By Aduragbemi Omiyale
The Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Regulation Limited, Ms Tinuade Awe, has tasked capital market stakeholders to come up to speed with recent trends in climate disclosure by paying closer attention to climate-related financial risks and opportunities in their business operations in line with the recommendations of the Financial Standards Board (FSB) Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD).
Speaking at the virtual training on climate disclosure jointly hosted by NGX Limited and NGX Regulation in collaboration with UN Sustainable Stock Exchanges (SSE) Initiative, International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) in Lagos, she said the increased pressures from policymakers on climate disclosure from listed companies made the event timely.
In her opening remarks, she said, “for Nigeria, these policy pressures emanate from the Climate Change Act 2021 which was signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari in November 2021.
“This is also consistent with Nigeria’s vision to be a low-carbon, climate-resilient, high growth circular economy that reduces its current level of emissions by 50 per cent by 2050, as captured in the 2050 Long-Term vision for the Nigerian economy which was issued by the Department of Climate Change, Federal Ministry of Environment in November 2021.”
Ms Awe stated that the world was in a race to rapidly decarbonise and investors and providers of finance are increasingly interested in how companies are moving towards achieving net-zero emissions.
Consequently, companies that do not effectively navigate the climate transition and provide adequate disclosure on climate action may experience increased friction in accessing long-term sustainable capital.
“As a leading capital market infrastructure group, we recognize the important role we play in helping our markets navigate this transition.
“We are pleased to host this training as part of our Climate Awareness Initiative to help our stakeholders not only make sense of the global and local trends in climate change but also to help them navigate the net-zero transition and align with increasing demands from policymakers and providers of finance on climate-related financial disclosure,” she said.
