Nigeria can’t fund climate actions, Buhari says a year after making net zero pledge

President Muhammadu Buhari has said Nigeria lacks funding to urgently finance its energy transition and climate action agenda due to the country’s debt situation.

The President, represented by the Minister of Environment, Mohammed Abdullahi, disclosed this while speaking at the high-level segment of the 27th edition of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) in Egypt on Tuesday.

Last year at COP26 in Glasgow, the Minister announced a commitment to net zero by 2060 based on the Minister’s Energy Transition Plan (ETP).

He described the plan as the first of its kind in Africa and underlines the significant scale of resources needed to achieve the 2060 development and climate ambitions.

“…However, there is a lack of public financing urgently needed to finance energy transitions and climate action, a situation compounded by the debt situation affecting many low- and middle-income countries,” he said.

The minister recalled that at last year’s COP26, President Buhari said: “For Nigeria, climate change is not about the dangers of tomorrow but what is happening today.” Nigeria is currently suffering from the dire consequences of the devastating floods, which have affected 3.2 million people, lost more than 600 lives, displaced more than 100,000 people and destroyed more than 300 hectares of agriculture.

“Nigeria and indeed the rest of Africa, from the Sahara to the Cape, are living with the growing fear of food insecurity due to floods,” the minister said.

Continuous efforts

Among all these challenges, as the minister explained, the country is taking bold steps to pioneer innovative climate financing tools, such as the climate exchange debt; and supporting the development of the African carbon market initiative.

“In support of this, Nigeria has enacted climate change law along with the initial governance framework and launched the Nigerian Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS),” he added.

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To signal investment readiness, the minister said Nigeria has made significant strides in creating policies and incentives to pursue a short list of priority projects, including Independent Renewable Solar Power (IPP), Decentralized Renewable Energy (DRE) projects and the commercialization of gas flaring. options, to name a few.

“We are hopeful that investors in the global community will recognize the tremendous investment opportunities and impact potential,” he said.

“Loss and damage” financing in developing countries

This year, a major agenda for developing countries, mostly on the African continent, is “loss and damage financing” to help countries that cannot adapt and face the impacts of climate change. permanent, as in the case of floods, disasters and sea level rise.

The minister said that the economic cost of “Loss and Damage” to Africa is estimated at nearly $2 trillion, excluding non-economic losses, and that developed countries should not ignore the demand of developing nations to establish a loss and damage financing facility for developing nations. to help recover from the adverse effects of climate change, particularly devastating floods, worsening desertification and rising sea levels.

As Africa’s largest economy, the minister said we are working with the G7 to request that Nigeria join the G7’s List of Climate Partnerships to create a Just Energy Transition Partnership.

“Nigeria and the rest of Africa require an effective and sustainable framework that will address the socio-economic consequences of the energy transition, including energy poverty, loss of jobs and livelihoods,” he said.

He said: “Africa contributes about 3 percent to global emissions, but is left to face the devastating effects of climate change.”

He noted that Nigeria has promoted initiatives to rehabilitate degraded lands in the Sahara and Sahel, such as the Great Green Wall, and that there is a great need to expand existing adaptation acceleration programs for developing countries.