Lagos State has topped a new regional assessment as the most climate resilient city in West Africa, with the study crediting the state’s climate governance as the most advanced and measurable among all sub national governments in the region.
The ranking emerged from the West Africa Climate Governance Index Assessment, a study evaluating all 209 sub national governments across the 15 ECOWAS nations against parameters including climate risk exposure, governance visibility, finance evidence, transparency, participation and implementation capacity. Lagos scored 86.3 out of 100, earning a Grade A ranking and finishing ahead of Kano, Abuja, Greater Accra, Praia, Dakar, Porto Novo, Abidjan Autonomous District, Sao Filipe and Bombali among others, a ranking the index said aligns with United Nations Sustainable Development Goals 13 and 17 as well as the African Union’s Agenda 2063 aspiration for a prosperous, climate resilient continent.
As Lagos emerged the top performing sub national government in West Africa for 2026, the research body conferred its Grand Laureate of Climate Governance honour on Governor Babajide Sanwo Olu for administering what it called the region’s most resilient climate governance structure. In a formal notification letter dated July 8, 2026, Fondation Lucien Paye Director Professor Julie Peghini congratulated Sanwo Olu for championing policies aimed at mitigating climate hazards and strengthening adaptation across Lagos, noting that the full report and raw datasets are publicly available through the official French Government data repository.
WACGI is a France based climate policy centre established by the Africa Foundation Lucien Paye at Cite Internationale Universitaire de Paris, working to advance climate governance across ECOWAS member nations using indicators aligned with the Paris Agreement. Peghini said the exercise reflects a conviction that transparent, evidence based assessment can drive institutional improvement, with strong performers earning recognition while constructive recommendations help governments strengthen weaker areas. The report noted that Nigeria, as ECOWAS’s largest economy and emitter, has built one of the region’s most elaborate climate governance architectures, including the Climate Change Act 2021, a National Council on Climate Change, NDC 3.0, an Energy Transition Plan, a long term net zero strategy and growing climate finance analysis, even as the country continues facing severe climate risks across its ecological zones, from coastal flooding and erosion in the south to desertification and heat in the north, riverine flooding in the Middle Belt, agricultural vulnerability, and gas flaring and oil sector transition risks in the Niger Delta.
