Global Leaders Stepped Up for Renewable Energy, Protecting Rainforests, and Life-Saving Support for Children:

• The Protect the Amazon (PTA) campaign has raised $280 million to date to protect and restore 25 million hectares of the Amazon rainforest
• 4.6 million homes across Africa will be powered by 2030, thanks to commitments from the European Commission, Pele Energy Group, Globaleq, and Energea 
• More than $140 million was mobilized for children’s education and nutrition, including more than $30 million for the FIFA Global Citizen Education Fund

The Global Citizen Festival Campaign Continues to Drive Action, Looking Ahead to What’s Coming Up Next: 

• Momentum is building for Global Citizen Festival: Amazônia on November 1, as Global Citizen continues driving investments toward its $1 billion goal to protect the rainforest.
• The Scaling Up Renewables in Africa campaign is charging ahead towards Global Citizen NOW: Johannesburg and the G20 Summit in late November, where Global Citizen will push for more transformative commitments for Africa’s clean energy future.
• Global Citizen is well on its way to meeting the $100 million goal for the FIFA Global Citizen Education Fund by the 2026 FIFA World Cup, ensuring access to education and football for 30,000 children in need worldwide

On Saturday, September 27, Central Park’s Great Lawn once again became a rallying ground for action as the Global Citizen Festival returned to New York City. The event united 60,000 Global Citizens with world-renowned artists, leaders, and philanthropists to close out a powerful week of action. Now in its 13th year, the Festival coincided with both the United Nations General Assembly and Climate Week NYC, amplifying urgent calls for leaders across all sectors to take bold steps to end extreme poverty. The momentum built throughout the week — including pledges announced at Global Citizen NOW: Impact Sessions just days earlier on September 24 — carried onto the Festival stage for an unforgettable night of music and advocacy.

This year’s Festival served as a rallying point for some of Global Citizen’s most ambitious goals yet. Over the past year, and intensively in the months leading up to the Festival, Global Citizens mobilized around three core campaigns: expanding renewable energy access across Africa, protecting and restoring the Amazon rainforest, and broadening education and football opportunities for children. Specifically, the 2025 Festival campaign set clear targets: to mobilize $200 million to safeguard 30 million hectares of the Amazon, provide quality education and football access for 30,000 children worldwide in partnership with FIFA, and deliver energy access to 1 million people across Africa, all of which serve Global Citizen’s greater mission to end extreme poverty within a generation.

Along the way, these campaigns took Global Citizen all over the world, with stops in Kigali, Lagos, Brussels, Sevilla, Detroit, Belém, and, for the first time ever, Southeast Asia with Global Citizen Nights: Singapore, held in partnership with Tsao Pao Chee and the No.17 Foundation. Together, these moments delivered momentum across campaigns at a time of mounting global urgency. With several countries’ official development assistance (ODA) declining and aid gaps widening, both Impact Sessions and Global Citizen Festival helped set the stage for greater ambition and solidarity in the lead-up to COP30 in Belém, Brazil and the G20 Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa, both in November 2025.

This week of events was also a celebration of the impact of Global Citizen’s millions-strong movement of action takers. Continuing its legacy of blending the power of music and pop culture with impactful advocacy, Global Citizen transforms festival stages into platforms where world leaders can make policy and financial commitments that drive real change. As always, tickets were free and earned by attendees by taking action — including signing petitions, making calls, and writing messages — reinforcing the notion that when people raise their voices together, change inevitably follows. From the 2025 stage, global superstars including Shakira, Cardi B, Tyla, Ayra Starr, Mariah the Scientist, Camilo, and Elyanna, with a special appearance by ROSÉ and surprise performances by Evaluna Montaner and Rema, stood alongside advocates, philanthropists, business leaders, and government officials to rally around shared priorities for people and the planet.

Global Citizen NOW: Impact Sessions Set the Stage

The Global Citizen Festival is strategically timed to coincide with United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) Week, the foremost global convening of world leaders. By aligning with major summits such as UNGA and the G20, Global Citizen ensures that the voices of the world’s most vulnerable and underrepresented populations remain firmly on the global agenda. This timing also enables world leaders to take the Global Citizen stage to deliver announcements and commitments before a global audience that amplify the same urgent issues being debated just miles away at the UN.

2025 carries particular significance as it marks the 80th anniversary of the United Nations — a milestone that poses a pressing question: What must the next era of international cooperation look like if the world is to meet today’s most urgent challenges? To help frame that conversation, Global Citizen convened the third annual Global Citizen NOW: Impact Sessions, a high-level summit designed to foster dialogue, strengthen international solidarity, and mobilize collective action.

