From Adanna Nnamani, Abuja
A pragmatic step towards mitigating the climate change impact on Nigeria has been taken by the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) sole operator of Nigeria’s sovereign wealth fund and the National Council on Climate Change (NCCC), Nigeria’s implementing entity for climate action.
Both entities signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Monday to collaboratively tackle the climate change menaces.
The MoU focuses on the urgency of immediate and ambitious action to address climate risks and enables the attainment of the shared objectives between the NSIA and NCCC.
The pact also serves to allow the signing parties to further explore potential areas of collaboration which include:, the development of a climate change framework to provide guidelines for regulating emissions in Nigeria, the implementation of a carbon emissions trading mechanism in Nigeria and the management of a national carbon registry as well as a Climate Change Fund.
As part of the agreement signing ceremony, the Authority released its Impact Report (“IR”), which outlines the progress made toward the attainment of the Authority’s developmental and socio-economic impact as of 2021.
Speaking about the agreement, the Managing Director of the NSIA, Mr. Aminu Umar-Sadiq said: “A core pillar of our Environmental, Social and Governance (“ESG”) strategy is to actively build strategic partnerships with relevant organizations to support climate change actions and Nigeria’s energy transition ambitions of achieving net zero emissions by 2060. The agreement with our partner, NCCC is one of the strategic steps we are taking to meet our social impact goals and sustainability commitments.
He added that “NSIA’s maiden Impact Report highlights the Authority’s development agenda and impact over several years of operations as well as the Authority’s efforts to safeguard the environment and address relevant climate-related risks and opportunities in line best practice.”
In his remarks, Dr. Salisu Dahiru, the Director General of the National Council on Climate Change (NCCC), said that “this partnership is a bold signal to the global audience that the Government of Nigeria is serious about its climate commitments. By committing resources from its sovereign wealth fund to support climate action and an inclusive green economic growth, Nigeria is investing in its future, especially in a vastly decarbonizing world. This partnership between two of Nigeria’s flagship institutions is expected to catalyze private finance to accelerate Nigeria’s ambitious climate and national development agenda”.
The DG commended the Buhari administration for demonstrating executive ownership of Nigeria’s climate policies through the Climate Change Act of 2021, the establishment of the National Council on Climate Change and the commitment toward a net zero economy by 2060.
He called on Nigerians to embrace the opportunities offered by climate change to build a resilient economy and improve the adaptive capacities of our communities to extreme weather events, now and in the future.