Nigeria submits climate action plan 60 days after deadline

Amina Mohammed, Nigeria's Environment Minister — Amina Mohammed, Nigeria’s Environment Minister

By Atâyi Babs

Nigeria, the largest economy in sub-Sahara Africa and a lower middle income developing country with a GDP per capita in current of $2,950 has finally submitted its Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) .

Coming almost sixty days after the 1st october 2015 deadline set by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Nigeria’s INDC belies its determination to contribute to the success of the Paris climate summit in December 2015 and to grow its economy sustainably while reducing carbon pollution.

With food insecurity, poor access to energy and high unemployment, amongst others, constituting principal constraints on economic development and about 30% of the population living below the poverty line of US$1.25, coupled with the recent sharp decline in world oil prices putting enormous pressure on the federal government’s budget, which continues to depend significantly on export revenues, Nigeria’s INDC focuses on the delivery of direct development benefits and sustainable growth of the economy.

The climate action plan seeks to considerably address the impact of climate change in the country as the northern part remains vulnerable to drought while sea-level rise, flooding, ocean surge and fluctuating weather patterns are common occurrences in the south.

According to the plan, Nigeria aspires to achieve economic and social development by growing the economy 5% per year, improving standard of living, electricity access for all under a mitigation objective of 20% unconditional reduction in emissions and a 45% conditional reduction from business as usual.

The INDCs identifies as key measures, the plan to work towards ending gas flaring by 2030, working towards Off-grid solar PV of 13GW (13,000MW), deployment of efficient gas generators, and 2% per year energy efficiency (30% by 2030).

Other key measures are transport shift car to mass transit means, improving electricity grid and climate smart agriculture and reforestation.The plan reckons that under a business-as-usual growth scenario, consistent with strong economic growth of 5% per year, Nigeria’s emissions are expected to grow to around 900 million tonnes per year in 2030, which translates to around 3.4 tonnes per person.

The identified key measures could potentially reduce emissions by around 45 per cent compared to business as usual.Nigeria’s great potential for climate smart development is recognised in the plan with proposed support for implementation. Much of the reduction potential identified has zero net cost or indeed achieves a net economic benefit.

The plan therefore is optimistic that the measures would benefit Nigeria overall, even before taking into account the climate benefits.

Civil society angstThe announcement on twitter that Nigeria had submitted its INDCs yesterday by Amina Mohammed, the country’s Environment Minister was greeted with doubt and angst as many civil society actors who called on the government to respect the UNFCCC deadline and submit a robust climate action plan for the country weren’t impressed.

According to Tabi Joda of the Northwest zone of Climate and Sustainable Development Network of Nigeria (CSDevNet), “why is Nigeria submitting INDCs now? Why must we be late in all things?. Of what practical use is this submission when it cannot be captured in the already published synthesis report?”

Nelson Nwafor Nnanna of the Foundation for Environmental Rights and Development (FENRAD) from the south-eastern part of Nigeria questioned the veracity and ‘Nigerianess’ of a climate action plan which Nigeria’s Environment ministry, with support from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), had contracted a European firm to write for Nigeria.

“How are we sure that the firm of consultants (Ricardo & Associates) weren’t doing the bidding of UNDP and European Union? As far as Nigerian civil society is concerned, the submitted INDCs was not written by Nigerians neither were critical segments of the Nigerian civil society and media involved in its drafting and validation hence it cannot be said to be truly representative of our views and climate aspirations as a people,”Nwafor added

It may be recalled that at a civil society consultative workshop on INDCs in August 2015, participants from CSOs, Media, Regional and International Development Partners, grassroots community practitioners, farmer cooperatives, youth, women and faith-based organizations in Nigeria expressed concerns that the Post-2015 process in Nigeria was experiencing needless delays, slow response to INDCs submission, lack of robust preparation and inadequate participation/involvement of civil society, media and women groups in the country.

Including Nigeria, 183 parties to the UNFCCC have formally submitted their INDCs.

All Parties to the UNFCCC are expected to submit climate action plans in the form of Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) in advance of the Paris Climate Change Conference, which will take place in December 2015.

Parties are anticipated to agree on a global climate change agreement to take effect in 2020 at the Paris Climate Change.