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Addis Ababa, Ethiopia – 10 September 2025
The African Activists for Climate Justice (AACJ) consortium will convene a side event at the 2nd Africa Climate Summit (ACS II) titled “Community-Led Adaptation in Practice (CLAP for Climate Justice).” This gathering will bring grassroots voices to the center of continental climate discussions, spotlighting the experiences of women, youth, and Indigenous peoples who are innovating solutions to the climate crisis.
Held under the theme “#ClimateJustice from the Ground Up: Safeguarding Rights and Transforming Commitments into Action,” the session reflects AACJ’s long-standing call to put justice, rights, and accountability at the core of climate action. It will demonstrate how Africa’s frontline communities, pastoralists, smallholder farmers, women, and youth, are not passive victims but active agents of resilience. Their local knowledge and lived realities are essential in shaping the continent’s climate future.
Why This Side Event Matters
Africa’s climate frontline is its communities, yet their solutions are often overlooked in high-level climate policy spaces. With the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, AACJ works with a wide network of partners to ensure equity, justice, and voice in climate responses. This side event provides an opportunity to showcase community-led adaptation in practice while reinforcing key advocacy demands on carbon markets, human rights, gender equality, youth leadership, and climate finance.
The event will emphasize five interlinked priorities: showcasing innovative community practices, highlighting justice issues within carbon markets, facilitating dialogue between communities and decision-makers, calling for fulfilment of climate finance pledges, and building momentum for inclusive decision-making in the run-up to COP30.
What Participants Can Expect
The one-hour program will open with remarks by Grace Alupo, Head of AACJ’s Project Management Unit, who will set the tone by linking grassroots adaptation with broader advocacy priorities. A solidarity message from the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA) will follow, centering the urgent question of climate finance for locally led adaptation.
Central to the session will be the “Voices from the Community” segment, where AACJ consortium partners will highlight different dimensions of climate justice. PACJA will provide a framing on justice, the African Youth Commission will speak on youth leadership and moving beyond tokenism, FEMNET will emphasize gender equality as climate justice, Oxfam Novib will address climate finance justice and the fulfilment of pledges, while Natural Justice will focus on human rights and legal safeguards within climate policies and carbon markets.
A plenary discussion will give space for leaders and policymakers to reflect on these community perspectives and respond to the challenges and solutions raised. The dialogue will then move into a forward-looking discussion on COP30, synthesizing the key takeaways and asking critical questions: How can community-led adaptation models be embedded in national and regional policies? What mechanisms can channel more climate finance directly to local actors? And how can grassroots practices inform and influence global processes such as the UNFCCC negotiations?
The session will close with remarks from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, reinforcing the rallying call to embed justice in the outcomes of the Africa Climate Summit and beyond.
About AACJ
The AACJ consortium unites five leading organizations: the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA), Oxfam Novib, Natural Justice, FEMNET, and the African Youth Commission (AYC). Together, they champion climate justice by centering the voices, priorities, and agency of those most affected by the climate crisis, working to shift power, influence policy, and drive transformative community-led action across the continent.
Join Us
The side event will take place on 10 September 2025 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, during the Africa Climate Summit. It promises to be an energizing space for policymakers, civil society actors, donors, youth, and women leaders to engage directly with Africa’s frontline communities and to ensure that climate justice is shaped from the ground up.
For more information, contact:
Grace Alupo, Head of PMU – AACJ Consortium
grace.alupo@pacja.org +254710835354 / +256759728588