Building on this framing, participants turned to Article 2.1(c) of the Paris Agreement, which, although frequently referenced, remains poorly understood. The provision calls for all finance flows, public versus private and international versus domestic, to align with low-emission, climate-resilient development pathways. But what does that look like in African contexts?
The discussion made one thing clear: alignment is not just a technical exercise. It is a political project. African countries are too often on the receiving end of narrowly defined interpretations that ignore adaptation, restrict concessionality, and impose one-size-fits-all pathways. The tension is visible in the gap between rising NDC ambition and scarce implementation finance.
Some, like Zambia, have integrated NDC considerations into national budgets and developed green finance tools, but uptake in the economy remains limited. In many cases, the finance that is mobilised arrives as debt rather than grants.
Participants also flagged a critical weakness: unlike other parts of the Paris Agreement, Article 2.1(c) is non-binding. This voluntary framing shifts the burden onto developing countries without matching the ambition with finance. Alignment strategies must go beyond creating national taxonomies; they must challenge systemic barriers and build a finance architecture fit for Africa’s realities.