Climate Change: Stakeholders call for additional Policy actions

There is need to make more policies in addition to the Nationally Determined Contribution, NDCs, to get Nigeria to a net-zero emission by 2060.

President Society for Planet and Prosperity, a nongovernmental organization in Nigeria, Professor Chukwumerije Okereke stated this at the TOP 10 Net-Zero stakeholders workshop held in Abuja the Nation’s capital.

Professor Okereke said that “the Top 10 Net-Zero measures project is aimed at identifying 10 key steps and decisions that if taken in the next five years, would enable Nigeria to meet the government 2060 net-Zero objective while supporting the sustainable development of the country.”

He said; “We are going through all the policy documents the country has produced in the last 10 years, including the NDCs, the Energy Transition Plan, the Mid-term Development Plan, the Long-term Vision, and the National Recovery Plan…From all these documents we have identified several interesting measures that can help Nigeria, achieve its Long-term Climate goals. What we are now trying to do is to compile these measures so that anybody can have them in one sheet and rank them according to their potential to help us achieve the Net-Zero target and other social-economic benefits, like poverty alleviation, and job creation.”

According to him, there are certain measures the country can take to tackle Climate Change and also help build the country’s economy.

Professor Okereke explained that; “These measures would also help to achieve long-term goals by stopping Gas flaring and  having alternative sources of energy from renewable, these are measures which would reduce the number of Emissions which we are putting into the atmospheres such as Organic Agriculture Farming, Climate Smart Agriculture, and also create job such as Afforestation and sustain development.”

He said that a small but targeted package of measures implemented across the key economic sectors would be able to put Nigeria on a deep Decarbonization pathway.

According to him, “such measures will require investments from government and the private sector, with international climate finance leveraging those domestic investments and lowering investment costs and reducing risks.”

Professor Okereke stated that the Top 10 Net-Zero project is conceived to inform and stimulate the Nigerian discourse on the actions to take before 2025 that can make a decisive difference.

He further stressed that the outputs were intended to support Nigerian stakeholders including policymakers, businesses, civil society organisations, international development partners, and crucially the general public, in moving this important issue out of the confines of expert debate and furthering societal debate about climate choices, regardless of people’s political perspective.

The Director of Climate Change, Ministry of Environment, Dr. Inibong Abiola-Awe said the global impact of climate change needed urgent attention from every relevant stakeholder around the world.

He said; “As governments around the world including Nigeria sign on to the Paris agreement to ensure the limiting of global warming, it’s expected that this gathering is seen to pursue the global aim of ensuring the impact of climate change that threatens the existence of mankind is curtailed.”

According to her, “The Federal Ministry of Environment ratified the Paris agreement at the Cop26, and Nigeria has updated its National Determine Contribution with an ambitious target to reduce emissions unconditionally by 20%.”

She said the government would not relent to partner with such to continue to drive ambition and commitment to a global treaty on climate change.”

Dr. Abiola-Awe said; “I want to assure you that the Ministry would provide technical support and look forward to deliberations from this workshop to ensure partnership as we move forward for the commitments of the NetZero emissions by 2060.

The Special Adviser to the Central Bank of Nigeria Governor on Sustainable Banking, Dr. Aisha Mahmud said since the evolution of these frameworks, the CBN is currently reviewing the Nigerian Sustainable Banking Principles, NSBP to align with the National priorities, such as the reviewed NDC’s, the Climate Change Act, Net -Zero emissions commitment by government, and other national priorities, to align with the Global Climate agenda.

“As a result of these frameworks, the financial system is implementing Environmental Social Governance, ESG, in their lending and investment decisions to ensure that they do not lead the sector that would impact negatively on the environment and human health,” Dr. Aisha explained.

She added that at the end of the workshop CBN believed that stakeholders would be able to come up with measures that would assist the government in achieving the commitments to Net-Zero by 2060.

At COP26 November 2021, President, Muhammadu Buhari announced Nigeria’s net-zero by 2060 commitment based on Energy Transition Plan. The resulting strategy was subsequently approved by the Federal Executive Council.

Shortly before COP26, Nigeria submitted a revised Nationally Determined Contribution, NDC, and a Long-Term Vision, LTV, both containing a raft of climate measures in several economic sectors.

Mercy Chukwudiebere