On Earth Day, 22 April 2026, Conservation International and the African Union jointly released a report titled “Nature’s Solution: Africa’s Untapped Climate Potential”. The report finds that protecting, restoring and sustainably managing Africa’s natural ecosystems – tropical forests, savannahs, peatlands, mangroves, and grasslands – could provide up to 1.6 gigatonnes of CO₂ mitigation per year by 2050. That is equivalent to about 15% of the global nature based mitigation potential, yet Africa currently receives only 3% of global nature based climate finance.

The report breaks down the potential by region: (i) The Congo Basin rainforests: 0.8 GtCO₂/yr (avoided deforestation and reforestation); (ii) The Miombo woodlands of Southern Africa: 0.3 GtCO₂/yr (improved fire management and sustainable charcoal); (iii) The peatlands of the Congo Basin (recently discovered to be the largest tropical peatland complex in the world): 0.2 GtCO₂/yr (avoiding drainage); (iv) The East African mangroves: 0.1 GtCO₂/yr (restoration and protection); (v) African savannahs and grasslands: 0.2 GtCO₂/yr (soil carbon sequestration through managed grazing).

The report calls for the establishment of an “Africa Nature Finance Facility” with an initial target capitalisation of USD 10 billion. The facility would blend grant funding (for protected area management), concessional loans (for ecotourism and sustainable agriculture), and results based payments (for verified emission reductions). It also recommends that African governments include nature based contributions in their updated Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement – the current NDCs only reflect a fraction of this potential.

The African Union Commissioner for Agriculture, Rural Development, Blue Economy and Sustainable Environment said: “African leaders have endorsed the report’s findings during the 39th AU Assembly. We will push for a dedicated nature finance agenda at COP31, which is expected to be hosted by an African nation (likely Egypt or South Africa).”

The report concludes that nature based climate action is not a substitute for phasing out fossil fuels, but it is a crucial complementary strategy – and one where Africa holds a comparative advantage.