COP29: Enhancing Nigeria’s climate finance transparency to attract funding, By Hamzat Lawal

On 11 November, Nigeria will join representatives from nearly 200 countries in Baku, Azerbaijan for COP29. The two-week global summit will bring together global key stakeholders to collaborate on the urgent need to “enhance ambition and enable action” for climate change. In enabling action, COP29 will address the critical role of finance, a fundamental tool to turn ambition into action and reduce emissions, adapt to climate change and tackle loss and damage. This includes the establishment of a New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) ensuring developing countries receive targeted support post-2025.

One pressing issue stands out, however, particularly for developing nations like Nigeria: the need for stronger climate finance funding to achieve its adaptation and mitigation targets. Nigeria Needs $17.7 billion annually to achieve its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) unconditional pledges by 2030 and its Energy Transition Plan (ETP) would necessitate $1.9 trillion until 2060. Despite being a country highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, Nigeria has unfortunately struggled to attract the level of climate financing necessary to significantly tackle its environmental crises. With COP29 just barely a month away, it is high time Nigeria prioritised one of the most significant barriers to increasing its access to climate funds — improving transparency in climate finance management. 

For Nigeria, climate finance transparency is important for several reasons. One of which is our long history of public sector mismanagement, corruption, and weak institutions. This has led to a lack of confidence from both domestic and international stakeholders in the proper stewardship of public funds. And another spotlighting our climate vulnerabilities which are spread across many sectors, from agriculture to water resources, energy, and urban development, all of which need targeted investments that are managed with any clear oversight.

The Alau Dam collapse and the Borno flood that killed at least 38 people and affected over a million is a typical example of just how badly we fare in utilising funds meant for infrastructure maintenance. Before the collapse, not many knew how much was budgeted for the Alau Dam repairs, which was said to be N231 trillion between 2018 and 2024. Meanwhile, Borno State received about N816.34 million from the Ecological Fund between January and June 2024. 

But clearly, nothing significant was done with the disbursed money despite reports of the dam needing rehabilitation. This is just solely on utilising local resources for environmental issues in the country, let alone international climate finance. There is always opacity in government spending in Nigeria where the government intentionally seeks to gatekeeper information around budgeting, disbursement and if the monies were utilised appropriately.

Moreover, In April, the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) in collaboration with Transparency International (TI), reviewed Nigeria’s Great Green Wall Initiative (GGWI) to scrutinise the effectiveness of the initiative in fostering transparency, accountability, and community engagement. They discovered that there were no mechanisms in place to track and monitor GGW expenditures to ensure accountability and transparency. 

The absence of a clear structural approach to assessing and managing climate finance is of great concern for Nigeria, and it directly affects confidence from international donors, private investors, and even local stakeholders. 

The major challenge we face in accountability and transparency in climate finance is access to data. So when the commitments are made, we cannot track them. We need to know not just how much has been pledged, but who is running the project, how much has been utilised, etc. Without such data, citizens and potential investors alike cannot follow the projects as they occur. 

Oftentimes, when we find ourselves with negotiators seeking climate finance, particularly with those from the Global North, they don’t often trust developing countries because they are wary that some of these monies will be misappropriated rathan than invested in mitigation or adaptation projects.

For decades, Nigeria has contended with poor political will and the non-existent consciousness of accountability. Political commitment is essential for driving effective climate action. Without strong political leadership, it is difficult to implement and sustain transparency measures. And a culture of accountability is a driving force for ensuring that climate funds are properly used.

However, the positive side is that we can establish key measures to create a system of transparency and accountability in climate finance. One of the most basic but critical measures Nigeria can take is to establish clear and comprehensive reporting mechanisms that align with international standards for climate finance.

Nigeria could benefit from adopting international best practices in climate finance reporting, such as those outlined by the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI), which provides a standard for tracking aid flows and ensuring transparency in how funds are used.

Currently, Nigeria lacks a centralised system that provides a comprehensive view of the various sources and uses of climate finance, making it difficult for donors and stakeholders to assess the country’s climate finance needs and progress. A robust system of reporting would allow Nigeria to demonstrate that funds are being allocated efficiently and effectively to priority projects. 

This system should be accessible to the public and provide real-time data on the allocation, disbursement, and use of funds. For instance, Through its Green Fund (FONERWA), Rwanda has established a transparent system for managing climate finance. The data website includes project reports, funding raised, milestones, supported projects among others. Nigeria could learn from this model.

Furthermore, the government needs to ensure that there is a plug-in for civil society organisations (CSOs) to focus on monitoring and evaluation of climate finance and key projects while galvanising citizens to take an interest in them. CSOs play a crucial role in holding governments accountable and as such, require access to information and monitor the use of funds at both the national and subnational levels. 

Collaborating with CSOs like Follow The Money Int’l, which promote open data and accountability, could aid the government and communities in monitoring that climate finance is well-managed and used to achieve Nigeria’s adaptation and mitigation goals. The outcome of such collaboration can be shared on the global stage such as COP29 and future COPs to attract more funding and improve trust. 

Additionally, effective collaboration with the private sector relies on a seamless working process. Fund disbursement typically involves banks, necessitating a strong relationship between the private and public sectors. 

To ensure accountability, transparency, and due diligence, we need an integrity-driven private sector. Corruption often arises from collusion between public officials and banks, making it essential to foster a commitment to ethical practices. Private sector entities need to adopt best practices in corporate governance, conduct rigorous due diligence and ensure that all fund disbursements are subject to audits and compliance checks.

Transparency is a fundamental principle for ensuring accountability in the allocation and use of climate finance. Without robust transparency mechanisms, funds could be diverted or misused, which undermines the goals of international climate finance initiatives. To ensure there is trust in how climate finance is utilised, Nigeria needs to establish a system that promotes checks and balances at each aspect of the process.

As COP29 draws near, developing countries like Nigeria must seize this moment to push for stronger commitments from developed nations to honour their climate finance pledges, while also demonstrating its own commitment to accountability, transparency and good governance. Improving climate finance transparency is not just about attracting more funding, it is about ensuring that the resources allocated are used efficiently to tackle the pressing environmental challenges we face today. 

By strengthening transparency mechanisms, Nigeria can better position itself to access more funds, better manage those funds, and deliver real, lasting climate resilience and sustainable development while securing the respect and confidence of its partners and potential partners/donor countries at COP29 and beyond.

Nigeria must also ensure that the right people with the right skill set and knowledge base are part of the delegates come November to lead all our efforts. If our house is not in order, then there’s not much we can achieve at COP29. 

Beyond commitments and pledges, we need to go to Azerbaijan to hear that developed countries have already disbursed the necessary funds, how these countries have benefited if the finance is tied to integration, technology transfer and how they utilised the funds.  Beneficiary countries should be encouraged to share their lessons and experiences to provide a roadmap for others on how to maximise the impact of climate finance.

Hamzat Lawal is an environmental activist and anti-corruption campaigner. He is the founder of Follow The Money International and chief executive officer of Connected Development (CODE)