African voices shaping the future, not observing it from the margins
As the world edges closer to deploying technologies that could reshape Earth's climate, the voices of those most vulnerable to its disruptions have remained largely absent from the deliberation. ACIFER — the African Climate Intervention Fellowship for Early-Career Researchers — emerges in 2026 as a deliberate corrective, inviting African scholars, students, and practitioners into the rooms where carbon removal and solar intervention are being debated and decided. Hosted by Emerging Climate Frontiers and running fully online from August through October at no cost, the fellowship is less about filling a skills gap than about rebalancing who holds the authority to define the future.
- Africa bears the harshest consequences of a climate crisis it did little to create, yet its researchers are routinely sidelined in the global conversations shaping climate intervention policy.
- Technologies like carbon dioxide removal and solar radiation modification are rapidly crossing from theory into governance frameworks and investment decisions — and the window to shape their ethical boundaries is narrowing.
- ACIFER responds with urgency: a fully funded, virtual, ten-week programme designed to move African early-career researchers from the margins of these debates to positions of genuine influence.
- The fellowship combines expert webinars, climate modelling training, policy brief writing, and mentorship — building not just knowledge but the credibility and networks needed to lead.
- With applications open now and the programme launching August 31, the fellowship is actively constructing an African research ecosystem grounded in scientific rigor, equity, and climate justice.
Across a continent that has contributed least to atmospheric carbon yet faces some of the world's most severe climate consequences, a new fellowship is working to change who gets to shape the response. ACIFER — the African Climate Intervention Fellowship for Early-Career Researchers — launches this August with a clear purpose: to build a generation of African scholars equipped to influence how humanity approaches carbon dioxide removal and solar radiation modification, two of the most contested and consequential frontiers in climate science.
Hosted by Emerging Climate Frontiers, the programme runs entirely online from August 31 to October 14, 2026, at no cost to participants. It is open to early-career researchers, master's and doctoral students, climate professionals, and innovators across the continent. The timing reflects a real urgency: as CDR and solar radiation modification move from academic debate into policy and investment decisions, African perspectives remain largely peripheral — present as observers, rarely as architects.
The fellowship is structured around depth and application. Beyond expert-led webinars on both intervention technologies, participants engage in climate modelling and impact assessment, research proposal development, and collaborative policy brief writing. Structured mentorship, peer learning, and direct networking with African and international specialists are woven throughout, culminating in proposal pitching sessions with pathways toward publication built in from the start.
What sets ACIFER apart is its explicit commitment to equity and voice. The governance choices being made now around climate intervention — who bears risk, what is permissible, whose development aspirations are protected — will define what is possible for decades. The fellowship insists that African researchers should not merely be trained within existing frameworks, but positioned to challenge and reshape them.
By removing financial barriers and operating virtually, ACIFER ensures that a researcher in Lagos, Nairobi, or Dakar has the same access as anyone in a major global research hub. What it builds is not just individual expertise but a growing ecosystem — an African-led research community capable of fundamentally altering the conversation about what climate intervention means for the continent's future.
Across Africa, a continent bearing the weight of climate change despite contributing least to its cause, a new fellowship is opening doors for researchers who have largely been absent from the rooms where the future of climate intervention is being decided. The African Climate Intervention Fellowship for Early-Career Researchers—ACIFER—launches this August with a straightforward mission: to build a generation of African scholars equipped not just with knowledge, but with the networks and credibility to shape how the world approaches two of the most contested frontiers in climate science: pulling carbon dioxide directly from the air, and reflecting sunlight back into space.
The fellowship, hosted by Emerging Climate Frontiers, runs from August 31 through October 14, 2026, entirely online and at no cost to participants. It targets early-career researchers, master's and doctoral students, climate professionals, and innovators across the continent. The timing is deliberate. As carbon dioxide removal and solar radiation modification move from theoretical debate into policy frameworks and investment decisions, African perspectives remain largely absent. The continent faces some of the severest climate impacts globally while having contributed the least to atmospheric carbon. Yet when international bodies discuss how to intervene in Earth's climate system, African voices are often peripheral—observers rather than architects.
