Kano Climate Governance Ranking: How the State Jumped from 35th to 4th Place

By: Abudu Olalekan

A look at Kano’s historic rise in the 2025 Subnational Climate Governance ranking. From bottom tier to top 4, discover the projects driving this change.

Kano’s climate story didn’t start with applause. It started with a shock.

In 2024, when the Subnational Climate Governance Performance Rating quietly dropped on Reportersroom, Kano was almost at the bottom of Nigeria’s table. 35th out of 36 states. You didn’t need a long URL or fancy charts to feel the sting — a short link and one harsh truth were enough.

So when the 2025 results came out in Abuja on Tuesday, October 14, everything felt different. Same ranking framework. Same partners – the Department of Climate Change, Society for Planet and Prosperity (SPP), PACE under the UK FCDO, and a few others. But this time, Kano wasn’t an afterthought. It was the headline.

From 35th position in 2024 to 4th in 2025. A jump so sharp it made people ask, “What exactly happened in Kano?”

It wasn’t magic. And it definitely wasn’t a PR makeover.

After that painful 2024 score, the ranking acted like a mirror nobody could ignore. It showed the gaps, clearly. Weak institutions. Patchy implementation. Low visibility. Instead of arguing with the numbers, Kano’s leaders treated the result like a to‑do list.

Under Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf, climate governance stopped being just a “nice speech” topic. It moved into the centre of state planning. The instruction was simple enough: Kano will not be left behind again. And climate work must mean real changes in people’s daily lives, not just policy files sitting in dusty folders.

So things began to shift. Not loudly at first.

The state dusted off its Climate Change Policy and actually used it. Renewable energy projects started spreading. City spaces got greener under the Urban Renewal Project. Afforestation programmes picked up pace. Erosion control stopped being a talking point and became construction sites, engineers, workers, deadlines.

But paper and policy didn’t move Kano up the table. Implementation did. Real work in real communities.

Early 2024 became a kind of turning point. Kano pushed hard for the Northwest Climate Resilience Declaration – a regional pact built around a seven‑point agenda. For once, climate action in the zone wasn’t just each state acting alone; it was coordinated, deliberate. That was when “climate ambition” began to look more like “climate delivery”.

Through the Kano State Afforestation Project (KNAP), the state turned that ambition into seedlings. Millions of them. In 2025 alone, 5.5 million were shared across all 44 LGAs. Small trees now, yes, but already calming dust storms, slowly stitching back degraded land, and building carbon sinks that will work quietly for years. Environmental experts say a million mature trees can lock away tens of thousands of tonnes of CO₂ each year. Do the math. Kano’s effort is not symbolic; it’s serious.

Water security told a similar story. Under the ACReSAL project, 10 solar-powered boreholes came onstream, each linked with mini-dams, irrigation channels and safe-water zones. Farmers got more predictable water. Women and children walked shorter distances. Communities saw fewer waterborne diseases. One project, many small daily changes.

The Bulbula–Gayawa corridor, once a textbook case of gully erosion and climate vulnerability, turned into another symbol of this new approach. An ₦8.5 billion control project now holds the ground together, saving houses, roads, shops. Each rainy season, it quietly protects assets worth billions of naira and keeps around 200,000 residents a little safer.

Urban life shifted too. Wireless solar traffic lights – backed by a ₦3.4 billion investment – started cutting both emissions and chaos at junctions. The Ministry of Power & Renewable Energy got a ₦1.46 billion upgrade, giving the state better tools to plan and manage a cleaner energy future.

Partnerships helped. With UNICEF and the UK Government, Kano delivered 55 climate‑resilient schools and primary healthcare centres. Solar power. Better ventilation. Flood‑aware designs. So when heatwaves hit or storms roll in, children can still learn and pregnant women can still see a nurse. Climate resilience, but in very human terms.

Waste didn’t get ignored either. REMASAB received 10 refuse trucks, two payloaders and a new waste‑handling system along key transport routes. The result? Cleaner streets, fewer disease vectors, slightly better air in a crowded state that needs every breath to count.

And then came the digital twist. Kano launched an online climate action and green investment platform. Short URL, big ambition. Real-time air and water quality data. Hazard reporting. Space for citizens to engage. Not many Nigerian states can say they’re using digital dashboards to shape environmental governance. Kano now can.

By the time the 2025 ranking was compiled, the numbers simply told the story that had already unfolded on the ground. From 45 points in 2024 to 280 in 2025. Institutional arrangements. Policy foundations. Budgeting. Execution. Online visibility. Box‑ticking? No. Box‑rewriting.

People are feeling it. Safer roads. Cleaner neighbourhoods. More reliable water. Better crop prospects. Health centres that keep running when the weather turns extreme.

Is the journey over? Not even close. Climate leadership doesn’t really have a finish line. Kano knows that. The state is still leaning on the ranking framework, still working with partners like PACE under the UK‑FCDO, still listening to community leaders and civil society.

It’s not yet uhuru, as some like to say. But from 35th to 4th, one thing is clear.

Kano has left the climate sidelines. And it’s not planning to go back.