The news broke on the second day of COP30, the 30th UN climate change conference held in Belem, in the Brazilian Amazon.
Richard Muyungi, chair of the Africa Group of Negotiators told AFP the group "has endorsed Ethiopia." The Brazilian presidency of COP30 confirmed the African countries' choice to AFP.
It's not yet official -- the decision still needs to be officially adopted by all participating nations during the conference, which ends on November 21 -- but that should be a formality.
"We welcome the announcement of COP32 in Ethiopia and look forward to elevating Africa's climate priorities and leadership," said Rukiya Khamis, Africa senior organiser at the nonprofit 350.org.
UN climate conferences are organized in rotation among five regional blocs, which must select the host country by consensus within their group. The process can lead to power struggles.
This year, Brazil was chosen to host COP30 on behalf of the Latin American and Caribbean states. Africa's turn is scheduled for 2027, and Ethiopia was selected as the host country over Nigeria, another African giant.
"We look forward to welcoming all of you to Addis Ababa for COP32," Ethiopian Ambassador to Brazil Leulseged Tadese Abebe said in response, during a plenary session, adding his country had begun initial preparations.
As the headquarters of the African Union (AU), the Ethiopian capital is well-versed in hosting major global events -- from AU annual meetings to numerous international conferences.
- COP31 deadlock -
Located in the Horn of Africa, the continent's second most populous country, with some 130 million inhabitants, faces intense periods of drought.
At the same time, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed likes to showcase his environmental commitment: his country was the first in the world to ban the import of internal combustion engine vehicles, and the government has pledged to plant billions of trees.
While Ahmed was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019, a year after coming to power, for his rapprochement with neighboring Eritrea, Ethiopia continues to face serious security challenges.
The war in Tigray, a region in northern Ethiopia, claimed at least 600,000 lives between 2020 and 2022, according to the African Union, and spilled over into the neighboring Afar region.
In recent days, tensions between Tigray and Afar have flared up again, and Ethiopian-Eritrean relations have deteriorated once more.
While the decision regarding the 2027 COP32 is awaiting official ratification, obstacles remain for COP31 next year.
Australia wants to host it in Adelaide and has more support, but Turkey refuses to concede and abandon its bid for Antalya.
Both countries belong to the "Western Europe and Other States" group.
Negotiations are ongoing, and a decision must be reached in Belem, otherwise COP31 will be held by default at the UN Climate Change headquarters in Bonn, Germany.
Such a deadlock would be unprecedented in the history of UN climate conferences.
Ethiopia's invasive prosopis tree chokes livelihoods and land
Ethiopia (AFP) Nov 12, 2025 -
Once hailed as a solution to Ethiopia's creeping desertification, a foreign tree is now spreading uncontrollably across the east African nation, threatening fragile ecosystems and the very survival of local communities.
Native to Latin America, the prosopis shrub-like tree was first planted in Ethiopia's northeastern Afar region in the 1970s.
It has become a nightmare for locals like livestock farmer Khadija Humed.
"Because of this plant, we have become poor," she told AFP.
Heat-resistant and fast-growing, prosopis initially promised to curb soil erosion and provide shade to cool the local micro-climate in Afar's arid lowlands.
But today it has overrun the region's vast plains -- its thorny, drooping branches rising up to 10 metres (33 feet) high.
Each tree can draw up to seven litres of water a day through its deep roots, drying out the soil and crippling agriculture.
The prosopis also harms livestock, local pastoralists say.
"The plant has turned against us," Hailu Shiferaw, a researcher at the Ethiopian Water and Land Resources Centre, told AFP.
"No one could have foreseen its harmful effects."
- 'Everything has changed' -
In Khadija's village, some 200 kilometres (124 miles) northeast of the capital Addis Ababa, she said the tree's pods make their cows sick, blocking their mouths and stomachs and killing some -- losses that have driven the community into deep poverty.
"I personally have 10 cows and more than 20 goats and sheep. But before prosopis, people here used to have 50 to 100 cattle," she said.
"Everything has changed," said 76-year-old local Yusuf Mohammed, adding that the tree's dense foliage attracted wild animals that attack their livestock.
"We never had wild animal attacks before... after prosopis spread, lions, hyenas, wild cats and foxes invaded our villages," Mohammed said.
Its poisonous thorns also injure livestock, leaving them too weak to roam for food, he added.
Worldwide, there are some 3,500 invasive species introduced by humans, many of which have damaged local ecosystems.
They cost local economies a total of $423 billion, according to a 2023 report by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services -- equivalent to the entire GDP of Denmark.
Ketema Bekele, associate professor of environmental economics at Ethiopia's Haramaya University, estimates that prosopis has cost Afar $602 million over the past three decades -- nearly four times its annual budget.
- Out of control -
Some 20,000 square-kilometres of Afar is now invaded by the plant, which is "out of control" and spreading into Amhara and Oromia, he said.
It covered 8.61 percent of Ethiopia in 2023, according to the Journal of Environmental Management published last year, up from 2.16 percent in 2003, while overall pastureland shrank by more than a quarter.
The report said prosopis could occupy 22 percent of Ethiopia's 1.1 million square kilometres by 2060.
Camels help it spread by eating the pods and excreting them far and wide.
CARE International, an NGO, has attempted to stop the spread since 2022 by encouraging locals to harvest the plant.
Supported by Danish fund Danida, it also removes the trees to plant fruit orchards.
It is controllable, said Mohammed, but more support is needed.
"We can't tackle it alone," he said.
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