President  Bola Tinubu has urged world leaders to demonstrate unity, courage and sustained commitment in addressing the worsening global climate crisis.  He to them: “The global climate emergency demands our collective, courageous and sustained leadership.” 
 
At a high-stakes virtual summit, yesterday, United Nations (UN) Secretary-General António Guterres and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva brought together 17 national leaders from major economies and climate-vulnerable countries. The goal was to accelerate global climate ambition ahead of COP30 in Brazil.
 
 During the virtual dialogue, Tinubu reaffirmed Nigeria’s dedication to forging a paradigm shift in which climate action and economic growth advance together, not in opposition.
 
“For Nigeria, the urgency of this moment is clear: we view climate action not as a cost to development, but as a strategic imperative,” Tinubu said. Leaders from 17 countries, including China, the European Union (EU), climate-vulnerable states, and key regional blocs such as the African Union (AU), Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) participated in the meeting.
 
The leaders sent a clear message: climate action is moving forward, full speed ahead.  Addressing the session from Abuja, President Tinubu outlined Nigeria’s Energy Transition Plan (ETP) as a bold, pragmatic roadmap for reaching net-zero emissions by 2060. The ETP targets five core sectors: power, cooking, transportation, oil and gas, and industry, and identifies a financing need of over $410 billion by 2060 to achieve these goals.
 
“We are, therefore, in the process of aligning our regulatory environment, fiscal incentives, and institutional frameworks to ensure that energy access, decarbonisation, and economic competitiveness proceed in lockstep. We are also taking leadership on Energy Access,” he said.
 
Tinubu underscored Nigeria’s role as an anchor country in the Mission 300 initiative, implemented in partnership with the World Bank and the African Development Bank (AfDB). The initiative aims to deliver electricity to 300 million Africans by 2030.
 
The meeting was part of a joint mobilisation strategy by Guterres and Silva to strengthen global action under the Paris Agreement and build momentum for stronger national climate plans to be announced soon.
 
Guterres described the two-hour session behind closed doors that included China as one of the most diverse meetings of national leaders focused exclusively on climate for some time, carrying a powerful unifying message.
 
 “As we heard today, the world is moving forward, full speed ahead. No group or government can stop the clean energy revolution”, he declared at a press briefing afterwards. “At COP30, leaders must deliver a credible roadmap to mobilise $1.3 trillion a year for developing countries by 2035. Developed countries must honour their promise to double adaptation finance to at least $40 billion a year by this year.
 
“And we need significantly increased contributions and innovative sources of finance to support the Fund for responding to Loss and Damage. Across all these fronts, we will keep up the push, including at a special event in September in the final weeks to COP30.”