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3 November 2026
Bringing evidence, expertise and African priorities to COP31
ICLEI Africa will launch resources on adaptation finance and the role of municipalities in South Africa’s Just Energy Transition. Throughout key engagements, our representative will ensure that African local leadership drives global climate action.
African cities are delivering climate action. COP31 must help them go further.
Climate action becomes real in the places we call home: in neighbourhoods better protected from floods, electricity systems that support local livelihoods, and communities able to prepare for dangerous heat. Across Africa, local governments are working to deliver these changes, but finance and decision-making need to catch up to support and bolster these actions. At COP31 in Antalya, ICLEI Africa will bring their experience, and the finance, partnerships and policy changes needed to take this work further, into global climate discussions.
According to UNEP’s 2026 Emissions Gap Report, the world is set to exceed the target set in 2015 by the Paris Agreement—to limit global warming to 1.5°C by 2100. Urgent and stringent cuts to greenhouse gas emissions are needed to minimise the magnitude and duration of overshoot and return to 1.5°C by the end of the century.
Throughout COP31, ICLEI Africa will bring the voices and experiences of African cities to key conversations, ensuring that African leadership continues to shape global climate action and inspire a step change in climate ambition on the road to COP32, which will be held in Ethiopia. Our message is clear: local governments need more accessible finance, a stronger role in national climate planning, and sustained support to turn local priorities into projects that deliver. These priorities must shape the road from Antalya to Addis Ababa.
ICLEI’s leadership at COP31
The Australia–Türkiye COP31 Presidency partnership has placed implementation, electrification and resilience at the centre of its agenda. ICLEI will help bring local and subnational priorities into this process through its role as focal point for the Local Governments and Municipal Authorities (LGMA) Constituency:
- Facilitate the Local Government and Municipal Authorities (LGMA) engagement in the COP31 negotiations and Action Agenda.
- Co-convene the COP31 Multilevel Action Pavilion in the Blue Zone
- Support the Fourth Urbanisation and Climate Ministerial, as a key platform to spotlight how multilevel collaboration is driving climate action in cities and regions.
Through the LGMA, ICLEI and partners will ensure subnational leadership directly influences the decisions shaping our shared future.
ICLEI Africa in action at COP31
Across multiple sessions, ICLEI Africa and its partners will highlight that African cities are driving climate action every day, with significant scaling opportunities available.
The ICLEI Africa delegation includes technical experts, Mayors, development partners, and other urban leaders. We will share African insights on sustainable finance, risk and resilience, e-mobility, nature-based solutions, urban heat, just energy transition and multilevel governance. COP31 offers a moment to showcase how African cities are already turning commitments into results while identifying where targeted investments can unlock scaled progress for mutual North-South benefit.
Flagship resources
How can adaptation finance reach the cities that need it? And what must change for municipalities to help deliver a just energy transition? Two resources launching at COP31 tackle these questions, drawing on ICLEI Africa’s work with local governments and partners. See a snapshot of these publications below:
RESOURCE
Financing adaptation action in Africa: Why intermediaries matter
Africa’s cities represent one of the world’s biggest adaptation investment opportunities.
With adaptation blended finance more than doubling to USD 5.6 billion in 2025, there is an opportunity to channel more of this growing investment towards the cities and local governments that can turn it into action.
Yet only 29% of international climate finance mentions local impact or involvement, and less than 10% of funding from dedicated international climate funds is approved for locally focused projects. There is significant potential to close this gap.
Our new ICLEI Africa publication explores how three types of intermediaries can help unlock this potential, connecting capital with local priorities and making every concessional dollar go further:
- Financial intermediaries, such as development banks and subnational finance institutions, mobilise and de-risk capital.
- Intermediary initiatives build project pipelines and help cities turn plans into fundable proposals.
- Institutional enablers provide the long-term capacity, convening and policy support needed to sustain progress beyond individual projects.
The big insight: These three types of intermediaries achieve more when they work in sync. By aligning around a shared pipeline of local projects, they can bridge gaps between funders, programmes and tiers of government, helping investment translate into lasting resilience.
At the ICLEI Africa Sustainable Finance Centre, we work across this ecosystem to help turn local development priorities into viable investment opportunities. We know progress depends on collaboration between cities, governments, financiers, development partners, and the private sector.
This publication was carried out with the aid of a grant from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Canada.
DOCUMENTARY
Powering the local transition: Supporting municipalities in South Africa’s just energy future
South Africa’s just energy transition has not adequately recognised municipalities’ roles, or how best to support and equip them to play the roles required to make the JET transformative, just, and place-based at the local level. In this documentary, we share the perspectives from national government, development finance institutions, donors and local governments on why decision-makers must consider municipalities’ role in the JET.
