Impactful climate action, a positive legacy of the Buhari govt – APC Group

An ambitious and impactful climate action by President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration has been described as one of the best legacies of the present government.

The APC Legacy Awareness and Campaign, a voluntary think-tank group of the governing party, also said that Buhari government has a target of 20 percent unconditional reduction of Nigeria’s carbon emissions and 45 percent conditional reduction, by 2030, with the support of the international community.

In a statement by Barr. Ismail Ahmed, Lanre Issa-Onilu, Tolu Ogunlesi and Salihu Moh. Lukman, the APC think thank group said, “Ambitious and impactful climate action will no doubt be one of the many positive legacies of the Buhari Administration.

“It aims to achieve this through such efforts as investment in renewable energy, massive afforestation campaign, elimination of gas flaring, clean cooking as a replacement for firewood, climate-smart agriculture, and so on.”

According to the group, at the just-concluded Climate Change Conference (COP26), President Buhari underscored Nigeria’s commitment, saying: “I do not think anyone in Nigeria needs persuading of the need for urgent action on the environment. Desertification in the North, floods in the centre, pollution and erosion on the coast are enough evidence. For Nigeria, climate change is not about the perils of tomorrow but what is happening today. Nigeria is committed to net zero by 2060.”

The think thank also recalled that the Paris Climate Summit at which the historic Agreement was adopted took place within President Buhari’s first year in office.

“Nigeria made significant commitments, known as our Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), under the terms of that Agreement. In March 2017, the President signed the instrument of Ratification of the Paris Climate Agreement.

“Since then, the country has demonstrated strong commitment towards tackling climate change. In 2017, Nigeria became the first African country and the third country in the world to issue a Sovereign Green Bond, worth N10.69 billion, and followed up in 2019 with a second Sovereign Green Bond, worth N15 billion. Pulling this pioneering effort off required a public-private coalition that brought together the Ministries of Finance and Environment, the Budget Office, the Debt Management Office, Development Finance Institutions, Capital Market Operators, and other stakeholders.

“Fast-forward to 2021, and the world has unequivocally recognised President Buhari as a global climate action leader and champion. His engagements and pronouncements at the Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland, as well as testimonials such as that from American billionaire Jeff Bezos (whose “Earth Fund” has set aside $10 billion to support projects tackling climate change) attest to this. Also, in the lead-up to the Conference, TIME Magazine acknowledged Nigeria’s place in the climate action movement with a feature of President Buhari on its cover for November 8/15, 2021.

“The 2022 Federal Budget, currently being considered by the National Assembly, is the first “climate-responsive” budget in the history of the country. Already, since 2020, the Federal Government launched a ‘Solar Power Naija’ project, being implemented by the Rural Electrification Agency (REA), and which will electrify 5 million households and 25 million Nigerians, using off-grid solar power. The Solar Power Naija project will support the creation of a quarter of a million jobs in the energy sector alone.

“In July and October 2021 respectively, the Nigerian House of Representatives and Senate passed the Climate Change Bill, which will provide a much-needed legal framework for Nigeria’s efforts to decisively tackle climate change. Also this year, President Buhari approved the country’s Revised National Climate Change Policy (NCCP) (2021-2030) as well as National Climate Change Programmes.

“The President indeed takes Nigeria’s commitments under the Paris Agreement very seriously. On May 27, 2021, Nigeria formally submitted the Interim Report on its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The report shows that Nigeria is well on course to meet its NDC targets.

“As Chairman of the Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC), President Buhari has been a strident advocate for the recharging of the Lake, which has shrunk significantly in the last five decades, due to the effects of climate change. Nigeria is also now getting set to assume the leadership of the Conference of Heads of State and Government of the Pan African Agency of the Great Green Wall.

“In recent months, the President and the Vice President have consistently spoken out on the need for a developing country like Nigeria to be allowed a gas-based energy transition, considering that gas is a relatively cleaner fuel than petrol and diesel, and that the country has abundant reserves of gas, which would go a long way towards powering industrialization and economic growth. Gas can power homes, industry.

“According to President Buhari, Nigeria’s detailed energy transition plan already clearly shows that Nigeria can continue with the use of gas for the next two decades, without compromising its progress in fulfilling its Nationally Determined Contribution. It is in line with this that the Federal Government has declared this the “Decade of Gas” for Nigeria, launched the National Gas Expansion Program, the National Gas Flare Commercialization Program, and commenced the construction of the AKK Gas Pipeline Project, the largest such project in the country.”

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