By Isqil Najim
The Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, Amina Mohammed, has charged Nigerian engineers to lead the transition from climate commitments on paper to concrete action on the ground, warning that the country cannot continue designing infrastructure based on “yesterday’s climate.”
Mohammed, who delivered a special address at a webinar organised by the Nigerian Academy of Engineering (NAE) titled “Achieving Nigeria’s Sustainability and Climate Change Goals: Challenges, Opportunities, and Practice,” said Nigeria’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC), submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) last September, represents far more than a climate document.
“It is a blueprint for a better, stronger, and more resilient economy,” she said, noting that the document “sets out a pathway for economy-wide action backed by concrete measures across key sectors, anchored in development, resilience, and opportunity.”
The UN scribe painted a grim picture of climate impacts already ravaging the country, from floods and coastal erosion to drought, extreme heat, and shifting rainfall patterns, stressing that with predictions of a 2026 El Niño looming, “every investment must turn into long-term resilience and preparedness.”
“We can no longer build infrastructure or design technology based on yesterday’s climate,” she declared. “We must build and design for the warmer, more uncertain climate of the future.”
Turning directly to her engineering audience, Mohammed described them as central actors in Nigeria’s climate journey. “You are the people who will help turn ambition into systems, structures, technologies, and solutions that can endure,” she said, adding, “You are helping to engineer a better future for Nigeria and, by extension, the world.”
She did not shy away from the politics of energy transition, insisting that any shift away from fossil fuels must be equitable. “It must be a just transition — one that also embraces the country’s growth,” she said, before noting that “climate action today is not only about reducing emissions; it is about economic transformation. It is about growth, jobs, clean and renewable energy, food security, resilient infrastructure, and opportunity for young people.”
On the global clean energy race, Mohammed warned that Nigeria risks being left behind in an industry she described as “worth trillions of dollars and growing at pace,” even as she expressed confidence that the country is “well-positioned to benefit from this transition through renewable energy, sustainable agriculture, resilient infrastructure, innovation, and the talent of our people.”
She was however candid about the obstacles ahead. “Progress will require closing finance gaps. It will require stronger infrastructure. It will require better coordination across sectors and levels of government. It will also require technical capacity, institutional capacity, and delivery capacity. It will require leadership,” she said.
Mohammed assured that the UN remains committed to supporting Nigeria’s climate ambitions. “The United Nations is already supporting Nigeria to translate its NDC into investment plans and bankable projects, while helping to unlock new sources of finance,” she said, pledging that “the UN stands ready to continue accompanying Nigeria on the path from ambition to implementation.”
She rounded off her address on a note of optimism: “With ambition, discipline, and partnership, Nigeria can seize the opportunities of this transition and deliver sustainable growth, resilience, and prosperity for all.”
President harps on engineering’s central role
Earlier in his welcome remarks, the President of the Nigerian Academy of Engineering set the tone for the discourse, linking climate change squarely to the engineering profession. “Engineers get involved with environmental and climate change matters through their practice, whether in active practice, research, consultancy, or manufacturing,” he said, explaining that this is precisely why the Academy’s Committee on the Environment was positioned to drive the conversation on “how to truly achieve sustainable climate change goals for Nigeria, looking at the challenges of politics and practice.”
The President was particularly enthused about Mohammed’s involvement, describing her as someone who “started a major push in this direction and has continued to do so on the global stage,” adding that “her words will be golden for us today as we look at how to move forward at the end of this discourse.”
He expressed confidence in the outcome of the webinar, telling guests, “I believe that at the end of it, we will all be well-informed and have some great takeaways.”
Lagos, NCCC contributions echo UN’s call
In her remarks, Lagos State’s Special Adviser on Climate Change and Circular Economy, Mrs Titilayo Oshodi, stressed that climate action “cannot be purely altruistic anymore; we have to make them economically viable,”
Similarly, the National Council on Climate Change’s Mrs Ammudi Chioma Felistas, speaking from Bonn, Germany, where she was attending UNFCCC negotiations, reinforced Mohammed’s call for implementation over rhetoric, declaring that Nigeria must move “past being a ‘talk show’ and focus entirely on actionable climate activities.”
Professor Sam Adefila of the Academy’s Environment and Climate Change Committee also keyed into the finance narrative raised by the UN chief, noting that despite Nigeria contributing “barely 2%” to global emissions, the country bears disproportionate climate impacts and “we need to go back to the global body to take much of our requirements from there.”
The webinar, moderated by the Academy’s Honorary Secretary, Engr Mrs Christiana Adelowo, and Dr Cooker, drew fellows, past presidents, and government officials, with discussions continuing into an extended question-and-answer session.