As countries head into COP31, starting Monday in Antalya, Türkiye, climate finance and the implementation of existing commitments are at the top of the agenda and Nigeria is arriving with its largest ask yet.
Nigeria will require $336.5 billion between 2026 and 2035 to finance climate change mitigation and adaptation programmes, Tenioye Majekodunmi,director general of the National Council on Climate Change (NCCC), said in an October 29 pre- press briefing for COP31 in Abuja.
The funding requirement comprises $195 billion for emissions mitigation and $141.5 billion for adaptation, with investments expected to create jobs and strengthen economic resilience in key sectors, including energy, agriculture and infrastructure.
“This scale demonstrates that the NDC isn’t a list of costs; it’s a $336.5 billion investment prospectus for the Nigerian economy,” Majekodunmi said.
But Nigeria is not negotiating alone. It is part of the African Group of Negotiators (AGN), which is pushing for a fundamental shift in how climate finance is delivered.
The AGN has submitted proposals calling for a tripling of adaptation finance and replenishment of the Green Climate Fund (GCF).
Nana Antwi-Amoah, AGN chair, said the group viewed COP31 as an opportunity to lay the groundwork for COP32, which he described as “an African call.”
He said countries had established frameworks under the Paris Agreement for national climate plans, adaptation, carbon markets and transparency, but many developing countries continued to face financial barriers to implementing their commitment.
“The key question now is: where is the money? Where is the financial ambition to help us implement those commitments that we are asking as developing nations,” he said at the sidelines of the pre-COP31 meetings on Friday.
The video which was uploaded on the AGN social media account, Antwi-Amoah said the group wanted clearer arrangements for delivering the adaptation finance outcome agreed in Belém, arguing that the agreement lacked operational detail.
He also called for an ambitious replenishment of the GCF next year, describing the fund as critical to climate action in African countries.
The group will also seek to keep a proposed climate finance work programme on the COP agenda.
Antwi-Amoah said the programme could provide a platform for discussing finance that is “credible,” concessional and grant-based, particularly for adaptation.
He acknowledged that support for the proposal remained uncertain, adding that the AGN was consulting other developing-country negotiating groups before the agenda is formally adopted.
That push for grant-based finance is central to Nigeria’s position. Majekodunmi has said more than 80 percent of the required capital would need to come from private investment, commercial debt and international carbon finance — but the African bloc insists that public finance for adaptation must not add to debt burdens.
Finance is also central to the group’s position on expanding the pool of countries contributing to climate funds.
For Nigeria, Majekodunmi said the test is delivery. She outlined the four Ds of climate finance and implementation: “Dollars, Deals, Deliveries and Dividends.”
“Capital follows certainty,” she said, explaining that Nigeria must use COP31 to showcase viable projects and investment opportunities to development partners and private-sector investors.
“Nigeria’s climate transition will not be measured only in tonnes of carbon avoided. It will be measured in jobs created, businesses built and incomes improved,” she said.
Nigeria is targeting up to 840,000 net new jobs by 2060 from its climate transition.
Antwi-Amoah said the AGN was coordinating its position but needed consensus and support from other negotiating blocs to advance its proposals.
“We normally do the difficult ones,” he said. “When we start, people might think, ‘Oh, this is very impossible.’ But at the end of the day, when you are able to explain the rationale, you get the support for others to come in.”
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Josephine Okojie-Okeiyi is a journalist with over five years’ reporting experience. She writes on industry, agriculture, commodities, climate change, and environmental issues.
She is fellow of Thomson Reuters Foundation and Bloomberg Media Initiative for Africa.
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