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The Centre for Climate Change and Development (CCCD) of the Alex Ekwueme Federal University Ndufu-Alike has announced the commencement of the second edition of its essay competition on climate change in Nigeria.

The second edition of the essay competition with the title “Climate Change and Nigeria’s Economic Development: A letter to Mr. Incoming President” commenced on Friday, November 11 and ends on Thursday, December 22, 2022.

Speaking on the competition, which is opened to young adults between the ages of 16 and 35 years, the director of the Centre, Professor Chukwumerije Okereke, said that the aim of the competition is to increase public awareness of, and engagement with climate change in Nigeria and Africa more broadly.

He stated that he was impressed by the quality of submissions received during the maiden edition and the high level of enthusiasm by Nigerian youths towards climate change, hence the decision to launch the second edition.

He said: “The competition will offer further great opportunity for young people to be the leading and driving force to climate action in the country by setting agenda to the next administration in the country. I am optimist that we will receive yet another quality submissions by the young people across the country on the topic.”

He further emphasised that climate change remains a threat to human existence, and young people have a vital role to play in climate actions and decision making in order to protect the environment.

Prof. Okereke, while calling on young adults to utilise the opportunity to set climate change agenda for the next President of Nigeria in 2023, stated that the choice of the essay topic was as a result of lack of adequate knowledge of climate change issues in Nigeria and across the globe exhibited by some Presidential Candidates in the build-up to the 2023 Presidential election in the country, hence the urgency for the young people to set climate change agenda for who will eventually emerge the next president in 2023.

He further reiterated that the Centre would continue to come up with engaging activities and competitions that further increase public awareness and understanding of climate change in Nigeria and Africa.

The President, Society for Planet Prosperity (SPP) and the Director, Centre for Climate Change and Development (CCCD) at Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Ndufu Alike Ebonyi State, Prof. Chukwuemerije Okereke, has emphasised the importance of adequate finance in meeting the 2060 net zero aspiration and other climate change targets in Nigeria.

Prof. Okereke made this known while giving an opening speech at a webinar on “The Role of the Climate Change Act in Catalysing Climate Finance” recently organised by the SPP in partnership with GCA Capital partners.

He noted that, for the new National Climate Change Council to meet all the obligations as contained in the Climate Change Act, adequate financing is critical and germane. He advocated for alternative funding to ensure that the council fulfill its mandate as enshrined in the Climate Change Act.

Speaking on the topic “The Role of the Climate Change Act in Catalysing Climate Finance”, the keynote speaker and the CEO of GCA capital partners, Mr. Obi Ugochuku, submitted that the Climate Change Council should be a vehicle for finding alternative finance for climate change activities.

He explained that some of the public sources of funding that can be available to the council include Appropriation, Linkage with national and subnational plans, Carbon tax, administrative interventions, and Linkage with climate finance ambitions, while the private sources included corporate issuances, institutional investors, and catalysing private sector sources, and the multilateral and bilateral sources involve keying into global sources for support and leveraging global climate finance commitments.

Mr. Ugochuku concluded that while there are existing funding opportunities both at the national and international arena to meet the climate change targets in Nigeria, accessing the fund requires strong commitment to ensure that the funds are channeled to what they are meant for.

In his contribution during the webinar, Mr. Olugbolahan Mark-George, a Climate Finance Advisor to the Federal Government of Nigeria, enumerated different ways that the National Climate Change Council could swing into action on the financial aspect. He stated that the harmonisation of all the existing policy documents on climate finance, introducing functional structure to check all MDGs budget through climate filter, updating of data to guide decision-making, tracking of budgetary allocations on climate finance and leveraging on public finance to access private finance and global finance are crucial in ensuring the success of the National Climate Change Council.

While contributing as a discussant, Dr. Eugene Itua, the Coordinator of Nigeria’s Long-Term Low Emission Development Strategy (LTS) Development, maintained that finance is key in piloting the affairs of the Climate Change Council, stating the need for the council to accelerate action on nature-based solutions with a good return on investment and the development of an enabling environment for sustainable development and sustainable finance.

Dr. Itua pointed out that it was the function of the council to galvanise the whole system into action through collaboration with the private sector and other stakeholders to ensure that enough finance is mobilised to actualise the goals and objectives of the council.

In his remarks, Prof. Emmanuel Oladipo, who is of the University of Lagos, Akoka, stated that climate change should be seen as a part of development and Nigeria should not wait for external funding to fight climate change because it is affecting us directly. He noted that we must start with a small amount in terms of mobilising climate finance knowing fully well the economic situation of the country, while more funding would be attracted through good proposals.

Prof Oladipo stressed the importance of the Climate Change Council to engage, dialogue, and employ experts to help run the affairs of the council if the government wants to achieve optimum results in climate finance mobilisation.

