African carbon market targets $1 billion for climate finance – Osinbajo

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has said that the Steering Committee of the African Carbon Market Initiative (ACMI) has plans to attain $1 billion in total commitments by buyers before COP28 later this year.

Osinabjo said this while receiving a delegation from the US-based Rocky Mountain Institute, an international think-tank involved with the issue of energy transition for the last 40 years.

The vice president in a statement on Tuesday, signed by Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity Office of the Vice President, Laolu Akande, said that the Federal Government would be working on issues of climate finance, specific projects that will advance the 2060 Net-Zero target of Nigeria and exploring the possibility of electric vehicles in the country.

Speaking on the goals of the Federal Government in pursuing a just energy transition agenda, he said the government was seeking among other issues, adequate climate finance especially through the African Carbon Market Initiative (ACMI).

The statement also informed that Osinbajo had earlier in the day virtually participated in a progress meeting of the international African Carbon Market Initiative Steering Committee where the progress of the plans on broadening the market in Nigeria and Africa had been reviewed.

According to the VP: “We will be considering the decommissioning of generators, development of cooking stoves, think through options such as electric cars; is it the right time? What about charging stations? These are some of the things we have to start thinking about.”

CEO of Rocky Mountain Institute, Jon Creyts, expressed readiness to partner with Nigeria on the Federal Government’s Energy Transition Plan since this was a commitment that was shared by the institute as well.

“We share the commitment with Nigeria to get to Net-Zero in 2060 and build a prosperous economy in the process,” Creyts said, while explaining that the institute had worked on similar issues with China, India, Indonesia and altogether 62 countries around the world.

Besides the Vice President, the members of the ACMI include former President of Colombia, Ivan Duque Marquez; representatives of the United Nations, Rockefeller Foundation and the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet, (GEAPP) among others.