The African Climate and Development Initiative (ACDI) was established in 2011 by the Vice Chancellor of the University of Cape Town as a strategic initiative, to “facilitate and substantially extend climate change research and education at UCT with the specific context of addressing the development challenges of Africa from an African perspective”. 

ACDI surpassed this initial mandate and achieved formal status as a university institute in 2018. Simultaneously, the African Research Universities Alliance (ARUA) awarded ‘Centre of Excellence’ (CoE) status for ‘Climate and Development’ to ACDI alongside partners at the Universities of Nairobi and Ghana. Viewed as one of the continent’s foremost climate change institutes, ACDI provides a platform for UCT’s and ARUA’s collective response to the challenge of climate change by coordinating and centralising resources to enable inter- and transdisciplinary research, teaching and learning in the areas of climate change and sustainable development across Africa and beyond.