The federal government has launched a Deep Decarbonization Pathway Programme (DDPP) in a determination to reduce carbon emissions by 50 per cent come 2050 in its quest to meet net-zero carbon emission levels.
DDPP is a national research and capacity building project to be implemented between Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Environment and the Agence Française de Dévelopment (AFD) with the International Relation and Sustainable Development Institute (IDDRI) as the coordinator.
Launching the project, Minister of Environment, Mrs Sharon Ikeazor, stated that the decarbonization of the global economy has long been recognised as an imperative in the fight against climate change.
“The Nigeria Deep Decarbonization Project is, therefore, a very important component in our effort to navigate Nigeria and the global world over the harsh and unpleasant risks of climate change,” she said.
According to the Environment Minister, the federal government has made several climate change interventions intended to mitigate climate change and increase resilience to avert the excruciating consequences of climate change.
The Minister revealed that the federal government recently submitted its revised and robust Nationally Determined Contributions that articulate climate actions until 2030 in response to Article 4.2 of the Paris Agreement.
“The Federal Ministry of Environment also formulated 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-emissions economy was also echoed in all the discussions that the Federal Government of Nigeria was involved in at the COP26.
“The Nigerian government formulated and communicated its Long-Term Low GHG Emission Development Strategies, LT-LEDS and envisioned that by 2050, Nigeria will be a country of low-carbon, climate-resilient, high-growth circular economy that reduces its current level of emissions by 50 per cent, moving towards having net-zero emissions across all sectors of its development in a gender-responsive manner,” the Minister explained.
On his part, the National Project leader for DDP Nigeria, Mr Chukwumerije Okereke said what prompted the project was a desire to build a capacity of Nigerian academics, to be able to design high quality, rigorous, robust climate change models that can guide international climate policy.
“This project was prompted by the fact that year after year, Nigeria designs and publishes nationally important documents and plans around climate change. What about mitigation? What is about adaptation, and more recently, the nationally determined contribution that provides a guideline of how Nigeria can reduce their emissions in the long run while also growing sustainability?
However, all of these plans have been really designed and written by foreigners, foreign experts, international experts, and the reason is that Nigeria does not have enough capacity on what we call climate modelling,” he explained.
Mr Okereke said the team will be working very closely with the government to make inputs into the long term strategies; the long term climate change development strategy that the government will be producing next year, before COP 27 in Egypt.
“Having Nigerian academics working in collaboration with other ministries, and guided by the Department for climate change under the Federal Ministry of Environment, we hope that we’ll be able to produce long term strategies. These strategies will be relevant, specific contexts that will accommodate the uniqueness of our Nigeria and certain that they will help to ensure that whatever is produced will be implemented,” Mr Okereke added.
Director of the DDP Initiative at IDDRI, Mr Henri Waisman, said all countries should consider positive zero emissions within their boundaries by 2050- 2070, notably from fossil fuels combustion and maximize the domestic carbon sinks.
He noted that carbon neutrality by 2050-2070 is feasible in all the country contents IDDRI have investigated and it is possible to achieve simultaneously carbon neutrality and key socio-economic goals, as defined by each country.
“We develop a scientifically robust analysis of pathways achieving the systemic transformations towards carbon neutrality; we use this analysis to structure domestic conversations with decision-makers and stakeholders on options, choices and risks,” he said.
The Nigeria Deep De-carbonization Project is designed to generate context-specific scenarios and long-term modelling that will offer substantial evidence to support the government’s long term emissions reduction strategies and climate action in general.