BUILDING CLIMATE RESILIENCE IN NIGERIA: CLIMATE RISKS, ADAPTATION PATHWAYS, AND POLICY PRIORITIES — A SCOPING REVIEW

Abstract

Climate change is intensifying the frequency, severity, and unpredictability of extreme weather events, threatening food security, water resources, ecosystems, public health, infrastructure, and socio-economic development, particularly in regions with limited adaptive capacity. Existing scholarship tends to examine climate hazards, vulnerability, adaptation, and governance separately, limiting understanding of how these dimensions interact to shape resilience outcomes. This paper is a scoping review that synthesizes recent scientific assessments, empirical studies, and national policy documents on climate change, extreme weather, and adaptation in Nigeria, situated within the wider African and global context. The review develops an Integrated Climate Resilience Framework linking climate drivers, hazards, exposure and vulnerability (including the differentiated vulnerability of women and girls), adaptive capacity, adaptation interventions, and resilience outcomes through explicit feedback relationships rather than a simple linear sequence. It identifies persistent gaps in Nigeria's adaptation response limited and inaccessible climate finance, weak inter-agency coordination, constrained local government capacity, underuse of indigenous knowledge, poor climate data systems, low public awareness, and vulnerable infrastructure and translates these into specific, institution-level policy recommendations. The paper argues that adaptation must be prioritized alongside mitigation, financed directly at the sub-national level, and built on the integration of scientific and indigenous knowledge systems. The review contributes a policy-relevant synthesis and an original conceptual framework to guide climate resilience planning in Nigeria and comparable developing-country contexts.