Climate experts and other stakeholders yesterday gathered in Abuja for the European Union Climate Dialogues programme ( EUCDs2) for Nigeria’s carbon market roadmap The event, which focuses on “Operationalising Nigeria’s Carbon Markets Through Robust Monitoring, Reporting And Verification (MRV) Protocols,” brought together government officials, development partners, private-sector operators, investors, civil society organisations and other stakeholders. The Director-General of the National Council on Climate Change (NCCC), Mrs Omotenioye Majekodunmi said Nigeria’s carbon market must be built on integrity, transparency and credible data, warning that the country would not tolerate practices capable of undermining confidence in carbon credits generated in Nigeria. Represented by the Director, Energy , Transportation and Infrastructure, Mr Michael Ivenso, l she said that the council had issued about 26 million carbon credits so far from projects previously executed in Nigeria, describing the development as evidence of the country’s capacity to participate in international carbon markets.
According to her, Nigeria’s objective is to ensure that carbon projects deliver “real, additional and permanent mitigation outcomes” while protecting communities, ecosystems and the interests of investors and project developers
The Director-General said the operationalisation of the National Carbon Markets Framework would provide the institutional foundation for a credible carbon market capable of mobilising private capital for clean energy, agriculture, forestry, waste management and other climate interventions
The NCCC boss said a key component of the strategy was the establishment of a unified and interoperable national carbon registry through which every carbon credit generated, issued, transferred or retired in Nigeria would have a digital record
“This will help prevent double-counting and strengthen the integrity of carbon transactions,” she said
She added that Nigeria was also moving towards digital MRV, leveraging remote sensing, Internet of Things (IoT) sensors, geospatial data and distributed ledger technologies to improve the accuracy of carbon measurement while reducing the cost and time required for verification
Majekodunmi said effective MRV would also enable regulators to track emissions trajectories, assure buyers that claimed emission reductions were genuine and help communities monitor benefit-sharing arrangements
She called for stronger coordination among federal ministries, state governments, project developers, development partners, financial institutions, civil society organisations and academic institutions
She said the Council was working with relevant stakeholders to ensure that future carbon credit transfers under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement were supported by credible national systems
The Director, Federal Department of Forestry at the Federal Ministry of Environment, Halima Bawa-Bwari, said the forestry sector remained central to Nigeria’s climate response and could become one of the country’s biggest opportunities in the carbon market
She said forests served as carbon sinks and temperature buffers while providing biodiversity, soil protection, water regulation and livelihoods for millions of Nigerians, particularly rural and forest-dependent communities
“We must therefore ensure that carbon-market development supports forest conservation rather than creating pressure for further forest exploitation,” she said
Bawa-Bwari stressed that credible carbon markets could not be built without credible data, particularly in the forestry sector
She said Nigeria needed reliable information on forest cover, degradation, deforestation, biomass and carbon stocks to determine how much carbon was being stored or removed and how those changes occurred over time
She called for continued strengthening of the National Forest Inventory and forest monitoring systems, as well as increased use of satellite imagery, remote sensing and artificial intelligence
However, she cautioned that satellite information must be complemented with ground-based measurements and field verification
The director also called for increased capacity among federal and state forestry institutions to collect and manage forest data
“MRV should not be developed as a stand-alone carbon-market activity It should build on existing national systems for forest monitoring, greenhouse-gas accounting, REDD+ data, land-use planning and climate reporting,” she said.
Bawa-Bwari urged relevant agencies to avoid establishing parallel systems that collect similar information, calling instead for clear institutional responsibilities for the collection, management, validation and reporting of forest-carbon data
On it part, the European Union said Nigeria’s efforts to develop a credible carbon market could help attract much-needed finance for climate action while supporting sustainable economic growth
Mr Jop Weterings, a member of the Task Force on International Carbon Pricing And Marketing Diplomacy at the EU said the bloc had stepped up cooperation with Nigeria on carbon markets over the past year, describing the roundtable as an important milestone in the partnership
The EU said its shared interest with Nigeria was to scale up high-integrity carbon markets capable of strengthening global climate action, channeling resources into Nigerian initiatives and driving sustainable economic growth
It noted that Nigeria’s adoption of the National Carbon Markets Framework had provided an important foundation for building confidence and trust among investors, buyers and other market participants
The EU representative said the focus should now be on operationalising the framework, particularly through strong MRV systems that would ensure carbon credits generated in Nigeria represented credible climate outcomes