Hosted by Sabrina Dhowre Elba, Chair of the Global Citizen European Board, the day-long program featured keynote addresses, fireside chats, and dynamic panels that elevated diverse voices from the frontlines of global challenges. Discussions centered on concrete solutions, innovative partnerships, and forward-looking policy frameworks to reimagine global systems so they serve people and the planet, not the other way around.

This year’s Sessions built on momentum from earlier Global Citizen NOW summits, held in New York City in April, Sevilla in June, and Detroit and Belém, both in July — which advanced major progress in our Protect the Amazon and Scaling Up Renewables in Africa campaigns. Global Citizen NOW is the organization’s premier thought leadership conference series, first launched in 2022. As a continuation of that work, the 2025 Sessions acted as both a checkpoint and a catalyst, aligning commitments with the global milestones ahead, from COP30 in Brazil to the G20 in South Africa.

Impact Sessions convened an extraordinary coalition of partners, including corporations investing in sustainability, governments advancing policy reform, and NGOs delivering services to those most in need on the ground. Speakers included Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission; Julius Maada Bio, President of Sierra Leone; Jennifer Geerlings-Simons, President of Suriname; Ralph Gonsalves, Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines; Gaston Browne, Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda; and Francia Márquez, Vice President of Colombia. Other high-level participants included The Rt Hon Baroness Chapman of Darlington, UK Minister of State for Development; Pemmy Majodina, Minister of Water & Sanitation, South Africa; Sara Beysolow Nyanti, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Liberia; Puyr Tembé, Secretary of Indigenous Peoples of the State of Pará, Reforest Our Minds; Thani Mohamed Soilihi, France’s Minister Delegate for Francophonie and International Partnerships; and a keynote address by Ban Ki-moon, 8th Secretary-General of the United Nations.

Beyond that, inspiring advocates and public and private sector leaders included James C. Deutsch, CEO, Rainforest Trust; Esther Kimani, CEO & Founder, Farmer Lifeline Technologies; Alvaro Lario, President of the UN’s International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD); Caroline Hyde, Bloomberg TV Anchor, Rémy Rioux, Director General of the Agence Française de Développement Group (AFD) and Chair of the Finance in Common Coalition; Yasmine Sherif, Former CEO, Education Cannot Wait; Michael Gaffey, Director General of Irish Aid; Omar Abdi, UNICEF’s Deputy Executive Director for Programs; Anna Hakobyan, Chief Impact Officer & Executive Director Nutrition of the Children's Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF), and many more. Several former Global Citizen Prize winners returned to share their perspectives, including Valeriia Rachynska, Director of Human Rights, 100% Life; Lydia Amenyaglo, Creative Director of the Ghana Food Movement, and Omowumi Ogunrotimi, Executive Lead, Gender Mobile Initiative. 

A series of dynamic panels put different sectors, industries, and perspectives in conversation to unpack some of the world’s most pressing issues, with insights into how Global Citizen’s campaigns seek to address them. One such discussion, “Energizing Africa: The Role of the Private Sector,” spotlighted the pivotal role Africa is posed to play in the global energy transition. The high-level dialogue explored how African and global energy leaders are driving renewable infrastructure, mobilizing capital, and expanding equitable access to power. Speakers showcased the continent’s leadership in clean energy while surfacing the policy, financing, and partnership innovations needed to accelerate progress and contribute to the global goal of tripling renewable energy capacity by 2030. The panel featured Chebet Chikumbu, Managing Director of Growth Strategy and Stakeholder Management at Harith General Partners, Jonathan Hoffman, CEO of Globeleq, and Mike Silvestrini, Co-Founder of Energea, who highlighted opportunities, challenges, and the private sector’s vital role in catalyzing new commitments from governments, investors, and companies to scale renewable energy across Africa.

At its core, the day challenged speakers and attendees to reimagine solutions to the interlocking crises of climate change, public health, multilateralism under threat, and supplementing financing for both humanitarian needs today and long-term investments in fair financing and equitable development, charting a roadmap for turning urgent dialogue into meaningful progress. 

What To Know About This Year’s Global Citizen Festival

Just days later, on September 27, Global Citizen Festival returned to Central Park, building on the urgency and vision set earlier in the week to transform policy-heavy dialogue into a rallying cry of thousands — the definition of amplifying the movement. Headlined by Cardi B and Shakira, with show-stopping performances by Tyla, Rosé, Ayra Starr, Mariah the Scientist, Camilo, Elyanna, with surprise appearances by Evaluna Montaner and Rema, Global Citizen Festival 2025 was hosted by longtime Global Citizen Ambassador Hugh Jackman, joined by co-hosts Bill Nye, Adam Lambert, Danai Gurira, and Liza Koshy. The evening was studded with appearances by inspiring advocates and changemakers, including Kristen Bell, Tony Goldwyn, Laurie Hernandez, Vladimir Duthiers, Lydia Kekeli Amenyaglo, Ramesh Ferris, and Taily Terena, with Global Citizen Prize Winners Kimani, Ogunrotimi, and Rachynska joining once again.

