Belém, Brazil — More than 80 countries now back a global roadmap to phase out fossil fuels. With only four African signatories so far, Greenpeace Africa urges more African governments to join this coalition and use it to lock in finance, fairness, and safeguards that make the transition real at home.
Sherelee Odayar, Oil and Gas Greenpeace Africa, said: “African negotiators should back the fossil-fuel roadmap and make sure it comes with money that moves, fairness that protects, and safeguards that put people first. That means grant-based finance that reaches the ground within 12 months; faster investments in renewables and safeguards for workers and communities. There must be free, prior and informed consent for communities and clear benefit-sharing; and no new approvals that lock countries into decades of fossil fuel dependence. Make polluters pay, ensure a Just Transition and let Africa lead.”
To broaden African support, the roadmap must come with a finance package: quantified grant-based flows; direct-access windows (including for municipalities, Indigenous Peoples and local communities); a strong share for adaptation; and an operational Loss and Damage payout mechanism. Fairness must be spelled out in simple terms: those who pollute most and can pay most should act first. Cut methane quickly and phase out fossil-fuel subsidies while the deal lowers Africa’s cost of financing the transition through development-bank reforms, targeted debt relief (including climate-resilient clauses), and rechanneled International Monetary Fund (IMF) reserves so money is available on fair terms.
With South Africa hosting the G20, Africa should help set global norms for a just transition and fair supply chains, carrying the just-transition standards emerging here into the G20 agenda. We call on G20 leaders to advance polluter-pays measures, coordinated taxes on fossil windfall profits and strong action against profit-shifting, so proceeds flow as grants to adaptation, Loss and Damage, energy access and public-health gains from cleaner air.
Africa should join and shape the phase-out coalition on conditions that deliver real finance, protect people and jobs, speed clean energy for households and businesses, and build resilience. We will not decarbonise by deepening dependence; a fair roadmap ties phase-out milestones to grant finance, technology access, and people-centred governance and then delivers.
Contact :
Ibrahima Ka NDOYE, Coordonnateur des Communication Internationales, Greenpeace Afrique, +221 77 843 71 72 / [email protected]
