Major General Muhammadu Buhari (ret.) has claimed that Nigeria raised over N30 billion by issuing two sovereign green bonds to fund its efforts to adapt to climate change.
While urging the most vulnerable countries to emulate Nigeria’s home-grown resource mobilization, he said it is “likely to break the yoke of difficulties in accessing funds from developed countries’ financial institutions.”
According to a statement signed by the President’s Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, Buhari spoke at a roundtable addressing climate change and supporting the environment at the UN Conference on LDCs in Doha, Qatar, on Tuesday. The statement was titled ‘Climate financing.’
“Domestic resource mobilisation 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 N30bn,” says the President, who was represented by the Minister of Environment, Mohammed Abdullahi, said.
‘‘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 pledged that Nigeria would make use of its role as the Sahel Climate Fund’s headquarters host to make sure that members have access to climate money under fair and acceptable conditions.
The President warned that climate change posed an immediate threat to both the preservation of the environment and human life. He said that it showed no respect for any nation.
Buhari added that, ‘‘Nigeria, like other countries of the world, particularly those of the Sahel region, has numerous human activities that dangerously interfere with the earth’s natural defenses against solar radiation and temperature change.
‘‘In Africa, the diverse impact of climate change is an underlying cause of human population stressors, with conflicts resulting in regional instability.”
The President briefed the world on Nigeria’s top concerns on climate change.
He said that the nation had established a cutting-edge climate change law that fundamentally emphasized a collaborative effort between the public and commercial sectors.
According to Buhari ‘‘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 program to support the Sahel region towards adaptation and mitigation of these climatic vulnerabilities.
“Furthermore, the country, as a member of the Sahel Region Climate Commission, just vvolunteered and was granted the rights to host the headquarters of the Sahel Climate Fund.”
