By Emeka Nwokocha
There is no gainsaying the fact that the 14 days long COP28 UN Climate Change Conference in Dubai, United Arab Emirates which rounded off on 13 December 2023 emphasized the urgent need for countries around the world, including Nigeria to ignite super interest and commitment to speed up the transition away from fossil fuels to renewables such as wind, solar power and other eco-friendly sources of energy.
The COP28 conference, dubbed as the biggest of its kind is a fundamental premise upon which this writer focuses attention on the next round of climate commitments the Nigerian government would bring on board to accelerate reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and strengthen resilience to a changing climate in line with the Paris agreement.
It is pertinent to say that the agreement reached at the COP28 conference signals the beginning of the end of fossil fuel era as it laid the ground for swift measures to ratchet up climate action before the end of the decade and keep the global temperature limit of 1.5°C within reach.
Without mincing words, this commitment is pivotal in activating positive action towards implementing the Paris Agreement, against the backdrop of proven slow commitment of countries to reduce greenhouse emissions. The report at the COP28 conference had it that progress was too slow across all areas of climate action – from reducing greenhouse gas emissions, to strengthening resilience to a changing climate, to getting the financial and technological support to vulnerable nations.
Interestingly, countries responded to this challenge with a decision on how to accelerate action across all areas by 2030, including to speed up the transition away from fossil fuels to renewables in their next round of climate commitments.
This is a welcome development. But there is a growing concern as to whether the Nigerian government would make better progress in its next round of climate commitment.
There is growing perception that the Nigerian government might continue to pay lip service to its climate policies as it had done in the past over the implementation of the Paris Agreement.
Small wonder, the trumpeted Nigerian government’s economic diversification policies have over years been active only on papers and the media space. In other words, there is virtually nothing on ground to prove the government’s seriousness towards combating climate change.
It is regretting to note that in the face of the renewed call to all countries to strengthen their climate policies in order to speed up the transition away from fossil fuels to renewables, successive governments in Nigeria had consistently shown stronger commitment to advance exploration activities and production of crude oil and gas to shore up the country’s revenue.
Suffice it to say that the Dubai Climate conference – a global stocktake, is considered as the central outcome of COP28 which contains every element that was under negotiation at the conference and can now be used by countries to develop stronger climate action plans to achieve 43% cut in global greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, to limit global warming to 1.5°C. But the question on the lips of concerned Nigerians is, “Would the Nigerian government be ready to follow through any commitment that drastically seeks to combat global warming?
In a nutshell, there are unquestionable doubts about the Nigerian government’s readiness to prioritize renewable energy sources and jettison further exploration activities in the country’s petroleum industry which is a major contributor of greenhouse gas emissions.
On that note, this writer sees the urgent need for the Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), Nongovernmental Organisations (NGOs), groups and discerning Nigerians to build a formidable collaboration and continually engage with the government of day to ensure it implements its climate action plan to the letter.
This intervention is important as it would inspire a departure from the hurting reality that the National Climate Change Policy for Nigeria 2021-2030 which gave birth to the National Climate Change Action Plan (NCCAP), is unarguably, a bogus document that has made little or no contribution to reducing green house gas emissions over the years.
Emeka Nwokocha is a journalist and Human and Environmental Rights Activist