In a Festival first, the show opened with Solstice Unites, who hosted a historic Global Powwow honoring the land and its ancestral stewards, symbolically passing the torch to Indigenous leaders in Brazil who will host the next upcoming Global Citizen Festival: Amazônia in Belém on November 1. The ceremony transitioned to a special performance by the women-led samba reggae marching band Fogo Azul NYC, who kicked off the show with a powerful drumline performance featuring 50 drummers who set the tone for an unforgettable day of music and action. 

For those unable to attend, the festival was broadcast to millions worldwide across 75 countries and territories, with livestreams via YouTube, Apple Music and the Apple TV app, the Amazon Music En Vivo channel on Twitch, the Amazon Live FAST channel on Prime Video and FireTV, Brut, DITU, iHeartRadio, Mediacorp, Veeps, ViX, VIZIO WatchFree+, the Global Citizen website, and the Global Citizen app. For the first time, audiences in India could watch the festival on the big screen, with PVR INOX Cinemas showing it the next day on Sunday, September 28 in theaters. The Festival was proudly presented by Cisco. Major Partners included Authentic Brands Group, Bridgewater Associates, Delta Air Lines, PayPal and Venmo, and P&G; Live Nation served as Production Partner; iHeartMedia as Exclusive U.S. Audio Partner; and New York City Parks as Location Partner. The event was produced by Emmy Award-winning companies Done+Dusted and Diversified Production Services. Global Citizen is also grateful for the support of leading media companies, including adFUZE, Atmosphere TV, Branded Cities, Captivate, Digital Mobile Media, Grocery TV, GSTV, Interstate Outdoor, New Tradition, NYC Tourism + Conventions, Orange Barrel, Outfront Media, PMC: Penske Media Corporation, Secret NYC, Seen Media, TouchTunes, Trooh, and the Wall Street Journal.

Global Citizen’s Three Priority Policy Campaigns

Rather than a standalone moment, Global Citizen Festival 2025 marked the midway point in a year of sustained campaigning powered by millions of actions from everyday citizens around the world. This collective effort built momentum, generated public pressure, and helped secure early commitments from world leaders before the Festival stage was set.

The campaign established ambitious, measurable goals. These included expanding energy access for 1 million people across Africa, setting out to provide quality education and football opportunities for 30,000 children worldwide, and mobilizing $200 million to protect the Amazon rainforest — an area roughly the size of Italy, home to more than 20 billion trees, and critical to global climate stability. Closer to the Central Park Great Lawn, Global Citizen also sought to engage 40,000 New Yorkers as volunteers, supporting communities across all five boroughs. 

Mobilizing Millions to Protect the Amazon

The Amazon rainforest, one of Earth’s most vital ecosystems, remained at the heart of Global Citizen’s 2025 campaign. Building on the launch of the year-long climate action effort in Rio de Janeiro in November 2024, Global Citizen is spotlighting three key priorities: ending deforestation by 2030, accelerating a just energy transition, and supporting communities on the frontlines of climate change. The campaign is driving momentum toward COP30 in Belém, Brazil, and will culminate with Global Citizen Festival: Amazônia on November 1. Its ultimate ambition? To mobilize $1 billion to protect and restore the Amazon. The moment couldn’t be more urgent, as deforestation across the Amazon threatens the ecosystem’s stability, with 10 soccer fields worth of rainforest land lost every minute.

Citizen action has been central to sustaining progress. Partnering with Coldplay, Global Citizen mobilized more than 350,000 actions worldwide demanding stronger Amazon protections. This collective pressure led directly to Norway’s $60 million recommitment to the Amazon Fund, announced by Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre at Global Citizen NOW: Rio de Janeiro. The campaign reached its halfway milestone at Global Citizen NOW: Amazônia in July 2025, where the startup Axcell announced a $4.5 million investment in conservation. 

To accelerate progress, the 2025 Global Citizen Festival issued urgent calls to world leaders. Specifically, Global Citizen is continuing to urge the governments of Germany, France, and Norway to double down on their recognition of their responsibility to safeguard the shared future of the planet. With COP30 taking place in the heart of the rainforest, renewed international leadership is critical to ensuring that one of the world’s most biodiverse ecosystems is preserved for generations to come.

