I. Climate, Peace and Security

Africa stands at a crossroads where climate change and human insecurity are converging. Extreme weather events such as rising temperatures, shifting rainfall patterns, rising seas, droughts, floods, and desertification are eroding livelihoods, deepening inequality, shaping mobility patterns and increasing displacement. These climate pressures do not occur in isolation; they compound existing vulnerabilities and fragilities, including economic hardship, weak governance, armed-violent-conflict, food insecurity and limited access to basic services. Without urgent, coordinated action, these challenges, which manifest as climate-related security risks, will continue to undermine peace and social cohesion across the continent. Addressing climate, peace and security challenges, therefore, requires a coordinated, justice-oriented approach that combines climate action with conflict prevention and peacebuilding.

We welcome the recent decisions of the African Union Peace and Security Council to integrate climate, peace and security into its deliberations and frameworks, particularly through the ongoing development of the Common African Position on Climate Change, Peace, and Security. These decisions strengthen the recognition that climate change is not only an environmental concern but also a central driver of insecurity and provide a solid foundation for national, regional and continental action.

We also commend the 1230th Meeting of the AU Peace and Security Council, held on 2 September 2024 on the protection of journalists and access to information in situations of Armed conflict in Africa, and hail the strong statement issued by the Council, which underscored the protection of journalists and access to information in conflict situations as essential to peace and stability.

II. Just Transition Principles

We affirm that Africa’s pathway to decarbonisation and resilience must be anchored in fairness and equity. We declare that a just transition is not solely about technology or markets but about protecting livelihoods, ensuring inclusion, creating decent work and safeguarding human and labour rights for all. We further affirm that a just transition requires intersectional approaches that promote strong participation from women, youth, people with disabilities and other marginalised community groups whose voices and needs have too often been excluded from mainstream policy processes, anchored in meaningful social dialogue.

We reaffirm that equitable and inclusive access to resources, skills and opportunities must be central, ensuring that no group carries a disproportionate burden as societies adapt to the adverse impacts of climate change and transition toward sustainable economies and development. We stress that this transition must confront structural inequalities and advance gender justice, empowering women as active agents of climate solutions rather than portraying them solely as victims of climate change. Equally, this transition must be grounded in human and labour rights and advanced through social dialogue at all levels.

III. Climate Justice and Finance

We affirm that climate finance is a matter of global justice. Africa, which contributes least to global emissions, suffers disproportionately from the adverse effects of climate change. Nevertheless, only a fraction of pledged funds reaches fragile and conflict-affected regions, leaving millions exposed. Climate finance must be scaled up, delivered transparently and targeted to the needs of those most at risk. It should include predictable, unconditional and consistent funding for adaptation and resilience development. These funds should also translate to increased gender-responsive and socially inclusive programs and mechanisms that address non-economic loss and damage, such as cultural erosion, intergenerational inequality, forced mobility and displacement, and loss of dignity.

Financing should therefore be designed not as aid but as redress for historic and ongoing injustices, with African governments, civil society and communities fully involved in decisions about allocation and oversight to ensure it reaches all affected local communities and vulnerable groups.

IV. Media as a Pillar of Climate, Peace and Security, Justice and Just Transition

We affirm that the media is indispensable in advancing climate, peace and security, climate justice and just transition. Journalists hold power to account, provide platforms for amplifying community voices and translate complex science and policy into accessible information that can be utilised by communities. Media can contribute to justice and peacebuilding by accurately capturing and highlighting the disproportionate burdens on vulnerable communities, exposing gaps in interventions and climate finance and amplifying calls for fair, equitable and inclusive climate change transition and positive peace pathways.

Yet across Africa, media workers operate under severe constraints, namely: limited access to reliable data, lack of resources and training and personal risks in conflict-affected areas. At the same time, disinformation and propaganda spread unchecked, distorting realities and fuelling division. Strengthening Africa’s climate resilience, peace, and stability depends on supporting independent journalism, embedding information integrity in climate, peace and security responses and ensuring that media freedoms are protected as part of wider democratic and justice frameworks.

V. Information Integrity and Public Trust

We affirm that accurate and trusted communication is as vital as food, water and shelter in times of climate stress and insecurity. Disinformation erodes social cohesion, discredits science and hinders collective action. Misinformation may inflame violence and prevent communities from taking life-saving decisions. Media practitioners must be equipped with tools, networks and safeguards to counter false narratives and provide verified information. Regional cooperation is required to establish strong early warning systems for anticipatory and early action, based on credible data disseminated through trusted media channels. Public trust is a foundation for peace and resilience, and safeguarding it is the collective responsibility of governments, civil society, media organisations, technology companies (digital platforms and AI companies), and international partners.

