World Bank canvasses policy to enable private sector drive climate change investment

In order to improve and enable the private sector drive the $140 billion investment required for climate change in Nigeria, the World Bank has urged the Federal Government to create the right policy framework that will make that happen.

Benoit Bosquet, a World Bank executive,  made this call at the second leg of the Climate Change Knowledge Immersion workshop organised by the Federal Ministry of Environment’s Department for Climate Change and the World Bank  in Kaduna recently.

EnviroNews, an online environment platform, in its latest edition, quotes Bosquet as saying that the Nigerian private sector could harness the required funds for investment to address the impact of climate change in the country. 

“Nigeria needs $140 billion to achieve its climate change commitment and control its impact on the country through the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) of Paris Agreement. These are investments that are driven by the private sector, therefore government must put in place policies that will support the investment,” Bosquet said.

He disclosed that, globally, the private sector was making more of the needed investments than the public sector, hence the need for policies that enhanced the private sector to make such investments in Africa’s largest economy.

“In order to take effective climate action, which means both reducing greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to climate change, Nigeria needs about $140 billion by 2030.  This is underpinned by Nigeria’s Nationally Determined Contribution and studies conducted by the World Bank in 2013.  Action is technically feasible and economically beneficial but the sooner it is undertaken, the better”, he warned, pointing out that  the longer it will take to undertake climate action, the more expensive it will be.

He also warned that Africa was very vulnerable to climate change and climate change would worsen Nigeria’s vulnerability if not addressed in time, adding that Nigeria needs to build resilience now for the harsher climate of the future. If not addressed in time, climate change can worsen Nigeria’s vulnerability to weather swings, and limit its ability to achieve and sustain the objectives of Vision 20:2020.

The World Bank has projected that climate change could increase poverty headcount by 100 million in 2030. “Climate change and poverty are intimately related.  The poor will be affected the most, in particular, women, children and elderly citizens,” he added.