This campaign also builds on significant progress secured in earlier years. At the 2023 Global Citizen Festival, Pará State Governor Helder Barbalho pledged to protect 1 million hectares of land by 2025. Returning in 2024, he confirmed that 500,000 hectares had been officially designated as protected lands, further announcing that 200,000 hectares of illegally occupied Indigenous lands would be returned to their rightful stewards. Brazil’s Minister of Indigenous Peoples Sônia Guajajara also pledged to remove illegal loggers, miners, and farmers from seven Indigenous territories and to implement 10 new territorial and environmental management plans before COP30. Meanwhile, Colombia’s Minister of Environment Susana Muhamad announced new restrictions on oil and gas expansion in the Amazon, confirmed they would be enshrined in Colombia’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement, and pledged to convene a historic first dialogue among all Amazon nations on phasing out fossil fuel activity. Together, these commitments showed how political leadership, and international cooperation, sharpened by citizen engagement, can drum up momentum toward substantive climate action. 

Major commitments to protect the Amazon advanced even further this year. At Impact Sessions, Suriname reaffirmed its commitment to remaining the most forested nation on Earth — and set a bold new standard for climate leadership. With 90% forest coverage across 14 million hectares, it is one of the world’s most vital carbon sinks (an area that absorbs more carbon dioxide than it emits). Though Suriname has the highest forest cover of any country in the world, most of which is untouched, it faces increasing ongoing threats from mining and other extractive industries. In response, at Impact Sessions President Jennifer Geerlings-Simons committed to adopt the Sustainable Nature Management Act by the end of 2025, a landmark piece of legislation that will enable the country to strengthen its domestic forest protection and enforcement measures. President Geerlings-Simons put it simply: “We have 90% forest coverage — we want to keep it that way. Citizens have always got to take action. Politicians and businesses alone will not do the job.” The new law will allow for stronger legal mandates and mechanisms to protect Suriname’s forests, while also providing a path towards recognizing and protecting Indigenous and Tribal peoples’ ancestral land rights. 

Backing this historic pledge, a coalition of philanthropies — including the Rainforest Trust, Re:wild, Andes Amazon Fund, the Liz Claiborne Foundation, and Art Into Acres — announced $20 million to help fund the creation and management of new conservation areas. These organizations will work directly with in-country partners to establish and manage protected and conserved areas, with a focus on bringing sustainable jobs for Indigenous and traditional communities through ventures such as ecotourism. With this unique combination of legal reform and financial investment, Suriname’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Melvin W. J. Bouva announced on the Global Citizen Festival stage that the country will be able to permanently protect 90% of its forests. With this action, Suriname is raising the bar for global climate ambition, showing what it looks like to balance conservation with economic development and how a small nation can lead the way in protecting our planet’s future.

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) announced a landmark $100 million pledge channeled through its Amazonia Forever Program to support conservation and sustainable development across the Amazon region. This commitment is designed to both empower local communities and address climate resilience needs. Of the total pledge, $25 million will strengthen Indigenous, Afro-descendant, and riverine communities by supporting bio-businesses and adaptation projects that sustain both livelihoods and biodiversity. The remaining $75 million will be directed through the Water Security Fund, increasing water security and resilience in some of the poorest communities of the Amazon. Announcing the pledge during his keynote at Impact Sessions, IDB President Ilan Goldfajn emphasized both the regional and global importance of this investment: “Global Citizens, come, let’s work together. Amazonia is very important for all of us.” 

Also at Impact Sessions, Everland broke the breaking news that it had successfully secured $135 million to help provide long-term, stable financing for Indigenous-led forest conservation efforts in the Amazon. This landmark funding will strengthen community-driven initiatives, preserve vital ecosystems, and ensure that Indigenous peoples on the frontlines of the rainforest have the resources they need to safeguard their lands for generations to come. This kind of direct investment in frontline communities is vital because although Indigenous people make up just 6% of the world's population, they protect 80% of Earth's remaining biodiversity. Additionally, Thistlerock Mead Company — the US’ first net-zero honey winery — demonstrated how even small businesses can drive impact in the fight against climate change and biodiversity loss. The company pledged to protect 1 million acres of the Amazon rainforest by 2027 and raise $10 million for Amazon conservation funding in partnership with Global Citizen, Re:wild, and a coalition of worldwide food and beverage partners.

Over on the Global Citizen Festival stage, a groundbreaking alliance was announced: the Jaguar Rivers Initiative, launched by Rewilding Argentina and Onçafari. Backed by an initial pledge of $26 million, this mechanism will protect, restore, and reconnect ecosystems across more than 250 million hectares of the Paraná River Basin and the Pantanal, spanning countries including Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, and Paraguay. Investments include the permanent protection of the 66,000-hectare Santa Tereza Reserve in Brazil, restoration and community development across Argentina’s 750,000-hectare Iberá Park, and strengthened engagement in communities in Bolivia’s Pantanal, Chaco, and cloud forests. By reconnecting rivers and creating wildlife corridors, the Initiative aims to give wildlife the space they need to roam again, while simultaneously supporting livelihoods and protecting one of the largest freshwater systems on Earth.

