By Aliu Akoshile
Nigeria has defined its own clear pathway from climate commitment to climate delivery. Under the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the country has achieved this with a homegrown two-track strategy for climate resilience.
Driven by the Federal Ministry of Environment under Minister Balarabe Abbas Lawal, the novel strategy combines a robust national adaptation framework with a strong subnational accountability system. This ensures climate action moves from policy documents in Abuja to tangible results in communities across the 36 states and the FCT.
Within just ten days, the Tinubu administration secured two major milestones that now anchor Nigeria’s climate governance, attracting keen interest from the global community in Africa’s largest economy.
On September 29, 2026, Nigeria submitted its National Adaptation Plan (NAP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), fulfilling its international obligation and establishing a comprehensive framework for addressing medium and long-term climate risks.
According to Minister Lawal, the Plan aligns with the Cancun Adaptation Framework and directly reflects President Tinubu’s vision that climate resilience, food security, agricultural transformation, sustainable development and protection of vulnerable populations must be central to national planning.
“The National Adaptation Plan is Nigeria’s own roadmap for reducing vulnerability and strengthening resilience, in line with Mr President’s Renewed Hope Agenda. It ensures climate adaptation is no longer an add-on but is mainstreamed into policies, programmes and development plans at all levels of government,” Lawal said.
For the avoidance of doubt, the NAP is anchored on a Climate Risks and Vulnerability Assessment (CRVA) to identify the most exposed communities and guide targeted interventions. Its priorities include climate-smart agriculture to protect food production, resilient infrastructure to withstand flooding and extreme weather, ecosystem restoration to safeguard natural resources, and mobilisation of climate finance to support adaptation projects.
Nine days later, on October 8, 2026, the second track was unveiled in Abuja at a historic event attended by major stakeholders in the environment ecosystem. At that event, Minister Lawal launched the Third Edition of the Subnational Climate Governance Performance Rating and Ranking (SCGPR 3.0), developed by the Society for Planet and Prosperity in collaboration with the Ministry’s Department of Climate Change and the African Climate Foundation.
The interesting nexus is that while the NAP defines Nigeria’s ‘what’, the ranking measures the ‘how well’ and the ‘who’ — assessing states on institutional arrangements, climate policies and action plans, climate budgeting and financing, project implementation and transparency.
“Climate change is no longer a distant environmental sign. It is here with us. It is a global economic and social security imperative,” Lawal warned, urging governors to integrate climate considerations into budgets and investment decisions.
He described the ranking as an evidence-based accountability and management tool, not for naming and shaming, but for measuring capacity, encouraging peer learning and transforming competition into constructive action.
“Let us use this Third Edition to transform competition into constructive learning, rankings into accountability, and commitments into tangible outcomes,” the Minister said.
This year’s assessment showed significant progress, with Katsina emerging 1st, followed by Abia 2nd, Kano 3rd, Lagos 4th and Kwara 5th — an indication of growing institutionalisation of climate action at state level under federal leadership.
Together, the two tracks provide Nigeria with a complete delivery chain — a globally recognised national plan and a domestically-driven performance tracking system. It is a strategy that positions Nigeria not just as a signatory to climate conventions, but as a country implementing its commitments.
As Nigeria prepares for COP31 in Antalya, Turkey, the Tinubu administration’s message is clear: higher global ambition must be matched with climate finance, technology transfer and capacity-building for developing countries, while at home, the Federal Government will continue to provide technical assistance and partnership to states.
With this two-track strategy, Nigeria under President Tinubu is shifting decisively from climate pledges to climate action — building a resilient, low-carbon and prosperous nation with no state and no community left behind.
