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Participants at a recently held summit in France have called for coordinated and collective action to address the challenges posed by climate change and protect populations, ecosystems, and regional economies from its effects.
The Climate Chance Europe Africa Summit 2025, co-organised with the City of Marseille, mobilised the climate community in its diverse range of stakeholders: local authorities, NGOs, businesses, researchers, youth representatives, experts, decision-makers, and grassroots actors.
It brought together 1,500 participants from over 40 different nationalities across Europe and Africa, highlighting the importance of collective action on both the crucial issues of mitigation and adaptation.
The Marseille Declaration, the result of a collaborative process with major networks and organisations of non-state actors present in Marseille, calls for strengthened cooperation between Africa and Europe on adaptation. Its concrete recommendations will be presented to states and highlighted during major international climate events in 2025, notably the COP30 in Belém, Brazil.
At the European level, the summit will result in an Action Plan for Adaptation, derived from the discussions and proposals from the 40 sessions held during the summit. This plan will be presented at the end of May, following the synthesis of the workshops, and will be submitted to the European Commission, Member States, the European Parliament, and European institutions.
In 2026, the European Union will present its new adaptation strategy, with debates on its priorities beginning this year. The timing is ideal for delivering the operational proposals from the summit, contributing concretely to its development, and pushing forward the priority actions to be undertaken in the coming weeks and months, with the most representative international networks of non-state actors.
Ronan Dantec, President of Climate Chance, said: “This summit marks a milestone in the evolution of the climate community’s priorities. Today, we must combine adaptation and mitigation, and be realistic about climate warming trajectories, which are expected to exceed +2 degrees Celsius as per the Paris Agreement. Undertaking the necessary transitions for this adaptation must also be an opportunity to define new emission reduction actions, always with a focus on the social cohesion of our societies.”
Already signed by some networks and organisations (local authorities, NGOs, etc.), the Marseille Declaration is said to be open for signatures, and organisations wishing to sign are enjoined to contact association@climate-chance.org.
