COP30 Brazil 2025: ECOWAS Showcases West Africa’s Climate Resilience, Advance a Regional Agenda for Climate Change.
By Raymond Enoch
COP30 Brazil 2025: ECOWAS Showcases West Africa’s Climate Resilience, Advance a Regional Agenda for Climate Change.
By Raymond Enoch
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has taken its climate diplomacy to the heart of the Amazon, as the bloc participates in the 30th UN Climate Change Conference (COP30) holding from 10 to 21 November 2025 in Belém, Brazil.
Led by the Acting Director of Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Yao Bernard Koffi, and joined by the Director of the Water Resources Management Centre and a team of technical experts, the ECOWAS delegation is using the global summit to push a distinctly West African agenda: climate justice, resilience and sustainable development anchored on ECOWAS Vision 2050.
COP30, taking place at the mouth of the Amazon rainforest, has put a sharp spotlight on forest protection, carbon markets and a just energy transition. For West Africa, the stakes are high. Sahelian and coastal communities are already grappling with rising heat, desertification, flooding and sea-level rise, making the conference a crucial arena to demand stronger adaptation finance and loss-and-damage support.
In a strategic move, ECOWAS, with support from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and GIZ Nigeria, has set up a regional pavilion at COP30. The pavilion serves as a hub to showcase West Africa’s climate initiatives and to engage Member States, development partners and global climate actors on mitigation and adaptation priorities.
Since opening on 12 November, the pavilion has hosted a series of high-level and technical discussions on gender-responsive Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), climate mobility, cutting-edge climate research, and WASCAL’s 2026–2030 strategy. Experts have also spotlighted scientific approaches to managing cocoa pests and diseases, underscoring how climate change is already reshaping the region’s agricultural value chains.
ECOWAS’ presence in Brazil is firmly framed by Vision 2050, the region’s long-term blueprint that places climate resilience at the core of peace, security and shared prosperity. The vision prioritises the protection of forests, coastal zones and fragile rural livelihoods from intensifying climate shocks, while promoting climate-smart agriculture, regional energy integration and green investments.
Engagements at the pavilion will continue into the second week of COP30, with a dedicated Ghana Day, a strategic meeting with climate negotiators, a session on water resources under the NDCs, and an event on sustainable forest management. These activities are designed to advance a Regional Climate Strategy that coordinates national climate pledges and actions across West Africa.
For ECOWAS, participation in COP30 is more than symbolic. It signals that delivering the ambitions of Vision 2050 — a stable, prosperous and peaceful region — is inseparable from bold, fair global decisions on climate taken in Belém. The Commission has reiterated its commitment to supporting Member States in confronting climate change head-on and strengthening resilience for millions of West Africans on the frontline of the crisis.
