•Governor Sanwo-Olu wins distinguished Grand Laureate award in climate governance
Lagos State has been ranked as the most climate-resilient city in West Africa, said to offer the most advanced and measurable climate governance among sub-national governments in the sub-continent.
The verdict was the outcome of the recently concluded West Africa Climate Governance Index (WACGI) Assessment — a comprehensive study that involved evidence-based research across all 209 sub-national governments in the 15 ECOWAS nations.
WACGI said its regional evaluation where Lagos and 208 other West African states were assessed combined climate-risk exposure, governance visibility, finance evidence, transparency, participation and implementation capacity as parameters.
Based on the listed parameters, Lagos scored 86.3 points — the highest on a scale of 100 points and ranked Grade “A”, coming ahead of Kano, Abuja, Greater Accra, Praia, Dakar, Porto Novo, Abidjan Autonomous District, São Filipe, Bombali, among others.
The ranking, according to WACGI, aligns with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals 13 (Climate Action) and SDG 17 (Partnerships for the Goals). The research body added that its evaluation also fell within the scope and parameters of the African Union’s Agenda 2063 aspiration for a prosperous and climate-resilient Africa.
With Lagos State emerging as the first in the 2026 Best Performing Sub-national Government in West Africa, the climate research body conferred its prestigious honour of “Grand Laureate of Climate Governance” on Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu for administering the most resilient climate governance structure.
In an official notification letter, dated July 8, 2026, to Lagos State Government, Director of Fondation Lucien Paye, Prof. Julie Peghini, congratulated Governor Sanwo-Olu for championing actions and policies aimed towards mitigating climate-related hazards and strengthening adoption in Lagos.
She wrote: “In recognition of this achievement, we are pleased to confer upon Your Excellency and the Government of Lagos State the distinguished honour of the ‘Grand Laureate of Climate Governance’ for 2026 best performing subnational government in West Africa. The formal report and the raw results datasets are publicly available on the official French Government data repository.”
The WACGI is a France-based climate policy and initiative centre established by the Africa Foundation (Lucien Paye) at Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris. Its mission is to advance climate governance across ECOWAS member nations. This is achieved through the use of indicators and parameters that align with the Paris Agreement’s clauses.
Peghini said the publication reflected WACGI’s conviction that transparent, evidence-based assessment could become a powerful catalyst for institutional improvement. Recognition of strong performance, she said, should inspire ranked countries, while constructive recommendations should support governments seeking to strengthen their climate governance systems.
The WACGI report said Nigeria, as ECOWAS’s largest economy and emissions system, enforced one of the region’s most elaborate climate governance architectures, with the county’s framework including the Climate Change Act 2021, the National Council on Climate Change, NDC 3.0, the Energy Transition Plan, long-term net-zero strategy and growing climate finance analysis.
The French body noted, however, that Nigeria faced severe climate risks across ecological zones, including coastal flooding and erosion in the South, desertification and heat in the North, riverine flooding in the Middle Belt, agricultural vulnerability, gas-flaring and oil-sector transition risks.
SIGNED
GBOYEGA AKOSILE
SPECIAL ADVISER – MEDIA AND PUBLICITY