The webinar had in attendance over 50 participants from different MDGs, CSOs and other stakeholders in the Nigerian environment sector.

On July 25, 2022, President Muhammadu Buhari approved the appointment of Dr. Salisu Mohammed Dahiru as pioneer Director General and Chief Executive Officer of the National Council on Climate Change.  The Nigeria Climate Change Act has some key financial provisions which include financial mobilisation, the establishment of a Climate Change Council with a mandate to mobilise finance, and the establishment of a Climate Change Fund, which could be a repository for a plethora of climate-related instruments.

By Chinedu Nwasum

The Society for Planet Prosperity (SPP) in conjunction with GCA Capital Partners is organising a webinar on “The role of Climate Change Act in Catalysing Climate Finance in Nigeria”.

The aim of the webinar is to share experts’ opinions on different ways through which the National Climate Change Act, of which the implementation has recently started with the inauguration of the National Climate Change Council (NCCC) and the appointment of a Director General, could work strategically to mobilise significant resources towards the delivery of these far-reaching green investment objectives in Nigeria.

For Nigeria and many other developing countries, the lack of finance represents one of the most formidable barriers to fast tracking action on climate change and achieving a green transition within their jurisdictions. In the run up to COP26, Nigeria presented a revised Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) with a set of investment actions valued at $177 billion. The country’s Energy Transition Plan (ETP) adopted in January 2022 by the Federal Executive Council and on which President Buhari’s net zero carbon pledge by 2060 at COP26 was anchored, suggests an investment of $410 billion by 2060 for Nigeria to meet its carbon neutrality pledge.

Meanwhile a combination of top-down and bottom-up analyses undertaken by UNEP indicates the demand for additional sustainable investment in Nigeria could be a cumulative $92 billion up till 2030. For a country with a high rate of poverty, a debt of $92.75 billion (and rising), and a less than impressive experience with attracting international climate finance, achieving this scale of investment represents quite a challenge. The passing of the Climate Change Bill, Professor Chukwumerije Okereke, President of Society for Planet and Prosperity and Director, Centre for Climate Change and Development, Alex Ekwueme Federal University, has teamed up with Mr Obi Ugochuku, CEO, GCA Capital Partners, to undertake an analysis of the various ways through which the National Climate Council can leverage the provisions of the Climate Change Act to Catalysing Climate Finance in the Country.

Professor Okereke led the technical team constituted by the Speaker of the Federal House of Rep, Femi Gbajabiamilla, to review the Climate Change Bill. Mr Obi Ugochuku is a foremost climate finance expert who led the process that resulted in the issuance of the first and second sovereign green bonds for Nigeria. Dr Eugene Itua of National Eco Capital will be the discussant.

The webinar will present the key findings of the report (which will also be released immediately after the webinar).

Evidence from the GCF shows that Nigeria has only been able to mobilise $118 million from the Green Climate Fund, compared to South Africa’s $600 million. South Africa recently set a record at COP26 when it announced that it had reached an agreement with a consortium of donor countries to receive $8.5 billion to support her energy transition and implementation of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC). Similarly, with Morocco, the issuance of domestic corporate bonds has been active, reaching a total of $550 million. This maybe attributable to the size of the South Africa market for green instruments but also to proactivity and acting strategically.

The report shows that the Council can leverage several aspects of the Act to expand the flow of climate and green finance in Nigeria. COP27 is around the corner, Nigeria must not attend merely to make commitments that it will struggle to fulfill with limited or no strategy for mobilising finance. With the devastating impact of climate change in Nigeria so evidently demonstrated by the unprecedent flooding events in the country, it is time to put in place a robust and long-term plan to enhance climate mobilisation to underwrite green and climate resilient investment for Nigeria.

The webinar, which will take place on Friday, November 4, via zoom, from 4.30pm to 6pm, will feature Mr Obi Ugochuku, as a panelist, Dr. Eugene Itua and Olugbolahan Mark-George (Climate Finance Advisor to the Government) as discussants, while Samuel Onuigbo (Rep Member) and Dr. Salisu Dahiru, the Director-General, National Council on Climate Change, as special guests of honour. Prof. Okereke will moderate the session.

By Chinedu Nwasum

Researchers and high-level representatives from relevant ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) on Wednesday, August 17, 2022, convened for a lunch meeting in Abuja to review an economic analysis of inclusive green recovery and transition opportunities in Nigeria’s agriculture and energy sector.

The policy brief, commissioned by the World Resources Institute (WRI) and funded by the Danish Government, is aimed at supporting the Federal Government of Nigeria’s efforts towards the fulfilment of its objective to achieve economic recovery and green growth in the energy and agriculture sectors.

The policy analysis, credited to Robert Onyeneke, Chukwumerije Okereke and Chukwuemeka Emenekwe, shows the costs and benefits as it relates to the environment, health, and employment opportunities in Nigeria’s agriculture and energy sectors.