The fellowship structure is built around depth rather than breadth. Participants will engage with expert-led webinars on both carbon dioxide removal and solar radiation modification, but also move beyond lecture halls into applied work: climate modelling and impact assessment training, hands-on research proposal development, collaborative policy brief writing. There is structured mentorship from established researchers and climate experts, peer learning with other fellows, and direct networking with both African and international specialists. The programme culminates in proposal pitching sessions, with pathways toward publication and research dissemination built in from the start.
What distinguishes ACIFER from standard capacity-building is its explicit framing around equity and voice. The fellowship acknowledges a gap that has become harder to ignore: as climate intervention technologies move from speculative to operational, the governance frameworks, ethical boundaries, and policy choices being made now will shape what is possible and permissible for decades. Africa's development aspirations, vulnerabilities, and priorities deserve to be embedded in those decisions from the beginning, not retrofitted later. The fellowship seeks to ensure African researchers are not simply trained in existing frameworks but positioned to challenge, reshape, and lead them.
Carbon dioxide removal encompasses a range of approaches—from direct air capture using industrial processes to nature-based solutions like reforestation and soil carbon sequestration. Solar radiation modification, by contrast, remains far more contentious: proposals to inject aerosols into the stratosphere or brighten clouds to reflect sunlight have sparked fierce debate about unintended consequences, governance authority, and who bears risk. Both fields are moving rapidly from academic curiosity into policy relevance, with major governments and private actors investing heavily. The absence of African expertise and African perspectives in these conversations is not a minor gap.
The fellowship is fully funded, removing the financial barrier that often excludes talented researchers from the Global South. Selected participants access all learning activities, mentorship, networking sessions, and resources at no cost. The virtual format means someone in Lagos, Nairobi, or Dakar can participate with the same access as someone in a major research hub. Eligibility is broad: anyone with serious interest in climate science, environmental policy, sustainability, climate governance, or environmental justice is encouraged to apply.
What emerges from ACIFER is not just individual capacity but ecosystem-building. The fellowship creates a growing network of African researchers and practitioners grounded explicitly in scientific rigor, equity, and climate justice. These are not abstract values—they shape which questions get asked, which solutions get pursued, which risks get taken seriously. An African-led research community in climate intervention could fundamentally alter the conversation about what these technologies mean for the continent's future. The fellowship opens in August. The application window is open now.
Notable Quotes
Africa faces some of the most severe impacts of climate change despite contributing the least to global greenhouse gas emissions, yet African perspectives are often absent from discussions shaping climate intervention research and policy.— Fellowship programme description
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
Why does it matter that African researchers are involved in climate intervention research specifically? Isn't climate science climate science?
Because the decisions being made right now about carbon removal and solar geoengineering will affect Africa profoundly, but Africa isn't in the room where those decisions are being made. These aren't just technical questions—they're questions about risk, about who benefits, about what gets tried first and where.
Can you give me a concrete example?
Solar radiation modification is a good one. If the world decides to inject aerosols into the stratosphere to cool the planet, the impacts on African rainfall patterns could be severe. But African climate scientists aren't leading that research. So the risks that matter most to Africa might not be the ones being studied hardest.
So this fellowship is about power, not just knowledge?
Exactly. It's about ensuring that when these technologies move from theory into policy—and they are moving fast—African voices are shaping the evidence base and the governance frameworks, not just responding to them afterward.
Who's eligible to apply?
Early-career researchers, master's and PhD students, climate professionals, policy practitioners, innovators. Anyone serious about climate science or environmental policy across Africa. The fellowship runs August through October, fully online, fully funded.
What do fellows actually do?
They work through expert-led training on both carbon removal and solar geoengineering, learn climate modelling, develop research proposals, write policy briefs, get mentored by established researchers, and build networks with other African and international experts. It's not passive learning—it's preparation to lead.
What happens after the fellowship ends?
Participants have pathways to publish their work, pitch their research proposals, and join a growing network of African researchers working on these questions. The goal is to build a continent-wide ecosystem of African-led climate intervention research that can inform both regional and global decisions.