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Nigeria, others may get up to $50bn in global carbon funds to incentivise climate investments

AS the world battles the escalating threats of climate crisis, Chief Executive, SMEFUNDS, Femi Oye, has said more carbon funds may help Nigeria and the rest of Africa confront the challenges posed by emissions and greenhouse gases.

This follows the efforts of the African Carbon Markets Initiative, a consortium of Global North donors, to get Nigeria and the rest of Africa to expand carbon markets on the continent.

ACMI said the continent’s potential to increase its cut of global carbon markets could generate as much as $50 billion per year for African governments while creating tens of millions of jobs.

He said several multi million-dollar carbon credit trading markets was being established in Africa as part of its goal to reduce carbon emissions and achieve net zero.

He explained that countries, including Nigeria have taken steps to improve carbon mitigation since the 2015 Paris Agreement, encompassing 73 national and sub-national jurisdictions responsible for 11.66 billion tonnes of carbondioxide emissions.

He noted that if Nigeria wants to become the preferred financial centre for governments and businesses it needs to interact with the global carbon market as the economic players begin their campaigns to cut their emissions.

According to him, since cities such as Lagos and Abuja have ambitions to host financial markets, the possibility of achieving this will depend on supporting institutions and individuals to focus on buying and selling of carbon credits to incentivise and regulate emissions reduction.

He was optimistic that Nigeria can become Africa’s largest carbon market as long as the government can support stakeholders to take concrete steps to participate in trading carbon credits.

What the country needs, he stressed, a registry focused on credits from carbon-intensive industries to offset their pollution.

He explained that the potential for such projects to mitigate greenhouse gases is huge as many carbon-intensive manufacturing industries can be found everywhere , yet there is little focus on carbon credits.

He said it has become critical to have a national registry to check on the legitimacy of projects that minimise or remove greenhouse gases before certifying and registering them with carbon credits for the voluntary market.

He explained that a National Carbon Registry would help to reshape the way Nigeria manages and trades carbon credits.

One of the key strengths of the National Carbon Registry, he continued, is its adherence to national and international best practices.

According to him, his organisation supports a diverse range of transformative actions, including greenhouse gas emission reduction projects, programmes and scaled-up activities.

To win the battle against climate change, he said Nigeria and the rest of Africa need more carbon markets ,adding that it will help them access finance to achieve their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) targets and to transition toward net-zero emission economies.

According to him, a National Carbon Registry will bring significant potential benefits as it will serve as a robust tool for streamlining the management of carbon credits, offering efficiency in tracking, verification, and trading. The technology ,he maintained, could help Nigeria in meeting its NDCs and reinforcing its climate action efforts.

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