This documentary was developed as part of the Just Municipal Embedded Generation (JMEG) project, funded by UK PACT and implemented by ICLEI Africa in partnership with the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA), which supports municipalities in South Africa to develop and structure municipal renewable energy projects. For many municipalities, this is new but critically important territory.
The following high-level representatives are featured in the documentary:
- Raymond Ross – Executive Mayor, Cape Agulhas Municipality
- Wessel Rabbets – Municipal Manager, Cape Agulhas Municipality
- Sicelo Xulu – Head: Results Management Office, Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA)
- Dorah Modise – Executive Director, Presidential Climate Commission (PCC)
- Nhlanhla Ngidi – Head of Energy and Electricity, South African Local Government Association (SALGA)
- Khwezikazi Windvoel – Portfolio Lead: Municipalities, Just Energy Transition Projects Management Unit (JET PMU), The Presidency
- Olympus Manthata – Head: Climate Finance at Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA)
- Anthony Phillipson – British High Commissioner to South Africa (2021 – 2026)
- Boitumelo Molete Social Development Policy Coordinator, Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU)
- Pologo Pheko – Principal: Energy Finance, Nedbank
- Letsepa Pakkies – Director: Local Government Fiscal Framework, National Treasury
- Dirk Spangenberg – Financial Management and Skills Development, National Treasury
Join us at COP31
The road to Addis starts in Antalya. For ICLEI Africa, progress means stronger partnerships, clearer routes to finance, and greater support for the local governments turning climate commitments into everyday improvements in people’s lives. Join us at COP31 to help move this work forward. If you have any questions or would like to collaborate with us in Antalya, please email meagen.swain@iclei.org.
KEY
ICLEI Africa hosted/co-hosted sessions
All other sessions
All times listed below are in local Antalya time (GMT+3)
Tuesday, 10 November
11:00 - 12:00 UNEP Joint Pavilion
Evidence-Based Urban Resilience: From Data and Planning to Climate Action
ICLEI Africa representative speaking: Dr Meggan Spires
Tuesday, 10 November
12:00 - 13:30 IDFC Pavilion
Unlocking local climate action: the strategic role of intermediaries in strengthening urban resilience in Africa
Launch of the adaptation finance paper from the BRIDGE project
Wednesday, 11 November
10:15 - 11:15 Francophonie (OIF/IFDD) Pavilion
Villes du Sahel: financer l’adaptation au plus près des populations
ICLEI Africa representative speaking: Dr Meggan Spires
Wednesday, 11 November
11:00 - 12:30 Resilience Hub
Inclusive, co-created research delivers effective local adaptation
ICLEI Africa representative speaking: Dr Meggan Spires
Wednesday, 11 November
17:00 - 18:00 Health Pavilion
Beyond public health: Rethinking Circularity & Waste Management
ICLEI Vice President and Mayor of Chefchaouen (Morocco), Mohamed Sefiani
Thursday, 12 November
16:00 - 17:30 SA Pavilion
Closing the Implementation Gap: Financing Municipal Climate Infrastructure
Launch of the documentary exploring the municipal role in South Africa’s Just Energy Transition from the JMEG project
Friday, 13 November
13:00 - 14:00 Water for Climate Pavilion
Financing locally led urban climate adaptation
ICLEI Africa representative speaking: Dr Kate Strachan
Friday, 13 November
15:00–16:00 Multilevel Action Pavilion
Road to Addis: Shaping the Global Agenda with Cities and Regions
Saturday, 14 November
15:30 - 16:30 SA Pavilion
Unlocking Carbon Markets for Cities: Financing Local Climate Action and Resilience
ICLEI Africa representative speaking: Dr Kate Strachan
Saturday, 14 November
16:30-17:30 Multilevel Action Pavilion
Accelerating Urban Renewable Energy: Cities, Technology and the Path to COP31
Lagos State Commissioner: Energy & Mineral Resources, Eng. Biodun Ogunleye
Tuesday, 17 November
15:30 - 16:30 SA Pavilion
Strengthening Climate and Disaster Resilience in the Built Environment through Innovation, Data and Strategic Partnerships
ICLEI Africa representative speaking: Dr Kate Strachan
Tuesday, 17 November
16:30 – 17:30 SA Pavilion
Going Local: Lessons on Financing Locally-Led Adaptation from Pilots to Scale
ICLEI Africa representative speaking: Dr Kate Strachan
As we look to Antalya, we invite partners, funders, and local leaders to join us in advancing Africa’s urban climate agenda. Together, we can ensure that COP30 becomes not just a “COP of truth,” but a COP of transformation, where African priorities and perspectives make a significant contribution to global action for a just and climate-resilient future for all.
