The Federal Government has tasked the Nigeria Deep Decarbonisation Project (DDP) team to generate context-specific scenarios and long-term modelling that will offer substantial evidence to support the government’s long-term emission reduction strategies on climate action.
The Minister of State for Environment, Chief Sharon Ikeazor, disclosed this at the project launch and inception workshop of the Nigeria Deep Decarbonisation Project today (December 17) in Abuja
“The Deep Decarbonisation Project Nigeria is a national research and capacity-building project for the implementation of a Deep Decarbonization Pathway Programme (DDPP) in Nigeria. DDP is a collaboration project between the Federal Ministry of Environment, Nigeria and the Agence Française de Dévelopment (AFD) with the International Relation and Sustainable Development Institute (IDDRI) as the programme coordinator.
“The decarbonisation of the global economy has long been recognised as an imperative in the fight against climate change. However, this has assumed even greater urgency since the signing of the Paris Agreement in 2015. The central role of deep decarbonisation has been further underscored by the recent IPCC Sixth Assessment (AR6) Report, which makes a compelling, scientific case for rapid reduction of emission across all sectors of the economy to avert disastrous and catastrophic climate impacts.
“As some of you will recall, the IPCCC AR6 was described as code red for humanity by the UN secretary-general, Antonio Guterres. It was against this background that world leaders at the recently concluded COP26 climate summit in Glasgow called on all countries to not only strengthen their NDCs but also to prepare long-term strategies in the pursuit of global net-zero emission by 2060.
“As was communicated in the concept note the purpose of the project launch and inception work is to present the DDP project to the larger community of stakeholders to begin a focused conversation on the scenarios and modelling options that can help Nigeria achieve her stated long-term climate objectives, including the goal of net-zero emission by 2060,” Ikeazor said.
The minister said the project came at an opportune moment, to complement efforts to navigate Nigeria and the global world over the harsh and unpleasant risks of climate change.
“Nigeria is one of the signatories to the Paris Agreement that outlines actions toward climate change mitigation, resilience, and adaptation. Nigeria also recognises that just transition to a low-emission economy is important to achieve sustainable development goals in the context of socio-economic and environmental sustainability.
“The Federal Government of Nigeria has made several climate change interventions intended to mitigate climate change and increase resilience to avert the excruciating consequences of climate change.
“The President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari, generously signed into law the Climate Change Bill passed by the National Assembly. The Climate Change Law provides an overarching legal framework to articulate a long-term climate plan for Nigeria to achieve a net-zero carbon emission target, national climate resilience and an adequate volume of climate finance with a focus on national development priorities.
“The Federal Government of Nigeria has, recently, also submitted its revised and robust Nationally Determined Contributions that articulate climate actions until 2030 in response to Article 4.2 of the Paris Agreement.
“In addition, The Federal Government of Nigeria formulated and communicated its Long-Term Low GHG Emission Development Strategies (LT-LEDS) envisioned that “By 2050, Nigeria is a country of low-carbon, climate-resilient, high-growth circular economy that reduces its current level of emissions by 50%, moving towards having net-zero emissions across all sectors of its development in a gender-responsive manner”. The Federal Ministry of Environment also formulated the Nigeria Decarbonisation Transition Plan, which enumerated pathways for Nigeria to achieve net-zero by 2050.
“The Nigerian government’s effort to transit to a low-emission economy was also echoed in all the discussions that the Federal Government of Nigeria was involved in at the COP26. At the height of it, the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari, promised a zero-net emission target for Nigeria by 2060.
“Climate change concerns and awareness and policy are growing. However, there is still a need to better understand the quantities of emissions reduction that can be made from each of the sectors of the economy such as power, oil and gas, transport, agriculture, industry, etc. We need to have a better understanding of how rapidly such emissions can be made in tandem with sustainable economic growth, the technologies that will be needed and the wider economic and social implications of rapid emission reduction pathways. Such degree of clarity is critical for planning, financing, and securing the long-term investment needed to shift our economy toward a green and climate-resilient development future.
“I am also delighted that the DPP is a national research and capacity building project designed to reinforce the capacities of local teams of experts and researchers for the scientific analysis of low-emission development pathways. Equally important is the plan to connect the community of practice among Nigerian and African research institutions to facilitate knowledge sharing.
“I am grateful to the French Development Agency (AFD) for funding the Deep Decarbonisation Pathway Programme (DDP) under the framework of the 2050 Facility. I am also thankful to the International Relation and Sustainable Development Institute (IDDRI) for coordinating the programme and helping to train Nigerian academics.”
The director, energy and climate change, Mrs. Abiola Awa, presenting the permanent secretary of environment said: “This project is designed to train Nigeria academics to develop models and support Nigeria’s commitment and effort to climate change and transition to the low emission sustainable development.
“Relevant stakeholders are here gathered to provide and initiate discusssion towards the inception of this project and it is expected that at the end of this meeting, we will have a direction for this project and its implementation,” Awa said.
The Nigeria DDP local coordinator, Prof. Chukwumerije Okereke, in his speech said: “This project was promoted that Nigeria design and publishes national important documents and plan about climate change. Recently the nationally determined contribution provides a guideline of how Nigeria will reduce this in the long-run, while also growing sustainability.
“However, all of these plans were designed by foreign ex-pats, because Nigeria does not have enough capacity to carry out climate-modelling, the ability to produce long-term strategies that will guide policy, this is a major gap that needed to be fixed.
“The French Development Agency is willing to fund the capacity-building for Nigerian academics to be trained to produce high-quality climate change model that can help to guide long-term emission development strategies.
“What prompted this project is the desire to build the capacity of Nigerian academics to be able to design high-quality, climate change models that will guide international climate policy.
“The economy has to gain what we call green jobs, jobs in the green energy sector. We hope that we create more jobs.”
The country director, DDP, Xavier Muron, in his speech, said: “This project is to build capacity in the country. We will make sure to address what is needed in the country.
“We are providing funding to make sure that the programme can move forward, as long as necessary to build scenario. We are funding the project to address climate change”.
Henri Waisman from IDDRI said: “All countries should consider positive emission ‘O’ within their boundaries 2050 to 2070. All countries should maximise domestic carbon sinks.
“Carbon neutrality by 2050-2070 is feasible in all the country contents. We need quality packages and diversity.”
