Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA) has warned that Africa’s climate transition could deepen economic dependence, environmental degradation and corporate control if governments continue to expand fossil fuel infrastructure while pursuing renewable energy commitments.
Ahead of the ongoing 31st United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP31) in Antalya, Turkey, the organisation raised concerns that African governments were contradicting their climate commitments through continued investments in oil and gas, reliance on foreign climate financing and the growing influence of corporations in shaping national climate policies.
CAPPA, alongside the Make Big Polluters Pay Africa Coalition, made its position known during the presentation of two research reports examining Nigeria’s Energy Transition Plan (ETP) and the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) of five African countries.
The reports, titled ‘Four Years On: Examining Nigeria’s Just Transition Plan’ and ‘Nationally Determined Contributions in Africa: A Five-Country Policy Analysis’, assessed Nigeria, Cameroon, South Africa, Togo and Uganda, highlighting gaps between governments’ climate pledges and the policies, financing arrangements and institutional frameworks required to implement them.
Speaking at the presentation in Lagos on Tuesday, CAPPA Assistant Executive Director, Zikorah Ibeh, said the findings raised fundamental questions about whether Africa’s climate commitments were delivering meaningful environmental and economic transformation or creating new opportunities for corporate interests at the expense of vulnerable communities.
She called on African delegates at COP31 to challenge climate policies that allow continued fossil fuel pollution through carbon offsetting, carbon markets and other mechanisms that shift responsibility for emissions from polluters to communities and ecosystems.
According to her, Africa contributes less than three per cent of cumulative global carbon dioxide emissions, yet bears a disproportionate share of the consequences of climate change.
Citing the United Nations Environment Programme’s latest Emissions Gap Report, she said the world remained on course for 2.8 degrees Celsius of warming this century under current policies, while full implementation of existing national climate pledges would still leave projected warming at about 2.6 degrees Celsius.
She noted that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change had found that climate change reduced Africa’s agricultural productivity growth by 34 per cent between 1961 and 2020, underscoring the urgency of climate policies that protect livelihoods and strengthen the continent’s resilience.
On Nigeria, the report acknowledged progress in climate policy development and renewable energy deployment but identified persistent dependence on fossil fuels as a major contradiction in the country’s transition agenda.
It noted that Nigeria’s ambition to achieve net-zero emissions by 2060 coexists with an official target to increase oil production to three million barrels per day by 2030.
The organisation argued that expanding oil and gas infrastructure while promoting renewable energy would undermine the credibility of the country’s transition commitments, particularly without corresponding reforms to the institutions and revenue structures sustaining fossil fuel dependence.
It also questioned the promotion of natural gas as a transition fuel, noting that methane, its principal component, is a potent greenhouse gas responsible for a significant share of global warming.
Beyond emissions, CAPPA identified weaknesses in the institutional arrangements for implementing Nigeria’s Energy Transition Plan, including fragmented responsibilities, dependence on anticipated foreign investments and inadequate guarantees for workers and communities affected by the transition.
The report also highlighted Nigeria’s estimated $337 billion climate financing requirement between 2026 and 2035, with about 80 per cent expected to come from international sources.
CAPPA warned that excessive dependence on external financing could give foreign investors and creditors considerable influence over national climate priorities.
It cited South Africa’s experience, where approximately 80 per cent of recorded international climate support for 2021 and 2022 came in the form of loans, raising concerns about developing countries borrowing to address a crisis they contributed relatively little to creating.
The organisation also drew attention to Togo, which has made 69.9 per cent of its climate financing requirements conditional on international support.
Earlier, in his opening address, CAPPA Executive Director, Akinbode Oluwafemi, said climate finance arrangements risked compounding the economic difficulties of African countries if they continued to rely on loans rather than grants and reparations from historically high-emitting nations.
He referenced research published by Oxfam and the Climate Justice Centre, which estimated that approximately $62 billion in climate loans received by developing countries in 2022 could generate up to $88 billion in repayments.
According to him, the implication was that developing countries could repay approximately $7 for every $5 received, transferring additional resources to wealthy creditor countries while struggling to address climate-related damage.
Oluwafemi further warned that carbon credit schemes and projects presented as environmentally friendly could facilitate land dispossession and undermine the livelihoods of rural communities.
He cited Uganda’s involvement in oil development projects alongside its renewable energy commitments, as well as the use of commercial plantations in carbon reduction strategies, as examples of the contradictions emerging in African climate policies.
He also questioned the involvement of foreign consultancy firms in developing national climate policies, arguing that such arrangements could compromise national ownership and allow external interests to influence the continent’s climate priorities.
In his remarks, CAPPA Associate Director, Olamide Martins, said the assessment was necessary because Nigeria had developed numerous climate-related policies without adequately addressing the contradictions between their stated objectives and implementation.
He argued that the country had accumulated about 22 policies relating to climate change, but the existence of multiple policy documents had not necessarily translated into effective implementation.
Martins said the Energy Transition Plan and Nationally Determined Contributions were particularly important because they provided an opportunity to examine how Nigeria intended to reduce emissions, move away from fossil fuel dependence and finance the transition.
He questioned the increasing prominence of carbon markets, emissions trading schemes and other market-based mechanisms in Nigeria’s climate discussions, arguing that government policies should prioritise environmental protection and the welfare of affected communities rather than revenue generation from carbon-related activities.
He cited the Cross River State REDD+ programme and alleged corporate control of community lands, including a 10,000-hectare area in Ijebu, as examples of the need for greater scrutiny of projects promoted under the climate agenda.
Martins also raised concerns about the involvement of foreign consultants in preparing African climate policies, insisting that national transition plans should reflect domestic priorities, available resources and the needs of affected populations.
He said Africa needed to build the institutional and technical capacity to develop and implement its own climate strategies rather than surrendering policy direction to foreign investors and financing institutions.
Consequently, CAPPA called on African negotiators at COP31 to reject carbon offsetting arrangements that allow companies to continue polluting while claiming compensation through carbon storage projects elsewhere.
It also demanded stronger legal protections for indigenous communities, smallholder farmers, rural women and other vulnerable groups against land appropriation for commercial plantations and carbon projects.
The organisation urged governments to ensure that affected communities had enforceable rights to participate in decisions concerning their lands, including the right to reject projects that threaten their livelihoods and displace them.
It further called for adequate, predictable and grant-based climate finance, alongside reparations from historically responsible high-emitting countries, to prevent climate interventions from worsening Africa’s debt burden.
CAPPA said a credible just transition must also include a planned and funded reduction in fossil fuel dependence, greater public investment in decentralised renewable energy, affordable electricity, employment security, retraining and environmental restoration in communities affected by decades of extraction.
The organisation maintained that Nigeria’s transition should not be measured solely by emissions targets or the volume of investments attracted, but also by improvements in electricity access, livelihoods, environmental conditions and the economic security of workers and communities.
With more than 80 million Nigerians reportedly lacking access to electricity, it argued that reliable and affordable power must remain a central measure of the country’s energy transition.
CAPPA said the two reports were intended to stimulate public scrutiny of African climate policies and strengthen demands for a transition that places people, environmental protection and national interests ahead of corporate profitability.
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