Opening the meeting, Professor Chukwumerije Okereke, the Principal Investigator and the Director of the Centre for Climate Change and Development (DCCC) at Alex Ekwueme Federal University Ndufu-Alike, said: “The impact of climate change is felt in all sectors; if you take the agricultural sector for example, of the five key staple crops consumed in Nigeria: maize, cassava, millet, sorghum and yam, climate change will negatively affect all of them, in some cases causing up to 70% decrease crop yield.

“This is a looming disaster and almost an existential threat because up to 70% of Nigerians depend on agriculture for their livelihood and the agricultural sector accounts for roughly 26% of our GDP. If we think outside of the box, we can explore ways to act on climate change and recover from the COVID-19 in ways that boost our economic growth. Nigeria has many things going for it and there is a need to identify those opportunities and capitalise on them,” he explained.

Also commending the efforts of the researchers and re-emphasising the need for such policy analysis to inform the government’s direction, Dr. Iniobong Abiola-Awe, the Director of the Department of Climate Change in the Federal Ministry of Environment, commented that “this policy analysis is timely, closely following the establishment of Nigeria’s Climate Change Council. The outcomes from this engagement will also strengthen Nigeria’s position during COP27 in Egypt.”

She also appreciated the Danish Government for providing the fund and thanked other ministries for their corporation.

Some analysed options in the energy sector as shared in the analysis include: providing five million off-grid households and SMEs with solar power; providing off-grid solar power supply to seven federal universities and seven university teaching hospitals across Nigeria; substituting 30 million homes cooking with dirty fuels traditional biomass to LPG; and moving 7.3 million households currently cooking with traditional biomass to improved cookstoves.

Under the agriculture sector, analysis options show the possibility of achieving intermittent aeration of rice paddy fields (~50% of total) in the systems of rice management through intensification; increasing the national cattle herd growth rate from the current 1.5% growth rate to 3.3% per annum using sustainable/intensive management methods in the area of sustainable cattle production (SCP) and improved natural forest management at about 128,528 ha of natural forests in the area of sustainable forest and land management (SFLM). The main outcomes analysed showed the contribution of each Initiative through economic, environmental and employment lenses.

The policymakers’ recommendations included a need for similar modelling focusing on gas. There was also a call for scaling up this analysis to cover other NDC sectors, model large-scaled surveys and design state-level analysis, as well as spotlight the private sector’s potential and leveraging opportunities.

Some of those in attendance included representatives from the World Resources Institute, the Embassy of Denmark in Nigeria, and officers from departments and agencies under various federal ministries including the Federal Ministry of Environment, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Federal Ministry of Power, Federal Ministry of Finance Budget and National Planning, and the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment.

By ‘Seyifunmi Adebote

(this was first published by Environews)

The Society for Planet Prosperity is seeking expert input and opinion on the top 10 net zero measures for Nigeria and their sustainable development co-benefits.

The top ten measures to net-zero project is aimed at identifying 10 key steps and decisions that if taken in the next 5 years will enable Nigeria to meet the government’s 2060 net zero objective while also supporting the sustainable development of the country.

The project involves going through all the policy documents the country has produced in the last 10 years, including the NDCs, the Energy Transition Plan, the Mid-term Development Plan, the Long-term Vision, and the National Recovery Plan and identify several interesting measures that can help Nigeria, achieve its Long-term Climate goals.

The specific aim is to map 10 key steps and decisions that if taken in the next 5 years will underpin a socio-economic transformation required to enable Nigeria to meet the government’s 2060 net zero objective. The project presents these steps and decisions in a format that is accessible to a wider public through communication materials that can stimulate and inform a wider public debate.

The outputs are intended to support Nigerian stakeholders including policy makers, businesses, civil society organizations, and international development partners and crucially the general public, in moving this important issue out of the confines of expert debate and furthering societal debate about climate choices, regardless of people’s political perspective.

In view of this, we are seeking expert input for our questionnaire on the top net zero measures for Nigeria and their sustainable development co-benefits. Kindly fill this 5-minute questionnaire on or before Friday the 12th of August if you’re an expert in the following sectors:

Agriculture, Forestry and Land Use (AFOLU)

Industry and Housing

Oil and Gas

Power

Transport

Waste

Water

Click this link to fill the questionnaire: https://forms.gle/qhFJwuVDGzdQi5Az7

Recall that the top 10 net zero measures project was launched recently in Abuja followed by stakeholders’ engagement which attracted different key and relevant stakeholders in seven identified sectors relevant to the project.

The Top 10 measures for Nigeria to reach net zero project is funded by the European Climate Foundation (ECF) and is being implemented by Society for Planet Prosperity over 10 months.