Si’, Christian Aid, the Interreligious Council of Kenya, the Green Anglican Movement and other members of the Africa Movement of Movements-Faith Chapter. We stand ready to partner with governments, civil society and financiers to turn commitments into accountable, community‑led action.