What’s Next for the EU, US, and Africa?

Welcome back to Reshaping Multilateralism, a newsletter from the team at the Nexus25 project. Every month, we bring you the latest from the climate-security-migration nexus, with a particular focus on how to make multilateralism work for everyone - not just the Global North.?

A few weeks ago, Nexus25 convened high-level stakeholders from the US, EU and Africa to assess the agri-food systems transformation and progress on the energy transition, all with the goals of building stronger - and more equitable - partnerships. These discussions fell at a critical time for the EU-Africa relationship - and debates around the future of the green transition more broadly. Ahead of the conference, the project partnered with key stakeholders in the US and Europe to assess the state of the relationship, releasing commentaries on:?

• “Developing Green Value Chains: Collaborating for a Mutually Beneficial EU-Africa Partnership” (authored by Theophilus Acheampong, European Council on Foreign Relations and University of Aberdeen);
• “Rethinking AU-EU Cooperation for More Sustainable Agri-food Systems” (authored by Ibrahima Hathie, Feed the Future Senegal Policy Systems Services); and
• “How the EU Can Reset Its Adaptation Partnership with Africa” (authored by Hanna Knaepen, European Center for Development Policy Management).

While attendees differed on the path forward, a few common themes emerged:?

• The EU needs to work with African partners to develop a shared vision for nexus issues - not come to the table with a pre-envisioned program or end state.?
• Actors in this space need to develop both a policy and political argument for nexus issues - recognizing that the two might not always be aligned.
• Financing the green transition remains a core issue combining lack of climate finance (especially adaptation finance) on the donor side and a growing debt crisis on the recipient side. Without addressing both of these gaps, the green transition will not be successful.?
• The security sector has currently untapped potential to fill funding and programming gaps.

In the context of the U.S. presidential election results - and likely backslide in U.S. climate leadership - these observations and this partnership are even more critical. As we look forward to an uncertain 2025, we’ll be keeping a close eye on COP29, the G20 and final months of the Biden-Harris Administration. Until then, we’ll be reading:?

• CarbonBrief: “Who wants what at the COP29 climate change summit”
• The Guardian: “‘A wrecking ball’: experts warn Trump’s win sets back global climate action”?
• FAO-WFP: “Hunger Hotspots: FAO–WFP early warnings on acute food insecurity: November 2024 to May 2025 outlook”
• C40 Cities: “Eight million climate migrants predicted to arrive in ten Global South cities by 2050 if emissions don’t fall”?

Nexus25 is a joint initiative from global experts at Istituto Affari Internazionali and the Center for Climate and Security funded by Stiftung Mercator. For more from the Nexus25 team, go to www.nexus25.org for our full body of research or click the “subscribe” button in the upper right corner of the page.