To better understand the nation’s current energy situation, the Federal Government has convened a stakeholders’ forum to validate the country’s energy balance.
The one-day Nigeria Energy Statistic Workshop was organized by the department of climate change (DCC) of the Federal Ministry of Environment to review and validate Nigeria’s energy statistics undertaken by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) today (May 10, 2021) in Abuja.
The acting director of DCC, Mrs Halima Bawa-Bwari, said the workshop was one of the supported activities towards the current Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) revision. She pointed out the Nigeria’s NDC revision was to demonstrate how Nigeria would contribute to the global efforts in combating climate change as agreed at the COP21 in Paris in 2015, adding around two thirds of all GHG emissions come from energy consumption.“
To ensure that the updated NDC sets out correct, fair, achievable policies and goals, it is imperative that we better understand and have the knowledge of energy production and use in the country. It is towards fulfilling this need that the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), one of the implementing partners of the Climate Action Empowerment Programme (CAEP) has supported the FGN to develop an energy balance for Nigeria.
“As we all know, energy is central to growth and prosperity. While the country faces severe energy deficient, yet, energy demand has almost doubled since 2000. Climate change impacts and response measures have clearly shown that Nigeria can no longer rely on fossil fuels to fulfill its energy needs, but must quickly transit to a more sustainable energy path,” she said.
The DCC boss pointed out that beyond the pressures of climate change, the energy sector was also being tasked to address a broad array of sustainability concerns, adding, however, that sustainable energy for all is both necessary and achievable.
“We need to engineer a new energy future, a future that harnesses the power of technology and innovation in the service of the people and our planet.
“To this end, this workshop will provide an opportunity for national stakeholders to make input to the findings and results of the assessment, to understand energy statistics and to consider the work undertaken by IRENA,” she added.
Bawa-Bwari acknowledged the role played by DPR, NNPC, NBS and NERC, and the ECN in the area of data supplies, pointing out that the data had allowed an overall energy balance to be produced and for a methodology to be developed so it could be reproduced yearly.
In his virtual presentation, the IRENA representative, the international energy and statistics advisor, Duncan Millard, said countries needed comprehensive energy statistics because energy underpins economic activity, ensures adequate security, provides clear understanding for investors and businesses, provides understanding of the energy uses to allow for efficiency and greater output at lower cost.
He further said energy statistics was required to address climate change and identify cost effective steps for NDCs, design monitor and evaluate policies, adding a good data needs sound data governance, solid methodology and cooperation.
“Good energy balances are a compact source of energy information (convenient); require good quality statistics (data, calorific values); enable accurate checks of energy statistics (efficiencies); are the foundation for basic energy indicators, energy accounts and for CO2 emission estimates; and form the basis to understand energy use, but detailed end use surveys are needed to get the full picture,” he added.
Speaking exclusively to Science Nigeria, the coordinator-UNDP-NDC Support Programme, Huzi Mshelia, explained that the major challenges encountered by the consultants in carrying out the exercise and which IRENA had to grapple with were the paucity of data and the novel Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) which restricted movement and made it difficult for international trips to be undertaken.
Similarly, the head of energy and environment unit of the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Olagunju Kehinde, urged researchers, organisations and federal government ministries, departments and agencies to collaborate with the bureau in carrying out their statistics to make their work a national data, accessible to the world, by getting it validated by NBS, adding it must conform to international best practices and standards before it would be approved.
