By Bisola Adeyemo
Nigerians Environmentalists have approved a Draft document on Nigeria’s Green House Gas Emission projection for the next five years.
The stakeholders made this approval after a three-day intensive parley on the validation of Draft document held in Lagos recently.
The Federal Ministry of Environment organized the event with support from the United Nations Development Programme, Nature Conservation, and Nuclear Safety; Agencia Espanola De Cooperacion Internacional Parael Desarrollo, Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, and NDC Partnership.
However, the document is still awaiting the executive approval by the country’s Federal Executive Council.
Approving the document connotes that Nigeria would hence have a Policy Document that would guide its climate change intervention till 2025, NatureNews reports.
Unlike its previous policy direction on the commitment, the new Document embodies a rather ambitious target for the country’s input on the global efforts to address the challenge of climate change and its catastrophic effects, as it now projects a progressive shift from its previous baseline.
In specific terms, unlike its 2015 commitment, which ranges between the radius of 20% to 25% reduction in its GHG Emissions across the sectors, as captured in the Paris Agreement, Nigeria has now put strategies in place to drive a more aggressive cut down to between 40% and 50% as the case may be.
The Energy Sector, which accounts for 25% electricity needs of the country, appears the leading emitter of GHG, followed by Transport, Agriculture and Industrialisation, among others.
While the parley opened up yet another dialogue on the nation’s largely available but uncoordinated data and the need to interlink them for efficient usage, facilitators, both foreign and local, expatiated that the document baseline was drawn from industry’s certified data and research works as the National Energy Balance, among others.
Dr Mattew Adeoye, the Acting Director, National Space Research and Development Agency, said the parley has produced a significant document that should not be further delayed in terms of implementation.
He said: “What I am more pleased about is the fact that this parley afforded critical stakeholders to make input in the draft before being approved.
“For instance, on the issue of GHG Emission in the Agriculture Sector, I was able to point out the significant impact of bush burning in the country as one of the leading factors contributing to the emission. But that was omitted in their projections, and the National Space Research and Development Agency is ready to partner with them to understand the extent of Bush Burning so that it can be properly captured in the next review,” he added.
A representative of NERC, who doesn’t want his name in print because he was not permitted to speak to the press on the issue, said the document represents a genuine and more serious commitment on the part of the government to confront the menace of climate change in the country.
“To be sincere, these efforts are quite commendable, because it depicts a genuine and serious commitment on the part of the government of Nigeria to do something in climate change. And with or without foreign support, we all must rise to this occasion because, eventually, if we neglect the need to act now, we will all suffer it together in the future.
“Flooding, fire disaster, drought and food scarcity are all going to affect us first before the global community, hence the need for us to get serious and get the job done this time,” he explained.
One of the takeaways however is the clarity built around the revised edition of the NDC this time around, says the Statistician for the National Bureau of Statistics, Mr. Olagunju Kehinde Julius.