Adding to this momentum, the City of Rio de Janeiro unveiled plans for a new Rio Nature & Climate Week, a five-year initiative in partnership with Global Citizen, Re:wild, and local partners, that will convene leaders across sectors to accelerate climate and biodiversity action, ensuring the Global South is at the forefront of shaping solutions. 

Together, the commitments announced this year under the Protect the Amazon campaign represent a powerful step forward: more than $280 million mobilized to safeguard 25 million hectares of rainforest. In total, Global Citizen and its partners have now secured $345.5 million toward the campaign’s ultimate goal of $1 billion, setting a clear path of ambition ahead of COP30 in November. The Protect the Amazon campaign is not just driving urgent protection today, but laying the foundation for transformative change in the years ahead.

Ensuring Quality Education for Children Globally

At last year’s 2024 Global Citizen Festival, Global Citizen and FIFA formally launched the FIFA Global Citizen Education Fund, a bold initiative with the goal of raising $100 million by the 2026 FIFA World Cup Final. The Fund is designed to expand access to quality education and football in underserved communities across more than 150 countries by providing grants for community-based programs and FIFA’s Football for Schools initiative, which focuses on fostering learning, life skills, and community development through the power of sport. As part of the partnership, Global Citizen produced FIFA’s first-ever Club World Cup Final halftime show, featuring performances by J Balvin, Tems, Doja Cat, Emmanuel Kelly, and a surprise appearance by Coldplay at MetLife Stadium. Looking ahead, Global Citizen will return with another halftime show in July 2026 at the FIFA World Cup Final. 

The urgent need for efforts like this are undeniable. According to UNESCO, 250 million children worldwide lack basic literacy skills. Without access to basic building blocks for a successful life including safe classrooms, essential nutrition, and adequate healthcare, children cannot achieve the foundational basics they need to learn and thrive. In response, the 2025 Global Citizen Festival campaign is calling on governments, philanthropies, and Fortune 500 companies to step up with investments to help 30,000 children gain essential reading and writing skills while enriching their education through access to football.

On the road to next year’s deadline, this campaign set a short-term target of $30 million by Global Citizen Festival, a milestone that was exceeded through new investments, donations, and ticket contributions toward the Fund, putting Global Citizen and FIFA more than 30% of the way towards its final goal. The campaign successfully mobilized contributions from organizations including $9 million from MetLife Foundation, a founding donor, as well as contributions from Bank of America and Cisco, as well as the Republic of Sierra Leone, with every financial contribution matched to organizations based in the country as well. In addition, France has indicated its strong support for the Fund, its mission, and values. At Impact Sessions, Rémy Rioux, the Director General of Agence Française de Développement Group (AFD), explained that the agency has already invested in more than 200 youth education programs but is determined to take this commitment further by engaging directly with the Fund. He said, “While I cannot yet share the exact details, as this is the beginning of our common journey, I want to emphasize how excited we are about what you are seeking to achieve with the FIFA Global Citizen Education Fund. You can count on the French Development Agency — and on France — to stand with you in advancing the education and sport agenda."

Supplementing these contributions were proceeds worth more than $2.4 million from tickets sold to some of the biggest live music and entertainment events in the world today, including The Weeknd’s “After Hours til Dawn Tour,” the FIFA Club World Cup 2025, and FIFA Collect, an initiative devoted to expanding access to quality education and football for children around the world. The journey to securing the Fund’s final goal of $100 million remains ongoing, however. To reach it, the campaign is continuing to urge world leaders — including French President Emmanuel Macron and Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever — to step up, invest in children’s education, and commit to providing the essential services that make learning possible. 

To that end, at the Impact Sessions, leaders from governments, philanthropies, and foundations announced major new commitments to UNICEF’s Child Nutrition Fund (CNF), a groundbreaking financial mechanism to end undernutrition worldwide, coordinate international funding streams in one place, and scale proven, life-saving solutions for mothers and children. Today, nearly half of all child deaths under five worldwide are caused by malnutrition, while more than 148 million children are stunted and 45 million suffer from wasting, facing lifelong developmental setbacks. However, the challenge to overcoming the world’s undernutrition crisis is not discovering solutions, but rather delivering them, with the coordination and financing to match the scale of the challenge at hand. CNF, a global effort designed to fast-track proven interventions to undernutrition everywhere, aims to outmaneuver the obstacles in place to scaling nutrition solutions by pooling donor funds together to better reach the highest-need countries, matching national investments dollar-for-dollar from a CNF-managed fund, and strengthening local production of nutrition interventions within the countries facing the most severe food insecurity and undernutrition needs in the world today. 

