Nigeria surpassed target on 20% emission reduction by 2020, says minister

Mohammad Abubakar, minister of environment, says Nigeria surpassed the target to reduce emission by 20 percent between 2016 and 2020. 

Abubakar stated this on Wednesday, while addressing journalists after the federal executive council (FEC) meeting in Abuja.

According to the minister, the country is also working to ensure that the 45 percent target set for 2030 is also achieved.

“Since the ratification of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change in 2016 and even before then, government has put in a number of interventions to deal with the issue of climate change. You see, climate change did not just start in 2016, but 2016 happened to be just like the culmination of the problem that showed there’s need for an immediate action on climate change,” he said.

“So, the government rolled out a number of things and this was even before I became a minister and we have done so much. I can give you an example. That was when we started the issuance of green bond and bond issuance to generate money, solely for green projects.

“Based on our calculations, we have met that 20 percent last year. In fact, I can even say we have surpassed that.”

The minister also said the FEC has ratified an anticipatory approval received from President Muhammadu Buhari on the nation’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC). 

“The federal ministry of environment presented a memo today, seeking the ratification of an anticipatory approval that we received from Mr. President, on the submission of our primary NDC,” Abubakar said.

“This is part of the commitment that Nigeria made in 2016 during the Paris Agreement; that every country, after five years, will revise the commitment the country made in cutting down emission. So, at the time we committed to reducing emission by 20 percent, unconditionally, meaning we can do it by ourselves. The 20 percent is by the year 2020. At the same time, we are also committed to reducing 45 percent by 2030. That’s again from the year 2016.

“So, we did the first interim report. A country is supposed to send in an interim report to the United Nations climate change desk, and then before July 31st, you’ll submit the final report.

“Doing that will put the country on a good footing as far as climate change action is concerned, and this has a number of sectors that we depended on to be able to reach this: power, agriculture, transportation.

“These are areas that we used as part of attending to that commitment that we made and today, we have gotten the approval for the ratification, following that statutory approval by Mr. President. So, Nigeria is currently in good standing, as about 100 countries have already submitted and Nigeria is one of those countries.”