Africa Finance Corporation And Green Climate Fund Launch US$690 Million Africa Sovereign Climate Facility

AFC and GCF launch

Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) and the Green Climate Fund (GCF) launched the Africa Sovereign Climate Facility (ASCF), a US$690 million programme aimed at helping Angola, Benin, Côte d’Ivoire and Nigeria address climate impacts while advancing economic development priorities. Catherine Koffman, GCF Regional Director for Africa, said the facility will help the four countries “turn national climate priorities into investable projects in clean energy, resilient infrastructure, food systems and water security.” AFC President and Chief Executive Officer Samaila Zubairu said, “The infrastructure we build today must both power Africa’s growth and withstand the climate pressures of tomorrow.”

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AFC said the ASCF will combine technical assistance, capacity building and large-scale blended finance to support governments integrating climate considerations into national development planning and accelerating Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). AFC also said it will arrange and fully fund a parallel commercial facility of up to US$260 million with a tenor of up to 10 years for the programme’s first phase.

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Numbers and expected reach

The Green Climate Fund approved $274.96 million for Nigeria, Angola, Benin and Côte d’Ivoire as part of a $674.88 million programme that includes $399.92 million in co-financing. The ASCF is expected to reduce, avoid, remove, or sequester approximately 3.4 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO₂e) over its lifetime. The programme is also expected to reach 4.5 million beneficiaries through climate adaptation interventions, equivalent to the current estimated population of Cape Town, South Africa.

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The ASCF is expected to reduce, avoid, remove or sequester approximately 5.78 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO₂e) and benefit approximately 5.2 million people through climate adaptation interventions. The initiative is described as a $690 million Africa Sovereign Climate Facility, and the Green Climate Fund reported 2026 Board approvals reaching a record $3.3 billion after approval of 21 projects across 44 developing countries.

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COP31 stakes and implementation

Ahead of COP31, a World Resources Institute Africa webinar framed the summit question as what Africa needs from the meeting, and it urged the continent to focus on what it can bring rather than what it can receive from global climate negotiations.

Olufunso Somorin, Regional Principal Officer for Climate Change and Green Growth at the African Development Bank, said, “COP of today, it is now a trade forum. It is now a marketplace.”

Somorin argued that Africa needed a “reinvented agency” and said Africa must move “away from this idea of Africa that needs to be helped, to an Africa that needs to be partnered with.”

Climate Home News said a COP held in Africa does not automatically deliver for Africa, and it warned that without real progress on finance and implementation at Antalya, an African-hosted COP would inherit the same unmet promises.

COP31 is convening in Antalya, Türkiye, from 9 to 20 November 2026, and it is described as the thirty-first session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 31).

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