And right now, a match program launched at last year’s UNGA is enabling contributions up to $500 million to the CNF to be matched, doubling every donation for a total of $1 billion. With this funding, the CNF would be even better equipped to achieve its goal of reaching 320 million women and children every year by 2030 with the nutrition they need to survive and thrive, scaling its impact and accelerating its reach. 

Some countries are already answering this call to action. At Impact Sessions, Ireland pledged €10 million, with Irish Aid Director-General Michael Gaffey stressing the importance of citizen action in driving accountability. “Citizen action is much more important now than it has ever been,” he explained. “Ireland is not cutting its [aid] budgets, we're working to increase the budgets, but that's because we have the support of our citizens and we need to continue to earn that support and to do so by showing the impact of what we do, and that is something that Global Citizen does brilliantly.” Canada followed shortly afterwards with a C$78 million commitment. Canadian Secretary of State for International Development Randeep Sarai highlighted the vision behind the pledge, stating, “Every child deserves the chance to grow, to dream, and to reach their full potential. When we invest in child nutrition, we invest in a more prosperous world for us all.” Both of these contributions were fully matched for double the impact.

And as other countries around the world shrink their aid budgets, some philanthropies are stepping up. The ELMA Relief Foundation increased a pledge it had made previously by $4 million, bringing its total contribution to $10 million. CEO Thomas McPartland cited the Fund’s singular ability to catalyze domestic government investment in nutrition and reach those most in need as the primary reason behind the decision to up its financial support. In addition, the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF) pledged nearly $40 million to the CNF in the interest of strengthening nutrition systems and expanding access to evidence-based interventions, from fortified supplements and foods to ready-to-use therapeutic treatments in humanitarian settings.

Scaling Up Renewable Energy Access for Millions in Africa

Last year, Global Citizen also launched its year-long campaign Scaling up Renewables in Africa (SURA) alongside European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, with the support of the International Energy Agency. The campaign will culminate in a pledging conference on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Johannesburg in November 2025. This conference will aim to secure commitments from governments, the private sector, and multilateral banks towards the COP28 objective of tripling renewable energy capacity by 2030. The challenge is clear: today, 675 million people across Africa still live in energy poverty and lack access to electricity. With the continent’s population set to boom, so will its demand for power — but still, too many communities lack reliable access. To address this issue head-on, the SURA campaign seeks to mobilize at least $1.5 billion to train 50,000 young workers with the skills they need to secure jobs in the energy industry, such as solar installation, grid maintenance, and regular energy services. 

If successful, this effort has the potential to deliver clean, reliable power to 1 million people. More than just providing the tech infrastructure to achieve this, this campaign also seeks to build up economic opportunity and resilience across the continent, creating jobs, supporting nascent renewable industries, reducing emissions, and ultimately accelerating Africa’s green transition equitably to unlock further investment and build up the continent’s clean energy future. Specifically, Global Citizen is calling on the governments with the tools to help African businesses build up clean energy systems, like Denmark, Norway, and the UK, as well as private companies to back these efforts.  

At Impact Sessions and Global Citizen Festival, those calls were answered. Pledges for new renewable energy projects and investments across the continent were officially revealed. Together, they total enough to connect more than 4.6 million households with power across Africa by 2030 — far exceeding the Festival’s initial target of securing commitments to provide just 1 million people with energy access. 

First, the South African energy company Globaleq announced at Impact Sessions that it would commit to delivering 1.3 gigawatts of new renewable power generation across Africa, enough to power the equivalent of 1.5 million households. Via a video announcement played at Global Citizen Festival, CEO Jonathan Hoffman explained the transformative impact, stating “Power generation is like building the foundation of the house,” or creating the base from which economies can grow. “You can build on more when you have more power generation. So we think what we are able to do at Globaleq in delivering this power generation in Africa will help build the economy.” 

Additionally, Pele Energy Group, another South African-based energy company, announced one of the largest renewable energy commitments ever made on a Global Citizen stage: a pledge to deliver 10 gigawatts of new renewable power generation over the next 10 years. This ambitious expansion will electrify 3.1 million households within five years and ultimately reach 6.25 million households across 11 countries in Africa within a decade (South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Botswana, Eswatini, Namibia, Kenya, Ghana, Senegal, Mozambique, and Angola). In a video announcement, CEO Gqi Raoleka reflected on the hope for both an energy and social transformation embedded within this pledge. “For us as an organization, meeting an organization such as Global Citizen is a continuation of our purpose, of our ethos, and a perfect alignment of entities who are preoccupied with a social imperative that…fundamentally leads to the change that we all want to see in eradicating global poverty.”