We, therefore, express our support for the Global Initiative for Information Integrity on Climate Change and encourage the African Union and its member states to join and actively participate in its programs and funding windows.

VI. Our Common Commitments

We commit ourselves to:

1. Advocate for the integration of climate, peace and security concerns into national, regional and continental agendas as part of Africa’s broader humanitarian, development and peace (HDP) strategies.
2. Strengthen interdisciplinary approaches and collaboration between journalists, researchers, HDP nexus stakeholders, policymakers, trade unions, civil society and communities to ensure inclusive responses that reflect local realities.
3. Equip journalists with training, resources and safety protections to report ethically and accurately from fragile and high-risk environments.
4. Promote investigative journalism that exposes inequities in climate finance flows and demands accountability from governments, institutions and international partners.
5. Champion information integrity by investing in fact-checking, community media and cross-border journalist networks and by aligning national measures with the UN Global Principles for Information Integrity and the Global Digital Compact.
6. Endorse the Global Initiative for Information Integrity on Climate Change and invite AU organs, Regional Economic Communities and Member States to collaborate through it, including by joining its calls for partnerships and using its Global Fund to support evidence-based communications and investigative work.
7. Push for climate finance that prioritises adaptation in fragile contexts, incorporates gender equality, social inclusion, social dialogue and supports youth and women-led solutions.
8. Ensure that the African public has full access and understanding to climate change and crisis information, empowering citizens to participate in shaping decisions that affect their lives.

VII. The Way Forward

We:

1. Call upon African governments, the African Union, Regional Economic Communities and the international community to act decisively by adopting policies and actions that integrate the climate, peace and security nexus, ensuring that just transition strategies protect the most vulnerable, scaling up transparent and accountable climate finance and safeguarding media freedom as a cornerstone of resilience.
2. Further call on all actors to recognise that climate, peace and security nexus is one of the defining challenges of our time. Only through collective responsibility, grounded in justice and informed by trusted communication, can Africa secure peace, protect lives and advance sustainable development.
3. Urge African governments to implement the UN Global Principles for Information Integrity and the Global Digital Compact domestically, with specific provisions that protect climate information spaces and the safety of those reporting on climate, peace, security and just transition.

VIII. Key Recommendations

1. Effective climate adaptation should be prioritised as the cornerstone of Africa’s climate response, ensuring community-driven strategies that reduce risk and vulnerability, strengthen resilience and prevent displacement, with special attention to fragile and conflict-affected contexts.
2. Gender equality and social inclusion must be central to climate, peace, and security efforts. This requires addressing structural inequalities to ensure marginalised groups have equitable access to resources, leadership, and information, prioritising inclusive and disaggregated data, early warning systems, and support for women-led initiatives as key to building resilient, peaceful and stable communities.
3. The Common African Position on Climate, Peace and Security should be finalised, adopted and operationalised through concrete actions at national, regional and continental levels with clear implementation frameworks, dedicated adequate resources and regular monitoring to embed climate, peace and security priorities into governance and development agendas.
4. Just transition principles should be meaningfully realised by ensuring that policies protect livelihoods, create decent work, promote social dialogue and safeguard human and labour rights, while addressing inequalities. Workers, women, youth and marginalised communities must be active participants in shaping and benefiting from transition strategies.
5. Climate, peace and security should be fully integrated into climate change as well as conflict management and peace and security frameworks across Africa, linking environmental risk reduction with conflict prevention, peacebuilding and humanitarian action, while strengthening the role of media in monitoring and communicating these linkages.
6. Climate finance should be scaled up, predictable and transparent to meet Africa’s urgent adaptation needs, particularly in fragile and conflict-affected settings, without becoming an added debt burden. It must be treated as justice rather than charity, with allocations that are gender-responsive, accessible to local communities and accountable to citizens.
7. News media organisations and working journalists must be recognised and strengthened as central actors in advancing climate, peace and security, justice and just transition. This requires guaranteeing access to reliable information, building capacity for crisis-sensitive and investigative reporting, protecting media freedom and resourcing independent journalism to counter disinformation and misinformation while strengthening public trust.
8. Adopt a continental policy for information integrity on climate change that aligns with the AU Climate Change and Resilient Development Strategy and Action Plan (2022–2032), UN Global Principles, G20 Maceió Declaration and the Windhoek+30 Declaration and leverage the Global Initiative for Information Integrity on Climate Change for funding, coordination and research.

IX. Acknowledgment

The Pre-Summit Forum on “Media as a Catalyst for Africa’s Climate Change, Peace and Security Agenda: Driving Just Transition and Climate Justice” was convened with the support of Oxfam International and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) Support Programme to the African Union in the areas of Peace, Security, and Governance, commissioned by the Federal German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Done in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on 7 September 2025.