article · Frontiers in Climate
Subnational institutional readiness is essential for achieving national and international climate goals, including Nigeria's 2060 net-zero target. An assessment across all 36 Nigerian states evaluated climate literacy, policy frameworks, budgetary commitments, and inter-agency coordination through document reviews, a survey of 1,306 officials across relevant ministries and agencies, and a workshop with over 600 stakeholders. The findings demonstrate widespread structural weaknesses, including low climate knowledge among officials, poor public awareness, and minimal policy development. Only a handful of states have established climate policies or action plans, while fewer than 20 percent maintain dedicated climate-related budget allocations. Furthermore, cross-sectoral collaboration and alignment with national frameworks remain deficient. Addressing these institutional gaps to convert symbolic commitments into substantive action requires harmonised governance frameworks, targeted capacity-building programmes, and accountability mechanisms such as performance-based disclosure and rating systems.
National climate pledges, including net-zero targets, rely heavily on effective implementation by regional and local authorities. Identifying institutional bottlenecks across subnational governments reveals why high-level commitments fail to translate into local action. Understanding these deficits in policy, budgeting, and awareness enables governments and development partners to design targeted interventions, harmonise policies, and direct resources where subnational governance capacity is most critically lacking.
The findings suggest potential applications in developing governance tools, specifically performance-based disclosure and rating systems designed to benchmark and incentivise state-level climate accountability. Potential users include federal oversight agencies, governance consultancies, and international climate finance institutions requiring standardized verification metrics. This application is at an early conceptual stage, as the assessment establishes the empirical need for such accountability mechanisms rather than presenting an applied or tested software tool.
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Introduction As climate governance increasingly adopts multilevel approaches, subnational actors play a central role in achieving national and global climate objectives. However, in Nigeria, as in many other developing countries, the role of subnational actors in climate governance remains underexplored. Understanding their institutional readiness is crucial for meeting national climate commitments, including the 2060 net-zero target. This paper presents the first comprehensive assessment of climate awareness, policy, and action across all 36 Nigerian states. Methods Using a mixed-methods design, the study combined document and budget reviews, a national survey of 1,306 respondents from relevant ministries and agencies, and a stakeholder validation workshop with over 600 participants. Indicators examined included climate literacy, policy presence and alignment, budgetary commitments, and inter-agency coordination. Results Findings reveal low climate knowledge among subnational officials, weak public awareness, and limited policy development. Only a handful of states, possess climate policies or action plans, and fewer than 20% have climate-related budget lines. Cross-sectoral collaboration and alignment with national frameworks are also weak. Discussion These gaps expose structural and institutional weaknesses that undermine Nigeria’s multilevel climate governance. Achieving the 2060 net-zero goal requires harmonized subnational frameworks, enhanced capacity-building, and innovative tools—such as performance-based disclosure and rating systems—to incentivize accountability and stimulate stronger state-level climate action. Positioned within debates on multilevel governance, the study highlights Nigeria as a critical test case of how federated system in the Global South can recalibrate institutions to transform symbolic commitments into substantive action.
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DOI: 10.3389/fclim.2025.1650172
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