During Impact Sessions, Energea, an impact-focused energy investment platform, announced a bold new commitment of $250 million over the next five years to expand renewable energy projects across Africa. Focused predominantly on building up solar power capacity, this investment will go directly into building new, on-the-ground assets that bring clean, reliable electricity to communities that need it most. For Energea, the priority is turning pledges into real progress. “There’s been so much money pledged to energize the unenergized in Africa, but very little of it is actually making its way into real assets — the steel in the ground that’s generating electricity,” explained Mike Silvestrini, Co-Founder of Energea. “That’s really our specialty.” 

By setting concrete targets and providing public accountability measures, Global Citizen is pushing private companies to contribute to the Scaling Up Renewables in Africa campaign transparently while also creating enabling environments for bold commitments to really take hold — ensuring that capital flows where it needs to go into making real, measurable progress. These commitments set the stage for the grand finale of the campaign at the G20 in Johannesburg later this year, where governments and more businesses like Harith General Partners and Transenergy Global will come together to scale up renewables in Africa.

At Impact Sessions, the European Commission announced how a package to fund clean energy projects across Africa in support of the SURA campaign will be allocated, building on its €3.4 billion pledge first made at COP28 in 2023. Speaking via video message to the crowds at Central Park, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen emphasized the urgency of these investments, saying “Today, 600 million people in Africa still live without access to electricity. Children do their homework by candlelight. Hospitals operate in the dark. Friends, we can no longer tolerate this. Africa needs access to power, and together, we can provide it.” Specific projects include a €350 million high-voltage transmission line in Côte d’Ivoire, €33 million towards mini electrical grids in rural areas of Madagascar, and nearly €60 million to expand rural electricity access for 2.5 million people across 687 Cameroonian communities, among other projects in Somalia, Ghana, Madagascar, Mozambique, the Republic of Congo, Lesotho, and Central Africa, altogether totaling $640 million. 

This is still just the beginning of what the SURA campaign hopes to accomplish. The stage is being set for its grand finale at the G20 in Johannesburg later this year in November, where governments and businesses will come together to mobilize new financing and scale bold climate and development commitments, hopefully delivering real progress for the world’s most vulnerable communities.

Total Commitments From Global Citizen Festival 2025 

The 2025 Global Citizen Festival united global artists, world leaders, activists, and grassroots organizations, marking the 13th anniversary of impact straight from the Great Lawn in Central Park in the fight to end extreme poverty.

In 2024, Global Citizens took 3.4 million actions (the previous record during a Festival campaign), helping drive commitments worth more than $1 billion. Key highlights included new pledges from the UK, Denmark, and Spain toward the World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA), advancing its $120 billion funding target to provide grants and concessional financing for 77 of the world’s most vulnerable countries. Brazil and Colombia also announced new efforts to protect oceans, forests, and biodiversity, while more than $500 million was committed to support global vaccination initiatives and humanitarian aid worldwide. 

Over the last 13 years, Global Citizen has helped deploy $49 billion in commitments, impacting 1.3 billion lives worldwide. These milestones prove that while Global Citizen’s mission to defeat poverty and defend the planet is bold, tangible progress can be achieved when people campaign collectively, act strategically, and demand bold actions from our leaders. 

At this year’s Festival, that momentum only grew stronger. Global Citizens took 4.3 million actions — the most in the New York Festival’s history — calling on world leaders, philanthropists, corporations, and organizations to step up with bold commitments to end extreme poverty. The results were clear: the commitments announced this week represent a new wave of ambitious financial and policy pledges, proving that citizen action has the power to shift global winds and drive real change:

Beyond the Stage

In addition to driving global commitments, this year’s Festival campaign also sought to activate hundreds of New Yorkers to take action right at home in their own communities. For the second year in a row, Global Citizen mobilized volunteers for environmental clean-ups across the city. On September 13, Global Citizen partnered with The Bowery Mission to host Global Citizen Day, where volunteers served meals and provided care for neighbors experiencing poverty. A week later, on September 19, Global Citizen organized a beach cleanup at Canarsie Pier in partnership with the Jamaica Bay-Rockaway Parks Conservancy, with support from Goodera and in collaboration with the Black Surfing Association East Coast Chapter, helping protect New York City’s coastline in line with Global Citizen’s overall mission of inspiring people to take action to defend the planet, starting locally in their own backyards. Global Citizen also partnered with Goodera to drive 40,000 sign-ups for volunteer opportunities to provide career development mentorship for young people around the world, including resume and interview guidance.

Beyond these events, Global Citizen also supported mission-aligned nonprofits including South Bronx Unite, Bedford-Stuyvesant YMCA, Breaking Ground, Citymeals on Wheels, Covenant House, Expecting Relief, Henry Street Settlement, South Asian Youth Action (SAYA), South Bronx Unite, and Women in Need, Inc., across all five boroughs. Volunteers who joined these efforts earned free tickets to the Global Citizen Festival in exchange for their time, emphasizing how in-person action can be the most impactful driving force behind lasting change in our communities. .

