This position paper sets out a definitive call for a realistic, fair and technically grounded global climate strategy, proposed by the Ade Nexus Energy and Climate Innovation Center to the United States and driven by a joint initiative by the United Nations for global adoption. It recognizes the undeniable urgency of climate action, while redressing the structural weaknesses of current approaches that over-rely on intermittent renewable energy and underestimate the role of hydrocarbons in planetary stability, industrial development and human progress.
We need a new paradigm that integrates a circular carbon economy, carbon capture utilization and storage, measurable and verifiable accountability systems, and fair financing models for Africa and other developing regions. This paper proposes such a paradigm.
The Center respectfully urges the United States to jointly support this new global direction, with a pragmatic energy policy direction articulated by the Trump Administration and championed by Secretary of Energy Chris Wright. With U.S. technological leadership and the United Nations’ global legitimacy, the world can move toward a climate model that protects development, strengthens energy sovereignty, and delivers measurable environmental progress.
This model was born in Nigeria, strengthened through US partnerships, and globalized by the United Nations, ultimately providing the world with a viable, inclusive, innovation-driven climate pathway that aligns ambition with reality.
Rethinking the path to net zero
The current global climate architecture relies heavily on idealistic projections that avoid the world’s dependence on hydrocarbons for reliability, industrial power, and economic survival. The truth audit shows that renewable energy alone cannot maintain global stability, especially in developing countries where industrialization and energy access remain urgent priorities.
Several European countries, including Germany and the UK, are experiencing grid stress and supply shocks, largely due to premature over-reliance on intermittent renewable energy. This vulnerability exposes a fundamental flaw in unilateral migration.
The Adé-Nexus Center for Energy & Climate Innovation will therefore submit this proposal directly to the United States. With its unparalleled technology ecosystem and renewed focus on energy sovereignty under President Donald J. Trump’s administration, the United States is uniquely positioned to champion a smarter global model. With U.S. approval, the framework will be formally adopted by the United Nations and promoted globally, ensuring universal legitimacy and coordinated action.
The limits of renewable energy and the myth of exclusivity
While renewable energy has made an important contribution to decarbonization, it was not designed to replace baseload electricity per se. Its intermittency, seasonality, weather dependence, vulnerability to mineral supplies, and geopolitics make it unsatisfactory as the sole backbone of the global energy system.
Heavy industries such as cement, steel, chemicals, and thermal power generation cannot operate on intermittent energy. Aviation, transportation, manufacturing, and mining require dense and constant sources of energy.
Global narratives that portray fossil energy as incompatible with climate responsibility are misleading and ultimately harmful. The world’s largest economies achieved prosperity through reliable baseload energy. It is neither fair nor realistic to demand that Africa industrialize without similar access.
A transition that does not recognize this truth will punish developing countries, destabilize power grids, and deepen global inequality. We must correct course before the world becomes even more unstable.
Understanding the circular carbon economy
A circular carbon economy is the world’s most balanced, flexible and scientifically sound path to climate responsibility. It incorporates the four pillars, the 4Rs. These are: reducing emissions wherever possible, reusing carbon through industrial applications, recycling carbon through conversion technologies, and removing carbon through natural and man-made sinks. This model does not demonize carbon. Manage it intelligently.
Carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) is at the heart of this approach. CCUS allows countries to continue using hydrocarbons while significantly reducing emissions. This will enable cement factories, steel mills, chemical industries, refineries and power plants to operate efficiently without causing atmospheric overload. Carbon can be stored in deep geological formations, such as depleted oil reservoirs, saline aquifers, and even certain limestone quarry formations where long-term mineralization is possible. This approach creates stability while reducing environmental impact.
The circular carbon economy is fully aligned with the Measurable, Reportable, Verifiable (MRV) framework to ensure transparency, accountability and integrity in global emissions management.
Fossil exploration, integration and accountability
Africa has vast hydrocarbon reserves that are essential for poverty reduction, industrial development, job creation and national sovereignty. But while the world’s richest economies continue to consume fossil energy on a large scale, restrictive global financing frameworks create artificial barriers around fossil investments and hinder Africa’s development.
