Godwin Amunde
The APC Legacy Awareness and Campaign, a voluntary think-tank group of the governing All Progressives Congress (APC) has commended the administration of President Muhammadu Buharis feat on climate change, describing it as historic.
The Group said President Buharis action early in the life of his administration by issuing a Sovereign Green Bond worth N10.69 billion in 2017 has singled him out as a global leader in the united effort against climate change , thus propelling Nigeria atop global players in climate change Mitigation effort.
In a statementtitled Buharis Global Leadership on Climate Changesigned by the quartets of BarrIsmail Ahmed,Lanre Issa-Onilu, Tolu Ogunlesi and Salihu Moh. Lukman, the group added thatbyfurther followingup in 2019 with a second Sovereign Green Bond worth N15 billion, such ambitious and impactful climate action will no doubt be one of the many positive legacies of the Buhari administration.
The statement reads:The country has demonstrated strong commitment towards tackling climate change. In 2017, Nigeria became the first African country and the third country in the world to issue a Sovereign Green Bond, worth N10.69 billion, and followed up in 2019 with a second Sovereign Green Bond, worth N15 billion.
Pulling this pioneering effort off required a public-private coalition that brought together the Ministries of Finance and Environment, the Budget Office, the Debt Management Office, Development Finance Institutions, Capital Market Operators, and other stakeholders.
Fast-forward to 2021, and the world has unequivocally recognised President Buhari as a global climate action leader and champion. His engagements and pronouncements at the Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland, as well as testimonials such as that from American billionaire Jeff Bezos (whose Earth Fund has set aside $10 billion to support projects tackling climate change), attest to this.
Also, in the lead-up to the Conference, TIME Magazine acknowledged Nigerias place in the climate action movement with a feature of President Buhari on its cover for November 8/15, 2021.
The Group also said the 2022 Federal Budget currently being considered by the National Assembly is the first climate-responsive budget in the history of the country.
It said already, since 2020, the Federal Government launched a Solar Power Naija project, being implemented by the Rural Electrification Agency (REA), which will electrify 5 million households and 25 million Nigerians, using off-grid solar power.
The Solar Power Naija project will support the creation of a quarter of a million jobs in the energy sector alone, the statement said.
The Paris Climate Summit at which the historic Agreement was adopted took place within President Buharis first year in office. Nigeria made significant commitments, known as our Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), under the terms of that Agreement. In March 2017, the President signed the Instrument of Ratification of the Paris Climate Agreement.
The APC Legacy Awareness and Campaign, a voluntary think-tank group of the governing party, can report that NDC outlines a target of 20 percent unconditional reduction of Nigerias carbon emissions and 45 percent conditional reduction, by 2030, with the support of the international community. It aims to achieve this through such efforts as an investment in renewable energy, massive afforestation campaign, elimination of gas flaring, clean cooking as a replacement for firewood, climate-smart agriculture, and so on.
In July and October 2021 respectively, the Nigerian House of Representatives and Senate passed the Climate Change Bill, which will provide a much-needed legal framework for Nigerias efforts to decisively tackle climate change. Also this year, President Buhari approved the countrys Revised National Climate Change Policy (NCCP) (2021-2030) as well as National Climate Change Programmes.
The President indeed takes Nigerias commitments under the Paris Agreement very seriously. On May 27, 2021, Nigeria formally submitted the Interim Report on its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The report shows that Nigeria is well on course to meet its NDC targets, the statement added.