This year’s Global Citizen Festival was also the most sustainable to date. Thanks to a generous surplus of carbon credits donated by PlantVillage+, the Festival’s entire carbon footprint was offset, removing the equivalent emissions from the atmosphere while also generating long-term climate and agricultural benefits. These credits support the application of biochar, which improves soil health and water retention, reduces reliance on resource-intensive fertilizers, lowers emissions, and enhances food security for smallholder farmers. And with our continued partnership with Everland, our emissions were effectively offset twice over. 

On the Festival grounds, sustainability was embedded into every detail. For the second year running, the main stage was fully powered by the SmartGrid battery system pioneered on Coldplay’s Music of the Spheres world tour. Indigenous tree saplings were planted on site and later donated to the Central Park Conservancy. All food offerings were entirely vegetarian, with an expanded menu of vegan options, and served in compostable packaging.  To minimize waste, surplus meals were donated to local organizations such as RePlate and Friendly Fridge BX, while leftover aluminum cans were recycled through Sure We Can, a nonprofit recycling center and community hub in Brooklyn. Together, these efforts turned the Global Citizen Festival into a real-life demonstration of putting words into action when it comes to prioritizing the climate. 

This year, Global Citizen also joins Colossal as the official charity partner of their America's Next Top Hitmaker competition, where one standout performer of over 65,000 participants took the stage at the Global Citizen Festival pre-show 7. 

What’s Coming Up Next for Global Citizen

Global Citizen is the world’s leading international advocacy organization dedicated to ending extreme poverty NOW. Powered by a worldwide community of everyday advocates raising their voices and taking action, the movement is amplified by campaigns and events that convene leaders in music, entertainment, policy, philanthropy, media, and the private sector. Since its founding in Australia in 2008, more than $49 billion in commitments announced on Global Citizen platforms have been deployed, improving the lives of 1.3 billion people. Today, Global Citizen teams work across New York, Washington, Los Angeles, London, Paris, Berlin, Geneva, Melbourne, Toronto, Johannesburg, Lagos, and beyond.

The festival lights may have shut down in Central Park this year, but there’s much more action to come in 2025. On November 1, Global Citizen will bring the Festival to Latin America for the first time ever with Global Citizen Festival: Amazônia in Belém, featuring headliners Anitta, Seu Jorge, Gaby Amarantos, and Coldplay’s Chris Martin. There, we expect bold new commitments from partners like Energea and Everland, further strengthening the Protect the Amazon campaign and driving momentum into the year’s final milestone: Global Citizen NOW: Johannesburg coinciding with the G20 Summit, a historic gathering of leaders from the world’s largest economies who will be pressed to deliver on climate finance and commit to a fairer global financial system — critical steps toward ending extreme poverty and safeguarding the planet.

Moving into 2026, Global Citizen will again return to Africa to expand its Move Afrika initiative, the first-of-its-kind touring circuit with the intention to create jobs, strengthen local economies, and drive investment across the continent by building up its capacity to host world-class entertainment and touring events. Building on this year’s stops in Rwanda and Nigeria with John Legend headlining and partners pgLang and the Rwanda Development Board, the tour will continue with a new stop added to Johannesburg, South Africa. In Asia, Global Citizen made history with its first-ever Southeast Asia event, Global Citizen NOW: Singapore, closing out Impact Week in partnership with TPC and the NO.17 Foundation. Global Citizen looks forward to expanding its worldwide presence even further next year by forging new cross-continental partnerships and bringing its message to more stages and communities across the world. 

Global Citizen’s campaigns continue long after the Festival stage lights dim. These milestones on the road ahead prove that The Global Citizen Festival is more than just a celebration; it serves as a powerful coalescing point across campaigns benefiting people and the planet by providing a platform for individuals to unite, raise their voices, and demand meaningful change from those in power. By taking action with Global Citizen, individuals have the chance to voice their views, hold world leaders accountable, and advocate for meaningful change, proving that systemic change is possible when people everywhere act with urgency and purpose.

Global Citizen is the world's largest movement of action-takers and impact-makers dedicated to ending extreme poverty. We post, tweet, message, vote, sign, and call upon those who can effect change — government leaders, businesses, philanthropists, artists, and civil society — to come together to improve lives. We need everyone to join us. Download the Global Citizen app, take action, and add your voice. Because when millions of us speak in unison, world leaders cannot ignore us. To learn more, visit globalcitizen.org, and follow @GlblCtzn and @GlblCtznImpact, as well as on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, and LinkedIn.