This position paper makes a clear case that fossil exploration and exploitation in Africa must not only continue, but be radically integrated with CCUS. Such integration ensures responsible operations, transparent emissions tracking, and alignment with global climate goals based on MRV compliance.
The world must lift total restrictions on fossil fuel financing in Africa. These restrictions hurt the poor, hinder development, and contradict the historical path that has allowed developed countries to reach their current prosperity.
Africa should not be punished for wanting the same opportunities that other peoples have enjoyed.
Financing hard-to-cut sectors
Cement, steel, chemicals, power generation. These sectors form the backbone of industrialization, infrastructure development, and global commerce. They also have the highest concentration of unavoidable emissions due to their process-intensive nature.
The document calls on the United Nations, the United States, the World Bank, and other global development agencies to establish special eligible financing windows for struggling industries adopting CCUS integration. These sectors cannot be decarbonized through renewable energy alone. It requires significant investment, technology transfer and policy coordination.
Funding these sectors is not a concession. It is a worldwide necessity.
Global leadership and the role of the United States
The United States must regain its rightful place as the world leader in responsible energy policy. Rather than withdrawing from global climate agreements, the United States should champion a revised, pragmatic, innovation-driven framework that balances climate responsibility with economic power and national sovereignty. President Trump’s energy ideology, with its focus on authenticity, innovation, and practicality, provides exactly the kind of leadership the world needs.
This position paper therefore calls on the United States to lead a circular carbon economy initiative in collaboration with the Adenexus Center for Energy and Climate Innovation. With U.S. approval, the United Nations could formally globalize this model and set a new direction for the world.
Restructuring of Article 6: Carbon markets and cooperation
Article 6 of the Paris Agreement provides for international carbon markets and cooperative climate action. However, its current structure is restrictive, unclear, and inaccessible to most developing countries. This document proposes a redefinition of Article 6 to simplify the accounting framework, ensure integrity, strengthen the MRV system, and unlock billions of dollars in climate finance.
Amendments to Article 6 will make the circular carbon economy scalable, commercially attractive and globally applicable.
conclusion
The world is at a crossroads. A transition built on unrealistic assumptions will lead to instability, economic stagnation, and deepening inequality. A circular carbon economy is the only way to reconcile development, climate responsibility and technological progress.
The Adé-Nexus Center for Energy & Climate Innovation will submit this revised global climate strategy to the United States for partnership and technical co-winners, and to the United Nations for adoption and globalization.
This model will enable the world to finally achieve a ‘just energy transition’, one that leaves no country behind and ensures that climate ambition and human progress move forward together.
References and Acknowledgments
This position paper draws on authoritative international sources such as the International Energy Agency (IEA), the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), in particular documents on circular carbon economy (CCE), carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS), and the Article 6 carbon market mechanism. The Trump administration’s U.S. energy policy framework, articulated by the Department of Energy, provided important guidance in shaping the practical, innovation-driven approach presented here. Regional and continental analyzes including reports from the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) have informed considerations for decarbonizing hard-to-reduce sectors and industries in Africa.
The author acknowledges his previous book, “Global Climate Action Strategies in Nigeria and Africa: Reconciling Economic Growth and Environmental Sustainability,” which laid the analytical foundation for integrating economic development and environmental management into the current global framework. Insights from policymakers, energy experts, and institutional stakeholders further strengthened the evidence base and operational feasibility of the proposals advanced.
The Adenexus Energy and Climate Innovation Center provides the conceptual and operational center for this initiative, and the United States is given special recognition for its leadership in energy reliability and innovation, and the United Nations for its pivotal role in global climate governance and the adoption and promotion of fair and viable climate strategies. The authors would also like to thank the global scientific and technical community whose research supports the practical solutions contained in this position paper.
A joint initiative proposed by the United States, adopted by the United Nations, and promoted globally. Ọṣìbánjọ́ is Chief Architect at the Adé-Nexus Center for Energy & Climate Innovation.
