President Muhammadu Buhari has called on Least Development Countries (LDCs) to emulate Nigeria’s issuance of two Sovereign Green Bonds that raised over N30 billion for the purpose of financing sustainable environmental projects.
Speaking at a roundtable on addressing climate change and supporting the environment at the UN Conference on LDCs in Doha, Qatar, Tuesday, the President urged the world’s most vulnerable countries to initiate and adopt effective homegrown resource mobilisation supported by a well-developed action
plan.
‘‘Domestic resource mobilization is likely to break the yoke of difficulties in accessing funds from developed countries’ financial institutions, like Nigeria’s issuance of two Sovereign Green Bonds that raised over N30 billion.
‘‘LDCs and Developing Countries must take a serious stand on the Cummings-Montreal resolutions on a new funding mechanism that is flexible, accessible and utilizable,’’ he said.
The President, who was represented by the Minister of Environment, Mohammed Abdullahi, pledged that Nigeria would use its position as host of the headquarters of the Sahel Climate Fund to ensure that members access climate finance at fairer and reasonable conditions.
The President briefed the international community on Nigeria’s priorities on climate change, saying the country had passed a novel Climate Change Act, essentially focusing on the whole of Government approach jointly with the private sector.
According to him, the Act established the National Council on Climate change, to among others, mainstream climate change actions in Nigeria’s economic development and ensure sustainable inclusive green growth.
‘‘Nigeria is providing leadership to the Pan African Great Green Wall that is focused on land remediation, wetlands and oases recovery, as well as developing a community resilience programme to support the Sahel region towards adaptation and mitigation of these climatic vulnerabilities.
‘‘Furthermore, the country just recently, as a member of the Sahel Region Climate Commission, volunteered and was granted the rights to host the headquarters of the Sahel Climate Fund.
‘‘What we intend to achieve with this is to provide effective leadership towards mobilization of resources from member states, bilateral and multilateral partners, as well as private sector financial institutions, to foster cooperation and coordinated actions among Sahel Region Climate Commission members towards access to climate finance at fairer and reasonable conditions,’’ he said.
