Africa Advances Climate Solutions as Urban Forum Opens in Nairobi
Thursday, 9 April 2026 | By Climate High-Level Champions
Image: Samed Ağırbaş speaks at the Africa Urban Forum 2026.
When floods tore through Kenya last year, they hit 45 of the country's 47 counties and displaced more than 700,000 people, collapsing over a thousand water sources, and wiping out schools and health centres across the country. These impacts are making people’s lives more difficult today.
This week, Nairobi hosts the second Africa Urban Forum, where the continent's leaders are gathering to answer a question those floods made urgent: what does it take to build African cities that can withstand climate shocks?
Hosted by the African Union from April 8-10, the Forum convenes leaders and policymakers to advance adequate housing and sustainable urbanisation.
The Forum's priorities are precisely the areas where the Global Climate Action Agenda is already delivering solutions on the ground. The work is organized around 6 thematic axes, including Axis 4 on resilient cities, infrastructure and water systems, including solid waste management; Axis 5 on jobs, education and human development; and Axis 6 on the sustainable finance and digital systems needed to move from political promises to delivery. Climate High-Level Champion Samed Ağırbaş is in Nairobi this week – his first trip to the continent in his COP31 role — engaging stakeholders across these priority areas.
Below are some of the Action Agenda initiatives already at work across the continent. They are solutions that don’t replace negotiations and agreements. It makes them real in people’s lives.
Finance and water at scale for Africa's cities
Infrastructure ambition without finance is just planning. The African Cities Water Adaptation Platform and Fund (ACWA) is a pan-African initiative designed to close that gap – helping cities plan, finance, and implement water systems built to cope with floods, droughts and the wider disruptions of a changing climate. Its goal: leverage at least USD $5 billion to scale urban water resilience projects across 100 African cities by 2032. Launched at COP27, ACWA has gained traction through its integration into the Action Agenda. ACWA illustrates how the Action Agenda can move beyond commitments to delivery: by connecting city-level needs directly with financing mechanisms, it translates pledges into bankable, implementable projects. In doing so, it demonstrates how COP processes are increasingly delivering tangible outcomes—improving water security and resilience for communities on the frontlines of climate impacts.
No Organic Waste (NOW) to reduce methane emissions in land use
No Organic Waste (NOW), launched at COP30's High-Level Ministerial on Waste and Circular Economy, is one of the most ambitious zero-waste-focused acceleration plans in the Action Agenda. Hosted by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) through the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC), and carried forward by a coalition of partners, NOW targets a 30% cut in methane from organic waste by 2030 with USD $30 million in backing. It also aims to recover 20 million tonnes of surplus food annually, and formally integrate one million waste workers into the circular economy. Twenty-five cities across 18 countries are already engaged. For East Africa, the framing is directly relevant: Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and Ethiopia all have growing community-driven composting and recycling models, with strong foundations in the informal economy – particularly waste pickers and waste valorisation – that the NOW framework can finance and scale.
Young indigenous farmers accelerating sustainability
In Zambia, climate resilience looks like a youth leader teaching other young farmers to compost and conserve water. The Young Emerging Farmers Initiative (YEFI) helps young people learn practical ways to farm while protecting nature. They train youth to grow crops without expensive chemicals, use natural compost, plant trees, and conserve water so soil stays fertile. Members share skills in local groups and earn income by selling food and seedlings. YEFI also connects young farmers to markets and speaks to the government about their needs. With over 500,000 youth involved, it’s creating jobs, improving food security, and helping communities cope with droughts and changing weather while caring for the land.
How the Action Agenda connects global climate goals to local impact in Africa
Across nearly 500 initiatives, the Global Climate Action Agenda exists to organize and accelerate the on-the-ground climate action that formal UN climate conference negotiations cannot do alone. In Africa, 58 of those initiatives engage directly with the continent and 40% involve local communities.
“Participating in the Action Agenda at COP helps these initiatives scale their efforts by giving them a chance to showcase their successes on the world stage, and to connect with policymakers and other initiatives to help them go further,” COP31 Climate High-Level Champion Samed Ağırbaş said in Nairobi this week.
The Forum this week is an opportunity to connect that global infrastructure to the specific, urgent priorities of African cities: water, waste, housing, jobs, and the finance to make all of it move. The conversation in Nairobi does not end on 10 April. Its outcomes feed into the World Urban Forum and COP31 in Türkiye later this year, and ultimately into COP32 which will take place in Ethiopia on African soil.
“Through the Action Agenda, African leaders, businesses and communities are actively showcasing solutions designed by Africans, for Africans, with global relevance,” Ağırbaş said. “That gives them the potential to be replicated and scaled across the continent, as well as globally.”
