Nigeria leads West Africa with first 3rd National Determined Contribution Submission at COP 30
Abdullateef Fowewe
Nigeria has emerged as West Africa’s climate action leader by submitting the region’s first 3rd National Determined Contribution (NDC 3.0) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), ahead of the ongoing COP 30 summit in Belém, Brazil, revealed a statement on Thursday by the Senior Special Assistant to The President on Media & Communications (Office of The Vice President), Stanley Nkwocha.
Nkwocha noted that Vice President Kashim Shettima is set to unveil Nigeria’s green transition roadmap to global leaders, transforming climate commitments into investment opportunities and projects.
Tenioye Majekodunmi, Director General of Nigeria’s National Council on Climate Change (Climategovng), highlighted Nigeria’s pioneering role stressing, “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 described COP 30 as a critical moment, “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.”
She outlined key hopes for Nigeria at COP 30: turning NDC deliverables into projects and partnerships, citing Nigeria’s recent approval of the National Carbon Market Framework and the National Climate Change Fund as signals for investors.
Majekodunmi said, “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.”
She also noted the strengthening of South-South climate cooperation with Amazon, Congo, and Guinea region forest dialogues.
Nkwocha in the statement affirmed Nigeria’s commitment, “It is not just about our participation at COP 30 in Belem, Brazil, but it shows clearly the President’s commitment to the 2016 Paris accord, to which Nigeria is a signatory, and ensuring that article 13 of that accord, which talks about climate change, is duly pursued and being implemented to the letter.”
He added that Nigeria aims to reduce emissions by 32% by 2035.
He said Vice President Kashim Shettima is scheduled to join a high-level session on “Climate and Nature: Forests and Oceans,” and present Nigeria’s climate action address at the leaders’ plenary.
