The Federal Government and other relevant stakeholders have expressed commitment through developing measures to achieve net-zero objectives by 2060.
The President of Society for Planet and Prosperity (SPP), Prof. Chukwumerije Okereke, made the commitment at a stakeholders’ meeting on Net-Zero Nigeria 2060, organised by SPP in Abuja on Friday.
Okereke said that the top 10 net-zero measures was a project which aimed at identifying 10 key steps and decisions that if taken in coming years would enable Nigeria to meet its objective.
“The measures to reach net zero will map some 10 key steps and decisions that, if taken, years to come, will underpin a socio-economic transformation required to enable Nigeria to meet its 2060 net-zero objective.
“The aim of the workshop is to harvest the idea in different sectors to come up with what they think the top 10 in Nigeria can do to achieve the net zero target.
“This project presents these steps and decisions in a format that is accessible to a wider public through communication materials that can stimulate and inform a wider public debate,’’ he said.
Okereke recalled that in 2021 President Mohammadu Buhari announced that Nigeria would cut its emissions to net-zero in 2060, at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) COP26 in Glasgow.
According to him, the way we are handling the project is that we will go through all the policies that Nigeria has produced in the last 10 years.
“The policy includes the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), which involve the energy transition plan, the mid-term development plan, the long-term vision and the national recovery plan.
“Then from all these documents where interesting measures that can help Nigeria achieve its long-term climate goal are, we will now combine these measures so that anybody can have it in one sheet of document.
“This effort will support the measures to go according to their potential to help the country achieve the net-zero target by 2060,’’ he said.
The president said that the NDCs was a very ambitious document, which would be ending by 2030, adding that with the way Nigeria was going, the NDCs might not get to the 2030 target.
He said that there were certain measures the country could take to help tackle climate change as well as building the country’s economy.
“These measures will also help to achieve long-term goals by stopping gas flaring and having alternative energy from renewable sources.
“These are measures which will also help to reduce the amount of emissions which we are putting into the atmosphere, some of them are organic agriculture farming, climate smart agriculture,’’ he said.
Okereke said that the organisation was also working on the housing sector, adding that the rate people were building houses was worrisome and could cause problems in future.
“As the population increases, in the next 40 years, if we do not take action to curtail the situation, then we may not have the chance of achieving the net-zero by 2060.
“A failure to put Nigeria on the decarbonisation path in the near term will possibly foreclose the opportunity for net zero emission by 2060.
“So, the building sector is one of the important sectors we are giving attention in this workshop,’’ he said.
Dr Iniobong Abiola-Awe, the Director, Climate Change in the Ministry of Environment, said that the international Panel on Climate Change had urged for urgent measures to mitigate the impacts of climate change.
Abiola-Awe said that Nigeria as a Party to the UNFCCC, signed the Paris Agreement that seeks to ensure the limiting of global warming to below two degrees.
She said that government would not relent in its effort toward achieving the global commitment.
“Government is partnering other relevant organisations both local and international to ensure that it will continue to drive national actions on climate change.
“The ministry will continue to provide necessary technical support and look forward to deliberations from this meeting,’’ she said.
Dr Aisha Mahmood, Special Adviser, on Sustainable Banking, to Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, said that government was executing environmental, social, and governance strategies through policy frameworks.
Mahmood said that the effort in implementation and regulation of the strategy since 2012 was throughout the financial system.
She said that the strategy was being reviewed to align with national priorities such as the Climate Change Act and the Net Zero objective.
“The financial system is implementing the strategy by lending and investing decisions, to avoid lending to sectors that will negatively impact the environment,” she said. (NAN)
