Nigeria emerges West Africa’s climate leader, targets investments at COP30

Nigeria has positioned itself as West Africa’s climate action leader following the submission of the region’s first 3rd National Determined Contribution (NDC 3.0) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

This comes as Vice President Kashim Shettima prepares to unveil Nigeria’s green transition roadmap to world leaders, positioning the country to turn its climate commitments into concrete investment opportunities and projects.

The Director General of Nigeria’s National Council on Climate Change, Tenioye Majekodunmi, disclosed this during the ongoing 30th Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC (COP 30) in Belem, Brazil.

Speaking in an interview with journalists ahead of the summit’s opening ceremony, Majekodunmi said Nigeria’s pioneering status as the first West African nation to submit its National Determined Contribution positions the country to leverage COP 30 for substantial investment gains and partnerships.

Majekodunmi said: “This is particularly what we call the implementation COP that we have all been waiting for here in Belem, and we are very excited that it has come.

“COP 30 is particularly important for us in Nigeria because of the momentum that we have gathered in the last two months leading up to the summit. First with the submission of our NDC 3.0 and us being the first West African country to submit — this is a turning point for Nigeria.”

The NCCC boss, who highlighted three key takeaways for Nigeria in COP 30, revealed that the gains of the summit will further boost investors’ confidence in doing business with Nigeria.

She added: “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 COP 30 is where Nigeria would be doing this.

“Secondly, just a few days ago, the Nigerian government approved the National Carbon Market Framework and also moved for the operationalisation of our National Climate Change Fund. 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.

“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.”

A statement issued by Shettima’s spokesman, Stanley Nkwocha, on Thursday, November 6, 2025, said Shettima will join other world leaders, development partners, and business executives at a high-level thematic session on “Climate and Nature: Forests and Oceans.”

The vice president will also attend the general plenary of leaders, where he is expected to present Nigeria’s climate action address.

The Star