Bridging ambition and investment

The African Climate Foundation and Dalberg developed the NDC Investment Planner (NIP) to address the gap between climate ambition and investment in Africa. While many African countries have submitted second and third-generation NDCs, only about 11% of the continent's annual climate-finance need is met. The NIP provides a three-stage process—Identify, Evaluate, and Select and Act—to move from broad policy frameworks to investable portfolios. It evaluates opportunities based on 'investment potential' and 'economic transformation potential' to help governments prioritise actions, refine analyses, and prepare projects for funding.

• Africa's annual climate-finance need is estimated at US$279 billion, but only approximately 11% of this requirement is currently being met.
• Private sector contribution to climate finance in Africa is notably low, accounting for only about 14% of the total.
• African countries face significant economic losses due to climate change, losing between 2% and 5% of their GDP annually and allocating roughly 9% of budgets to respond to extreme events.
• Despite progress in planning—with 47 countries submitting NDCs 2.0 and 17 submitting NDCs 3.0 as of November 2025—implementation is hindered by a lack of actionable, investment-ready plans and thin project pipelines.
• Gap assessments in Nigeria, Senegal, and Tanzania identified systemic barriers, including weak investment planning, a lack of enabling environments (such as energy subsidies that undermine project viability), and limited monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) capacity.
• The NDC Investment Planner (NIP) operates through a three-stage process: identifying mitigation and adaptation solutions, evaluating them based on investment and economic transformation potential, and selecting action pathways.
• The NIP categorises opportunities into four quadrants: priority focus areas, high-impact but weaker risk-return, low-to-moderate impact but stronger risk-return, and low-potential or context-dependent opportunities.
• Based on the NIP evaluation, countries can pursue four action pathways: refining analysis, changing opportunities (via policy or incentives), building portfolios, or direct project preparation.
• An analysis of early NDC 3.0 submissions from Botswana, Kenya, Lesotho, Zambia, and Zimbabwe indicates that most targets lack clear cost breakdowns and strategies to mobilise investment.

APA

African Climate Foundation (2026). Bridging ambition and investment. https://africanclimatefoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/801123-ACF-Dalberg-Socialisation-05A-2.pdf

Chicago

African Climate Foundation. Bridging ambition and investment. 2026. https://africanclimatefoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/801123-ACF-Dalberg-Socialisation-05A-2.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=African Climate Foundation |title=Bridging ambition and investment |date=2026 |url=https://africanclimatefoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/801123-ACF-Dalberg-Socialisation-05A-2.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{africanclimatefoundation2026bridging, author = {{African Climate Foundation}}, title = {{Bridging ambition and investment}}, institution = {African Climate Foundation}, year = {2026}, url = {https://africanclimatefoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/801123-ACF-Dalberg-Socialisation-05A-2.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }