Lagos Charts New Course in Climate Governance With

Greenhouse Gas Registry

Bolaji Animashaun

The Lagos State Government has unveiled the Lagos State Greenhouse Gas Registry (LGHGR), positioning the megacity as the first sub-national government in Nigeria to build a comprehensive system for tracking its carbon footprint.

The unveiling, held at the Central Business District in Alausa, Ikeja, drew a room thick with relevance: Commissioner for Health Professor Akin Abayomi, members of the State Executive Council, representatives of the Federal Ministry of Environment, development partners, TPHG Technologies, diplomats, business leaders, academics, civil society, and press.

At the heart of the moment stood Dr. Babatunde Ajayi, General Manager of the Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency (LASEPA), whose framing of the Registry elevated it beyond a bureaucratic milestone into a statement of intent. He called it a defining moment in the state’s climate journey – not a symbolic gesture, but the architecture for a resilient, low-carbon economy. Sharp and precise, Ajayi laid out the Registry’s mandate in terms that read like strategy rather than ceremony: a platform to measure, monitor, report, and verify emissions across every major sector of the economy. He tied Governor Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu’s environmental agenda directly to the initiative, framing it as proof that policy ambition and technical delivery can move in lockstep.

Ajayi went further, positioning the Registry as connective tissue between government and capital – a tool that strengthens evidence-based policymaking, sharpens transparency, meets climate reporting obligations, unlocks carbon market participation, and critically builds investor confidence in Lagos’s climate credentials. It was a technocrat’s vision delivered with a communicator’s clarity, and it set the tone for everything that followed. He closed his remarks by crediting TPHG Technologies for its technical partnership in bringing the platform to life.

Professor Abayomi’s keynote reinforced the stakes, describing the Registry as proof that Lagos now sits at the forefront of climate governance and emissions accountability not just in Nigeria, but across the continent. He framed climate change as inseparable from public health, arguing that credible emissions data is now foundational to attracting climate finance, strengthening resilience, and accelerating the transition to a low-carbon future.

The technical backbone of the project came into focus through Dr. Mofoluso Fagbeja, Lead Consultant and CEO of TPHG Technologies, who explained that the Registry builds on a 2022 greenhouse gas inventory conducted jointly with LASEPA, using 2019 as its baseline year. That inventory carried a sobering finding: roughly 35,000 premature deaths annually in Lagos linked to poor air quality – a statistic Fagbeja used to underscore why the industrial sector’s data gaps can no longer go unaddressed.

Federal endorsement came via Hon. Balarabe Abbas Lawal, Minister of Environment, represented by Mrs. Adenaike Olunimpe Oludunni, who situated the Registry within Nigeria’s Nationally Determined Contributions under the Paris Agreement and the Energy Transition Plan – a signal that Lagos’s move has implications well beyond state lines.

Private sector backing came from Swanlux Global Investment Limited, represented by Mrs. Victoria Awe, who framed the company’s support as a bet on the idea that credible data, not good intentions, is what will ultimately move the needle on climate accountability.

Taken together, the Lagos Greenhouse Gas Registry isn’t just a digital ledger of emissions. It’s a bid for a different kind of authority: one where Lagos doesn’t just participate in the global climate conversation, but sets terms for how African megacities measure, prove, and monetise their sustainability commitments.