Nigeria requires an estimated $337 billion to implement its climate commitments across key sectors by 2035, the National Council on Climate Change (NCCC) has said.
Gatekeepers News reports that Omotenioye Majekodunmi, Director-General of the NCCC, disclosed this on Thursday during a pre-summit virtual webinar organised by the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG).
The webinar focused on bridging educational gaps and strengthening workforce readiness ahead of the 32nd NESG Economic Summit scheduled for October.
Represented by Adesola Olatunde, NCCC’s Chief Scientist, Majekodunmi said the funding would support climate interventions across the energy, transport, agriculture, forestry, waste and industrial sectors.
She said more than 80 percent of the required capital would have to come from private investment, commercial debt and international carbon finance.
“We are committed to an unconditional 29 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 using domestic resources, scaling to a 32 percent conditional reduction by 2035 as international climate technology transfers are unlocked,” she said.
“To deliver growth that works, every climate intervention must yield measurable economic returns, sustainable jobs, higher productivity and protect livelihoods across all political zones.”
Majekodunmi said Nigeria’s Nationally Determined Contribution 3.0 (NDC 3.0) was designed to advance the country towards its statutory target of achieving net-zero emissions by 2060.
“This Nationally Determined Contribution 3.0 also serves as the primary medium-term mechanism that is driving Nigeria towards a statutory target of net zero emissions by 2060. This already shows us that we have a long-term alignment,” she added.
Rather than viewing the funding requirement as a financial burden, the NCCC director-general said the scale of investment represented a major opportunity for the Nigerian economy.
“This scale demonstrates that the NDC isn’t a list of costs; it’s a $337 billion investment prospectus for the Nigerian economy. To convert these billions into active projects, the NCCC, alongside our institutional partners, is driving frameworks that unlock concrete commercial opportunities,” she said.
Majekodunmi said the council was developing frameworks to attract investment into areas such as renewable energy and power generation.
“We have seen a number of these in renewable energy and power generation. We are targeting over 50 percent renewable energy contribution to our energy mix by 2030 through 2035,” she added.
“This opens a vast market for distributed commercial and industrial solar, regional mini-grids, energy storage systems and local assembly of clean energy components.”
