Africa to G20 Leaders: “Climate Justice Must Be Debt-Free”
Africa to G20 Leaders: “Climate Justice Must Be Debt-Free”
Johannesburg, South Africa—As the 2025 G20 Leaders’ Summit officially opens today on African soil for the first time in history, African civil society, climate movements, and community organisations are sending an urgent message: Africa cannot confront the climate crisis while suffocating under unsustainable debt and loan-driven climate finance. Climate justice must be debt-free, delivered through grants, not loans.
Thirty-three partners from across the African Climate Network, including 350Africa.org, Fair Finance Coalition of Southern Africa, Climate Justice Coalition, Botshabelo Unemployed Movement, Middelburg Environmental Justice Network and NuClimate vision, Newcastle Environmental Justice, Marikana Youth development organisation, released a joint open letter calling on G20 governments to urgent, justice-centred action, beginning with comprehensive debt relief and an immediate, systemic shift from climate loans to grant-based finance.
Alia Kajee, Global Campaign Project Manager for 350.org, cautioned the leaders, saying, “The G20 kicks off in Johannesburg as COP30 enters its final days. This timing is critical. We call on the leaders currently at COP30 to take the momentum and passion from these negotiations directly to the G20, and ensure a binding commitment is made to deliver debt-free climate finance. Continued fossil fuel extraction is driving the climate crisis beyond the limits of a livable planet. African countries cannot be expected to respond to climate crises while trapped under suffocating levels of debt. We demand grants, not loans, as the only equitable solution. The G20 must show the political will to make the transition away from fossil fuels, backed by over 80 Parties at COP30, credible through grant-based debt justice.”
The G20 represents a shifting balance of global power, and momentum worldwide is moving decisively toward a transition away from fossil fuels. But that transition must be just. Without a complete phaseout of fossil fuels, there will be no planet left to finance and no future for the communities already on the frontlines.
Despite contributing only 4% of global emissions, African countries are enduring the most severe impacts: extreme droughts, deadly floods, heatwaves, cyclones, desertification, and cascading food and energy insecurity. Every shock pushes vulnerable nations deeper into debt as they borrow to rebuild destroyed infrastructure and protect communities.
Loan-driven climate finance is failing Africa. The continent needs US$52–106 billion per year for climate adaptation, yet available finance remains scarce, delayed, and overwhelmingly loan-heavy, worsening the crisis Africa faces. Current flows leave a US$127.2 billion annual adaptation gap through 2030.
The open letter from African Civil Society, Movements, and Partners within the 350Africa Network urges G20 leaders to commit to the following key demands:
- Immediate and comprehensive debt relief for African countries.
- Grants, not loans, are the primary channel for climate finance.
- A fully grant-based Loss and Damage facility, accessible now.
- A mandatory minimum 50% grant ratio at Multilateral Development Banks for adaptation finance.
- Grant-based support for a just energy transition, including community-owned renewable energy systems, social protection for workers, and local grid investment.
In the wait for the final time-bound roadmap to phase out fossil fuels, recent developments, including President Lula’s commitment to push for a global transition plan and the Colombia Declaration, have been supported by over 80 countries, showing that global momentum is accelerating. However, African movements warn that no credible phase-out of fossil fuels will be possible without real, adequate, grant-based climate finance.
“Finance is the real blockage,” said 350Africa.org Interim South Africa Team Lead, Tshepo Peele. “We cannot phase out fossil fuels, scale renewable energy, or protect frontline communities without wealthy countries finally meeting their historic responsibility and fixing the global financial system. COP30 must deliver a funded, fair transition, and the G20 must show the political will to make that commitment a reality.”
ENDS***
For media enquiries, contact:
Sixolisiwe JayJ Ndawo
Communications Specialist
Fair Finance Coalition of Southern Africa
sixolisiwe.ndawo@350.org
+27 72 486 0731
Boitumelo Masipa
Digital & Communications Specialist
350Africa.org
tumi@350.org
+27 81 452 9096