According to President Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria generated over N30 billion by issuing two sovereign green bonds to finance its efforts to adapt to climate change.
It is “expected to break the shackles of problems in receiving funding from industrialized countries’ financial institutions,” he said, pushing the most vulnerable nations to imitate Nigeria’s domestic resource mobilisation.
Buhari participated in a roundtable discussion on Tuesday at the UN Conference on LDCs in Doha, Qatar, that addressed climate change and environmental protection, according to a statement sent by the President’s Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu.
The statement was titled ‘Climate financing: emulate Nigeria green bonds, President Buhari tells LDCs.’
The President who was represented by the Minister of Environment, Mohammed Abdullahi, said, ‘‘Domestic resource mobilisation is likely to break the yoke of difficulties in accessing funds from developecountriess’ financial institutions, like Nigeria’s issuance of two Sovereign Green Bonds that raised over N30bn.
‘‘LDCs and developing countries must take a serious stand on the Cummings-Montreal resolutions on a new funding mechanism that is flexible, accessible and utilisable.”
Buhari added: ‘‘Nigeria, like other countries of the world, particularly those of the Sahel region has a lot of human activities that dangerously interfere with the earth’s natural defences against solar radiation and temperature change.
‘‘In Africa, diverse impact of climate change is an underlying cause of human population stressors, with conflicts resulting in regional instability.”
‘‘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.”
