By Faridat Salifu, Abuja
The Federal Ministry of Environment and
the Society for Planet and Prosperity have jointly trained climate change desk officers from the 36 states of the federation on greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory compilation and emission reporting.
The capacity-building exercise followed the release of the 2025 Subnational Climate Governance Performance Rating and Ranking and is aimed at improving data quality, strengthening technical capacity, and enhancing collaboration between federal and state governments on climate action.
In her opening remarks, the Director of the ministry’s Department of Climate Change (DCC), Dr. Iniobong Abiola-Awe, underscored the importance of credible data in national climate reporting and called on the officers to prioritise accurate emissions tracking.
“As you embark on this journey of capacity building, I encourage the spirit of collaboration and openness—share experiences respectfully, and commit to practical and result-oriented action,” she said.
Facilitated by SPP’s Executive Director, Mr. Edwin Oghenemere Orugbo, the training introduced participants to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) framework, emission accounting principles, and data estimation processes.
Orugbo emphasised the importance of subnational data in attracting climate finance and driving evidence-based policy reforms.
The SPP boss explained that the IPCC framework considers four key emission sources—energy, industrial processes, agriculture and forestry, and waste—guided by the principles of transparency, accuracy, consistency, and comparability.
He urged states to use credible emission factors from UNFCCC and IPCC databases and ensure that all data are supported with metadata for traceability and verification.
Participants also identified the need for institutional frameworks to support data sharing across ministries, departments, and agencies, as well as capacity-building programmes to strengthen state-level monitoring, reporting, and verification systems.
Responding to their concerns, Dolapo John, Principal Scientific Officer at the DCC, assured the officers that the department is ready to support them through the use of the official IPCC software for emission calculations.
The training, moderated by Mr. Timothy Ogenyi, Senior Policy Analyst (Climate Change) at SPP, forms part of a broader series under the organisation’s subnational capacity-building initiative, supported by the European Climate Foundation (ECF).
SPP announced that upcoming sessions will focus on “Designing Effective Monitoring and Evaluation Systems for State Climate Action” and “Climate Finance,” as part of ongoing efforts to help states strengthen their climate governance frameworks and boost access to global funding opportunities.