As the push for cleaner energy grows stronger, President Bola Tinubu has urged a fair energy transition that will not jeop­ardise developing economies.

Discussing the theme of the 17th Summit of the Economic Cooperation Organisation, “New ECO Vision for a Sus­tainable and Climate-Resilient Future,” which commenced in Khankhendi, Azerbaijan on Thursday, Tinubu stated that, given the adverse effects of climate change—including devastating droughts, floods, desertification, and extreme heat waves—a climate-resilient future is essential.

“Nigeria, endowed with both fossil and renewable energy, also supports a just energy tran­sition,” he said in a speech read on his behalf on Friday by the Minister of Budget and Econom­ic Planning, Senator Abubakar Bagudu.

He, therefore, sought the ECO members’ partnership to expand access to cleaner ener­gy technologies, share technical expertise, and invest in regional power pools to bring electricity to communities currently with­out it.

The President stated that since COP29, the world has rec­ognised that climate change is not a distant threat but a clear and present danger, as reflect­ed in adverse droughts, floods, desertification, and severe heat­waves.

These, he stated, had deeply affected humanity, engendered food insecurity, displacement, and economic disruption, pledg­ing that Nigeria, as Africa’s most populous nation and an econom­ic gateway to West Africa, stood ready to work closely with ECO member states to integrate cli­mate adaptation, mitigation, and green industrialisation into every aspect of its cooperation.

Tinubu stated that Nigeria had taken deliberate and con­scious steps to address the chal­lenges of climate change and related concerns, noting that as the nation wound down the implementation of its National Development Plan (NDP) for 2021-2025, efforts were ongoing to develop a successor plan, the NDP for 2026-2030.

“It is not by accident that the Plan is designed to end in 2030, which is the deadline for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs),” he told the Summit par­ticipants, explaining, “It is to en­sure that Nigeria stays on track in implementing the SDGs.”

He said the Plan was also to integrate climate change and related issues, including di­versification, adaptation, and mitigation, into the nation’s na­tional development planning for sustainability.

Tinubu stated that true sus­tainability is impossible with­out interconnected economies and argued that the challenges of climate change require glob­al resilience through stronger infrastructure, smarter energy systems, and the integration of trade corridors.