By Titilayo Oshodi
Special Adviser to the Governor of Lagos State on Climate Change and Circular Economy
When delegates gathered at the recently concluded London Climate Action Week, the irony was impossible to ignore. One of Europe’s largest climate gatherings took place against the backdrop of one of the continent’s most severe heatwaves on record. Temperatures shattered historical averages, public infrastructure came under strain, and climate change ceased to be an abstract policy discussion. It became a reality outside the conference halls.
For more than a decade, the global climate conversation has centred on national commitments, international agreements and increasingly ambitious targets. Those commitments remain essential, but they are no longer sufficient. The next phase of climate leadership will be determined not by the promises governments make, but by their ability to translate ambition into projects that attract investment, improve lives and strengthen economic resilience.
Increasingly, that work will happen in cities. Not because cities are replacing national governments, but because they sit at the intersection of climate risk and economic opportunity. They are where infrastructure is built, energy is consumed, transport systems are modernised and the impacts of climate change are felt first.
Nowhere is this more evident than in Africa. With the continent’s urban population expected to double by 2050, the decisions made over the next decade about transport, housing, energy and industrial development will shape not only Africa’s economic future but also the global climate transition.
Yet there is a contradiction at the heart of today’s climate finance architecture. Global capital has never shown greater interest in climate investment, yet many cities still struggle to access it—not because they lack ambition, but because they lack investment-ready platforms that inspire investor confidence. The challenge is no longer capital. It is bankability.
This is the challenge Lagos State has chosen to address. Home to more than 22 million people and one of Africa’s largest city economies, Lagos faces significant climate risks, from coastal erosion and flooding to rising temperatures and rapid urbanisation. Rather than viewing these challenges as barriers to development, we see them as an opportunity to redesign how cities prepare, finance and deliver climate action.
That thinking informed our engagement at London Climate Action Week, where Lagos introduced its State-Determined Contributions (SDCs) Framework—a pioneering subnational climate investment architecture designed to convert policy ambition into investable opportunities.
The framework aligns local priorities with Nigeria’s national climate commitments while creating structured pipelines across clean energy, sustainable mobility, circular economy, carbon markets, climate resilience and nature-based solutions. But finance ultimately follows trust. Investors require more than well-written project proposals—they need confidence that climate outcomes can be measured, verified and reported consistently throughout an investment’s lifecycle.
To provide that confidence, the SDC Framework incorporates a digital Monitoring, Reporting, Verification and Management (DMRV) architecture powered by the DeCarbonIQ™ (DCIQ™) platform. By creating a transparent, data-driven record of project performance, climate finance deployment and environmental asset generation, DCIQ™ strengthens accountability, reduces transaction risk and provides the assurance increasingly expected in global climate finance and Article 6 carbon markets.
The framework also aggregates projects under a common governance, reporting and investment structure, reducing the transaction costs associated with sourcing, evaluating and monitoring climate investments—an important advantage for institutional investors seeking scalable opportunities.
The proposed 80 Million Clean Cookstoves Programme demonstrates this approach. As one of the world’s largest proposed Article 6-aligned clean cooking programmes, it illustrates how climate projects can simultaneously reduce emissions, improve public health, lower household energy costs, protect forests, expand opportunities for women and create green jobs. Climate investment and economic development are no longer separate agendas—they are increasingly the same agenda.
But projects alone do not attract investment. Cities also need financial institutions capable of evaluating climate risk and financing climate solutions. Historically, many domestic financial institutions have viewed climate investments as unfamiliar or high-risk, limiting the flow of local capital into the sector.
To bridge that gap, Lagos is establishing the Climate Finance Preparedness Clinic (CFPC). Working with banks, pension funds, insurers and other financial institutions, the Clinic will strengthen capacity in climate finance, ESG risk assessment, carbon markets and blended finance, while helping institutions develop the expertise needed to finance climate projects with confidence.
The CFPC is the implementation partner to the SDC Framework. While the SDC Framework develops investment-ready projects, the Clinic prepares the financial ecosystem to finance them, ensuring that climate projects are not only technically viable but also financially investable.
Our decision to join the Under2 Coalition during London Climate Action Week reflects the same philosophy. Global partnerships matter not simply because they expand networks, but because they strengthen governance, accelerate institutional learning and connect cities to the expertise and capital needed to move from policy to implementation.
The conversations in London reinforced what many investors already understand: climate finance is increasingly a trust economy. There is no shortage of capital seeking credible opportunities. What remains scarce are projects supported by transparent governance, reliable data, measurable performance and institutions capable of delivering at scale. Cities that can build that trust infrastructure will increasingly become the destinations where climate finance flows.
For Africa, this represents one of the greatest economic opportunities of the twenty-first century. Unlike many developed economies, African cities still have the opportunity to build infrastructure, transport systems and energy networks with resilience embedded from the outset. If we get these decisions right, climate action will not constrain development—it will accelerate it.
The future of climate leadership will not be measured by the declarations we sign or the targets we announce. It will be measured by our ability to transform ambition into investment-ready opportunities, investment into implementation and implementation into better lives.
The future of climate finance will not be decided only in national capitals or at global summits. It will be built in cities that combine ambition with governance, projects with finance, and transparency with measurable results. Lagos has chosen to build that architecture. We invite others to help shape it—and, in doing so, help redefine how climate finance reaches the communities where it matters most.