What happens within a country can no longer be considered its concern alone in a global age.

As the world debates the successes, failures, and omissions of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, one inescapable conclusion is that Africa’s needs should be elevated on the global climate agenda. African leaders went into the conference with a clear agenda about the urgency of support for adaptation, the centrality of expanding access to power for Africans, and the overall need for partnering with African states on equal footing if the world is to have a realistic hope of saving itself.