Nigeria must link its climate commitments to public budgets and strengthen coordination across government institutions to attract investment and deliver economic benefits, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has said.
UNDP Resident Representative in Nigeria, Elsie Attafuah, made the call on Thursday, October 22, 2026, at the official launch of Nigeria’s Third Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC 3.0) and the inauguration of the Interministerial Steering Committee on NDC implementation and climate action in Abuja.
In a report published on Friday, October 23, 2026, The Guardian quoted Attafuah as saying Nigeria needed to connect its climate policies with financing and implementation across government institutions to achieve meaningful results.
She said the country’s climate commitments should translate into practical benefits for households, businesses and vulnerable communities, particularly as unpredictable rainfall, flooding and extreme heat threaten livelihoods and agricultural production.
Nigeria’s climate plan comes with a substantial financing requirement. According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), reporting on the October 22 launch, National Council on Climate Change(NCCC) Director-General Omotenioye Majekodunmi said the country would require approximately $337 billion to implement its climate commitments between 2026 and 2035.
Nigeria’s NDC 3.0 sets an economy-wide target of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by about 32% by 2035, relative to its 2018 baseline, while supporting the country’s ambition to achieve net-zero emissions by 2060.
The Federal Government’s NDC 3.0 document, submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in September 2025, puts the mitigation requirement at approximately $195 billion and adaptation at $141.5 billion. Together, the figures amount to $336.5 billion, commonly rounded to $337 billion.
The scale of the requirement highlights the challenge of financing climate action while meeting other development needs, including energy access, food security, infrastructure and public services.
The Climate Policy Initiative’s Landscape of Climate Finance in Nigeria 2025, published on May 7, 2025, found that Nigeria received $2.5 billion in tracked public and private climate finance in 2021 and 2022. The amount was 32% higher than the $1.9 billion recorded in 2019 and 2020.
However, the report estimated an annual climate finance gap of $27.2 billion, showing the difference between the funding available and the resources required for climate action. The $2.5 billion figure covers the 2021–2022 period and should not be interpreted as Nigeria’s cumulative climate funding to date.
At the October 22 meeting, the Interministerial Steering Committee was inaugurated to strengthen coordination, integrate climate priorities into government planning and budgeting, clarify institutional responsibilities and improve monitoring of implementation.
Attafuah also emphasised the need for investment-ready projects, credible business models and appropriate financing instruments to attract public, private and international capital.
The UNDP has further highlighted the importance of transparent carbon accounting and credible carbon-market systems to safeguard environmental integrity and ensure communities benefit fairly from climate investments.
Nigeria’s challenge now is to turn its climate commitments into funded programmes that can reduce emissions, protect livelihoods and strengthen resilience to climate-related risks.
