Tenioye Majekodunmi, Director-general of the National Council on Climate Change (NCCC), has said that Nigeria was approaching COP30 with a clear agenda to turn its climate commitments into actionable projects and investments.
Speaking at the leaders’ summit in Belém, Brazil, Majekodunmi said that the country aims to, among other things, advance the implementation of its newly submitted nationally determined contribution (NDC) 3.0 by converting targets into bankable programmes across key sectors such as power, clean cooking, agriculture, transport, and resilient infrastructure.
She said that Nigeria will leverage the COP30 platform to secure partnerships and financing for adaptation, loss-and-damage solutions, and just-transition initiatives that protect livelihoods and create green jobs.
The DG explained that a major focus is the operationalisation of the national carbon market framework and climate change fund to provide clarity and confidence for investors seeking high-integrity carbon opportunities.
“The Nigerian government approved the National Carbon Market Framework and also moved for the operationalisation of our National Climate Change Fund,” she said. “That decision really gives investors a clear policy direction and signals that Nigeria is open for high-integrity carbon investments which deliver real mitigation and community benefits,”.
Speaking further, she said “Belem gives us the right global matchmaking platform to be able to achieve this, and we are quite excited about what is going to happen.”
Majekodunmi further stated that Nigeria will present baselines, safeguards, and benefit-sharing mechanisms aligned with international standards, while advancing readiness for Article 6 carbon markets through bilateral discussions on internationally transferred mitigation outcomes (ITMOs).
She added that a pipeline of projects spanning clean cooking, renewable energy, methane abatement, nature-based solutions, and the blue economy will be showcased to attract concessional and private capital.
“One of the main things we are hoping to take away is to turn all the deliverables in our NDC 3.0 into pipeline projects, partnerships and pay-for-performance because we need to start turning from paper to projects, and COP30 is where Nigeria would be doing this,” she said.
The NCCC DG noted that Nigeria is also seeking access to forest-positive finance relevant to tropical nations and technical cooperation on monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) systems, Article 6 readiness, and programmatic finance to support state-level implementation.
She said Nigeria intends to deepen south-south cooperation within the Amazon-Congo-Guinea forest dialogue, building on Brazil’s forest protection efforts.
“It is something that has never happened before. We are here in the Amazon, we are in the forest, and this collaboration with the Amazon, Congo and Guinea region forest dialogue — building on what Brazil’s forest protection initiatives have put in place— really just strengthens the Belem agenda,” she said.
Story was adapted from theCable.
