UN High Level Champion for COP26 describes Nigerian cleantech ecosystem as dynamic

Nigel Topping, the United Nations’s High Level Champion for COP26, has said that there has not have to be any trade-offs between business and the environment.

Topping was in Nigeria from  June 14 to 16.

During his visit, he met with top government officials, leading private and financial sector leaders, civil society organisations and climate change activists across Abuja and Lagos, and discussed the opportunities of a green transition, understand the challenges and how to overcome them, as well as advance the UK government’s overall effort to boost climate action in Nigeria.

Topping visited the Nigeria Climate Innovation Centre (NCIC) in Lagos where he met with various enterpreneurs and innovators in the clean energy and environment sector. The entrepreneurs displayed various clean energy and environment solutions during an exhibition at the centre.

After the exhibition, he told Nigerian Tribune that the clean energy solutions “show how dynamic the Nigerian cleantech ecosystem is. The solutions are not just zero or low carbon, but offer solutions to real problems like food wastage in the agricultural value chain and also the productive use of renewable energy.

“It is not just about reducing emissions, it is about driving economic growth jobs and using all the skills and resources of Nigerians to do that.”

Speaking on the issue of funding which was a concern for many of the entrepreneurs, Topping noted that the “NCIC is developing an ecosystem of businesses and also funders.”

He added that “You need different sources of funding. You need venture funding, you need working capital loans from banks. I think the funding will follow the quality of solutions and the quality of the business cases. You can see this trajectory and it’s just going to grow and grow.”

On whether cleantech innovations should be driven by profit or environmental concerns, Topping said, “I don’t think there’s any conflict or trade-off between business and environment. We have to solve the climate crisis.

“The real way to make money in business is to address societal needs. We need food, we need energy, we need solutions to avoid food wastage, we need to transport and deliver food and products. These are all societal needs and if you meet them in a way that doesn’t destroy the environment, we get double benefits and we grow the economy at the same time.”

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Also speaking with Nigerian Tribune, Bankole Oloruntoba, CEO of the Nigerian Climate Innovation Centre (NCIC), said the NCIC “tries to cut allies and grow the green economy of Nigeria in renewable energy, circular economy, agriculture and also water. All our programmes were built around building capacity, creating access to finance programmes, stakeholder harmonisation, knowledge management, business intelligence, research and so on.

“We have been speaking to the British government for a while to make them understand climate finance acceleration in this country and how we can reach out to the main market.

“We are keen about growing a transactional and growing sustainable market to achieve something equally beneficial.

“We are happy that Nigel Topping came to visit us. We think that his understanding of the Nigerian market will be instrumental to how businesses are being engaged and how finances also been structured. Being here and seeing our businesses is a plus, and we believe he’ll tell the story when he gets back home.”

Nigel Topping was appointed the UK Government’s High Level Climate Champion for COP 26 in January 2020, to help drive action from businesses, investors, organisations, cities, and regions on climate change and coordinate this work with governments and parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

While in Nigeria, Topping also met with senior government officials including the Minister of Environment, Mohammed Abdullahi, Minister of State for Transport, Ms Gbemisola Saraki and representatives of governors of Kaduna, Kano and Jigawa States.