Reinvigorating Europe-Africa Partnerships for Knowledge and Development

In the plans, European policymakers contemplate the charged question of what Europe was “to do with Africa,” setting out the EU’s position on the range of challenges faced by its closest neighbor; such challenges include state fragility, conflict, corruption, poverty, climate change, and environmental degradation. High-level coalition-building was similarly uniquely lacking between Europe and Africa at the Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) Summit hosted in Glasgow in November 2021, which was planned with the purpose of reaching an agreement on global climate responses. Compared to previous COPs where a united Europe partnered with African countries to gain wider agreement for emission targets, to inform the EU Green Deal, and to enable the Paris Agreement, in 2021 a divided EU was slower to agree on a common position, and despite pledging support for climate adaptation funds, ultimately blocked the crucial “loss and damage” clauses which would have enabled African countries to follow through on the desired climate pledges. [...]the negotiated agreements are fragile, despite impending environmental risks, and poorer African countries want to reframe and lobby for changes at the next COP27 planned for November 2022 in Egypt.