The State governments have been urged to move beyond climate commitments and translate their policies into measurable projects capable of improving livelihoods, strengthening resilience and attracting climate-related investment.
The call was made in Abuja at the launch of the third edition of the Sub-national Climate Governance Performance Rating and Ranking, an annual assessment conducted by the Society for Planet & Prosperity (SPP) in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Environment.
The assessment, which covers Nigeria’s 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, is designed to measure the extent to which sub-national governments are building institutions, financing climate programmes and implementing policies to address environmental and climate-related challenges.
Minister of Environment, Balarabe Lawal, said climate action should no longer be treated as a standalone environmental responsibility but incorporated into the broader development and investment priorities of states.
Lawal said effective climate governance would be critical to Nigeria’s efforts to build communities capable of withstanding the growing effects of climate change while pursuing sustainable economic development.
He said the Federal Government, under President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, would continue to work with states and other stakeholders by providing technical support, capacity development and opportunities for collaboration.
The minister challenged states to use the ranking as a mechanism for improving their performance rather than merely competing for positions on the annual table.
“Let us use this Third Edition to transform competition into constructive learning, rankings into accountability, and commitments into tangible outcomes,” he said.
Lawal commended the 36 states and the FCT for participating in the assessment, urging them to use the findings to strengthen climate institutions, improve resilience and advance sustainable development.
President of SPP, Prof. Chukwumerije Okereke, explained that the ranking was not intended to measure simply how vulnerable a state was to climate change or the extent of environmental degradation within its territory.
Rather, he said, the assessment focused on how effectively state governments were responding to climate challenges through governance structures, policies, financing and implementation.
Okereke said the evaluation covered five major areas: climate institutions and governance; climate policies and action plans; climate project implementation and monitoring; climate budgeting and finance; and the online visibility of climate-related activities.
According to him, the methodology was strengthened in the latest assessment by requiring participating states to submit evidence of five major climate projects, from which the three strongest projects were selected for scoring.
He said the assessment also considered issues including access to climate finance, stakeholder participation, monitoring and evaluation, budgeting and public communication of climate activities.
Okereke stressed that the ranking was evidence-based, with information submitted by states subjected to verification to ensure transparency and integrity in the scoring process.
He said the results showed that climate governance at the sub-national level was improving, but added that states still needed stronger implementation mechanisms, peer learning and improved access to climate finance.
The assessment therefore provides states with an opportunity to identify gaps in their climate governance systems and use the experience of better-performing states to improve their own policies and programmes.
Katsina State, which emerged as the overall winner of the 2025 ranking, highlighted the connection between climate change, economic development and security.
The Katsina State Commissioner of Environment and Special Adviser on Climate Change, Prof. Mohammed Alamin, said the state’s climate strategy was being shaped by the effects of desertification, pressure on natural resources and climate variability on agriculture, livelihoods and communities.
He said the administration of Governor Dikko Radda had also placed emphasis on the participation of young people and women in climate action.
Among the initiatives highlighted by the state is the Katsina One-Person-One-Tree programme, which targets the planting of two million trees in 2026 and 11 million trees by 2030.
Alamin said Katsina was also exploring opportunities in climate-smart agriculture, renewable energy and carbon markets, with the aim of positioning the state for greater international engagement and green investment.
He described the ranking as both recognition of Katsina’s efforts and an opportunity to showcase the state’s wider green-development agenda.
The 2025 ranking placed Abia State second, Kano State third, Lagos State fourth and Kwara State fifth.
