Executive Summary
This report explores climate mitigation and adaptation options with the potential for carbon credits opportunities among households in Adamawa, and Gombe, Northeast Nigeria (NEN). The overarching objective is to support income generation while building resilience to climate change. The report is built on consultations with relevant stakeholders to understand the current state of the carbon market and viable opportunities that could be scaled or leveraged within the scope of the USAID Feed the Future Rural Resilience Activity. State-level interviews were held with Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs), Agro-allied firms, financial institutions, Community-Based Organizations (CBOs), and Farmers’ Groups to understand the state of the carbon market in NEN by exploring the institutional capacity, policies, market actors, livelihoods options, business models, opportunities and gaps. The study revealed that there is a lack of knowledge of the carbon market among stakeholders in the states. Additionally, there is no existing structure to support the carbon market, especially in terms of policy, and knowledge of emission level per sector, especially in agriculture, industry, and other economic sectors. Additionally, there is a lack of existing interventions to attempt to measure any of the climate adaptation practices to determine their potential for the carbon market. This makes it difficult to estimate the actual market size in the two states. The existing climate-smart practices in the states focus mainly on adaptation strategies such as the use of improved seeds, climate-friendly inputs, good agronomic practices, and so on. On the other hand, there is an increasing rate of deforestation and other unhealthy land use practices leading high impact of climate change across the states. These among several other factors constitute some of the major gaps surrounding carbon market development in the two states. However, a number of varying opportunities were identified in the two states regardless of the magnitude of the gaps. Agroforestry, and climate-smart agriculture, especially those targeted at climate change mitigation such as soil carbon, biogas, bio-fertilizer, etc. were identified as viable means to kick-start the carbon market interventions in the states. These practices are recommended following its potential to offer multiple benefits including ecosystem functions, regeneration of natural resources, food security, and income generation from carbon credits. Additionally, mapping and scaling of the existing climate-related interventions such as cooking stoves, solar power, waste recycling, and charcoal briquettes could be leveraged to support income generation from carbon credits. Collectively, the proposed interventions align with the livelihood activities within the states and thus can be easily implemented and scaled. Achieving such outcomes, however, required a number of indirect investments in developmental interventions targeted at a wide range of stakeholders including the government, the private sector, agro-allied firms, financial institutions, project developers, and farmers. This is required to ensure productive and sustainable carbon market development in the two states and other northeast Nigeria.