COP28: Niger unveils blueprint for Green economy, to plant 1bn trees

Niger State Government on Friday on unveiled its blueprint for Green economy with a plan to plant one billion trees within the next four years.

Gov. Mohammed Umar Bago of the state announced this while launching the blueprint in Dubai during the side event organised by the state at the global ongoing climate change conference, tagged COP28, in Dubai.

The governor said the state put itself forward as a pioneer for Green Initiative in Nigeria so that it could be on the global map of climate action.

“We have signed an agreement as a state with a sister state here in the United Arab Emirates (UAE); we want Niger State to be coopted as a sister state in Dubai.

“We want to plant one billion trees on one million hectares of land in the next four years and we are serious on that.

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“We want to get carbon credits through our rivers and hydro dams for our state and for our nation. We are not going to be spoonfed anymore as a state.

“We understand the power we have on our rivers and hydro dams in the carbon market.

“We want to transition 800,000 homes from fossil fuels and national grid to off-grid solar power solution,” he said.

The governor noted that the state had galvanised global support for the initiative and had been able to secure a line credit loan of £100 million from a Deutsch bank.

“If we spend $2 billion in Agriculture, we will make $5 billion every year,” he said, calling for international investment so as to create employment.