Buhari signs climate change bill into law

President Muhammadu Buhari has signed the climate change bill into law.

In a statement, Garba Shehu, senior special assistant to the president on media and publicity, said Buhari assented to the bill on Thursday.

The house of representatives and senate had earlier passed the climate change bill after the second and third readings.

The bill was subsequently sent to the president for assent, two weeks before COP26 — the UN climate change conference in Glasgow, Scotland.

The bill which was introduced in 2018 by the eighth assembly was declined by the president in 2019. However, lawmakers revisited the bill and addressed the “contentious clauses” cited by the president, thereby prompting its current passage into law.

The signing of the bill into law is coming five days after the end of the climate change conference.

At the conference, the president had pledged that by 2060, Nigeria would reach net zero — a process that ensures balanced emission and removal of carbon from the atmosphere.

According to Shehu, the signing of the bill into law would enable the “mainstreaming of climate change actions and the establishment of a National Council on Climate Change”.

“It also paves the way for environmental and economic accounting and a push for a net zero emission deadline plan in the country,” he said.

The president also signed into law the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (Amendment) Act.