• Says climate-resilient future a necessity
As the push for cleaner energy grows stronger, President Bola Tinubu has urged a fair energy transition that will not jeopardise developing economies.
Discussing the theme of the 17th Summit of the Economic Cooperation Organisation, “New ECO Vision for a Sustainable and Climate-Resilient Future,” which commenced in Khankhendi, Azerbaijan on Thursday, Tinubu stated that, given the adverse effects of climate change—including devastating droughts, floods, desertification, and extreme heat waves—a climate-resilient future is essential.
“Nigeria, endowed with both fossil and renewable energy, also supports a just energy transition,” he said in a speech read on his behalf on Friday by the Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Senator Abubakar Bagudu.
He, therefore, sought the ECO members’ partnership to expand access to cleaner energy technologies, share technical expertise, and invest in regional power pools to bring electricity to communities currently without it.
The president stated that since COP29, the world has recognised that climate change is not a distant threat but a clear and present danger, as reflected in adverse droughts, floods, desertification, and severe heat waves.
These, he stated, had deeply affected humanity, engendered food insecurity, displacement, and economic disruption, pledging that Nigeria, as Africa’s most populous nation and an economic gateway to West Africa, stood ready to work closely with ECO member states to integrate climate adaptation, mitigation, and green industrialisation into every aspect of its cooperation.
Tinubu stated that Nigeria had taken deliberate and conscious steps to address the challenges of climate change and related concerns, noting that as the nation wound down the implementation of its National Development Plan (NDP) for 2021-2025, efforts were on going to develop a successor plan, the NDP for 2026-2030.
“It is not by accident that the plan is designed to end in 2030, which is the deadline for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs),” he told the Summit participants, explaining, “It is to ensure that Nigeria stays on track in implementing the SDGs.”
He said the plan was also to integrate climate change and related issues, including diversification, adaptation, and mitigation, into the nation’s national development planning for sustainability.
