We must stop pledging, start performing to check Climate Change, Shettima tells world leaders

Nigeria’s Vice President, Kashim Shettima, has charged world leaders to move beyond pledging to performance, and from dialogue to taking reasonable action in tackling climate change and its attendant natural disasters that have claimed innocent lives and rendered many homeless across the globe.

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“Let COP30 be remembered as the moment when the world moved from pledges to performance, from ambition to action, and from dialogue to delivery,” he declared.

Speaking on Thursday during the Leaders’ Climate Summit at the ongoing 30th Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC (COP 30), in Belém, Brazil, the vice president, who is representing President Bola Tinubu, reaffirmed Nigeria’s global climate leadership with a commitment to achieving an emission reduction target of 32% by 2035.

Noting that this followed the unveiling of the National Carbon Market Framework and Climate Change Fund, he explained that the new initiatives form the core of Nigeria’s climate finance architecture designed to attract billions of dollars in clean energy and adaptation investments.

With the Framework and the Fund aimed at driving sustainable investment and resilience in the sector in place, Mr Shettima said Nigeria’s renewed climate agenda represents “not just an aspiration, but a solemn national commitment to preserve the planet for future generations.”

Demanding reasonable action against climate change, the Nigerian vice president said, “The Earth speaks in the language of loss and warning. It tells us that our survival is tied to its well-being. These are the cries that have compelled us to gather, from one city to another, in pursuit of one shared purpose — to save the only home we have.”

Stressing that climate ambition cannot be sustained by goodwill alone, he said, “No nation can finance climate ambition with goodwill alone. We need a reliable and equitable architecture that recognises the realities of developing nations and empowers them to deliver on global commitments.

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“I hereby say without absolute certainty that we are not the problem; we are an integral part of the solution. This is why, at COP30, we hope to demonstrate that Africa can lead in carbon capture through forests, in renewable energy expansion, in digital monitoring of emissions, and in regional cooperation that translates ambition into prosperity,” he said.

He maintained that Nigeria is ready “to work with all nations to build a fairer, greener, and more resilient world, one where our children inherit not the ruins of our indifference, but the fruits of our collective resolve.”

VP Shettima stated that the National Carbon Market Framework would enable Nigeria to generate, trade, and retire carbon credits in alignment with Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, ensuring transparency and integrity in carbon transactions.

The proceeds, he noted, will flow into the newly established Climate Change Fund to support communities most affected by floods, droughts, and desertification.

Mr Shettima further revealed that the Nigerian government has launched a five-year Carbon Market Roadmap that will lay the groundwork for an Emissions Trading System and a Carbon Tax Regime, reinforced by fiscal incentives to promote clean industrial innovation.

Nigeria’s Third Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), validated and submitted in September 2025, outlines the country’s comprehensive strategy across energy, agriculture, transport, waste, and industry.

According to VP Shettima, the Decade of Gas Strategy remains pivotal in powering the transition, balancing natural gas utilisation with expanded solar and off-grid electrification to drive rural energy access and sustainable development.

On his part, UN Secretary General Antonio Gutierrez, who said it was unfortunate that countries of the world have failed to remain below 1.5 degrees, charged world leaders to embrace a paradigm shift to limit the overshoot magnitude and quickly drive it down in order to salvage what he described as a highly risky situation.

He stated: “I cannot agree more, and the real truth is that we have failed to remain below 1.5 degrees, and science now tells us that the temporary overshoot between the 1.5 limit, starting at the latest in the early 2030s, is inevitable.

“We therefore need a paradigm shift to limit these overshoots magnitude and duration and quickly drive it down. Given the temporary average overshoots and their thematic consequences, it could push ecosystems and expose billions of people to unliveable conditions and amplify threats to peace and security.

“Every fraction of a degree means more hunger, displacement and loss especially for those least responsible. This is more of failure and deadly negligence. The world metrological service has indicated that emissions will begin to increase this year and the 1.5 degrees is a red line for humanity.”

The UN Secretary General urged world leaders to act with speed and scale in order to make the overshoot as small and as safe as possible thus bringing temperatures to back to below 1.5 degrees Celsius before the end of the century.

Also, Brazil’s President, Lula Inacio Da Silva, said it will take a collective effort for the world to fight climate change, emphasizing that fighting climate change must be a priority for every government and individual on earth.

“We will need to overcome the mismatch of lack of connection between diplomatic dialogue and the actual world. It will take a collective effort, listening to indigenous communities and those bearing the brunt of climate change in order to take a global approach to the challenge,” he said.

President Da Silva added that the slogan of “Collective Efforts” was adopted for COP 30 to encourage climate action worldwide “from all sectors of society, in particular civic societies and grassroots organizations.”

“Climate change is the result of the same dynamics that, during centuries, has broken our societies between rich and poor. Climate justice is aligned with fighting hunger and poverty, the struggle against racism and gender inequality,” he added.

READ ALSO: Shettima arrives in Brazil for COP 30

For his part, the Prince of Wales, Williams, who represented his father, King Charles, at the plenary, said it was time for his generation to safeguard the natural world for generations to come.

“Our children and grandchildren will stand on the shoulders of our collective action. Let us use these inspiring surroundings here in the heart of the Amazon to rise to meet this moment, not with hesitation, but with courage; not with division, but with collaboration; not with delay, but with decisive commitment,” he said.