Climate change: House urge FG to implement carbon credit scheme
By Tom Okpe
The House of Representatives has called on the Federal Government to direct the National Council on Climate Change in collaboration with relevant ministries to immediately, implement impact of climate change in the country with a view to reduce the effect.
The Carbon Credit is a policy where industries are encouraged to reduce their carbon footprint to earn calculated carbon credit, per ton of carbon, while industries which exceed emission thresholds are sanctioned with fines.
The carbon market becomes a trading platform whereby, carbon credits earned by one industry can be purchased by another, to make up for their pollution.
This resolution followed the unanimous adoption of a motion moved by Sam Onuigbo, Abia state at plenary on Thursday.
Moving the motion, Onuigbo said there is devastating impact of climate change in the world, particularly in Nigeria with desertification racing southward at a speed of 0.6km per annum, gully and coastal erosions destroying communities and farmlands, and drying up Lake Chad.
The lawmaker attributed the frequent cases of herders and farmers’ clashes with attendant deaths and flooding across several states to climate change.
He said the the 9th Assembly passed the Climate Change Bill which was assented to, by President Muhammadu Buhari on November 17, 2021 to address impact of the condition.
“Section 19 (i) of the Climate Change Act stipulates that the Federal Ministry of Environment shall, in consultation with the Ministry, responsible for National Planning, set Carbon Budget for Nigeria to keep average increases in global temperature within 2°C and pursue efforts to limit the temperature increases to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.
He said: “Section 4 (i) and (j) mandate the National Council on Climate Change to collaborate with the Federal Inland Revenue Service to develop mechanism for Carbon Tax in Nigeria and collaborate with the Federal Ministries responsible for Environment and Trade to develop and implement a mechanism for Carbon Emission Trading.
“Section 20 (4) (a) of the Climate Change Act states that the Action Plan shall serve as a basis for identifying activities aimed at ensuring that, national emission’s profile is consistent with the Carbon Budget goals.”
The lawmaker said legislators have responsibilities for ensuring that measures are taken to avert devastating impacts of climate change, saying that, “it is in this light that the House strongly advocates that Nigeria implements the law on Carbon Credit, (reward system) as part of several measures that can be taken towards reducing impacts of climate change in the country.”
Onuigbo further stressed: “The industrial sector contributes a high percentage of greenhouse gas emissions in Nigeria, hence, the need to develop capacity for implementing a carbon credit scheme to incentivize the decarbonization of the industrial sector in Nigeria.
“The Paris Agreement on Climate Change signed by Nigeria on September 22, 2016, and other international conventions, the Kyoto Protocol is one of such international conventions, adopted in 1997 which came into force in 2005 to reduce man-made greenhouse gas emissions, and Nigeria has a responsibility to implement them internally.
“Carbon Credit is a policy where industries are encouraged to reduce their carbon footprint to earn calculated carbon credit (per ton of carbon), while industries which exceed emission thresholds are sanctioned with fines.
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“The carbon market is a trading platform whereby, carbon credits earned by one industry can be purchased by another to make up for their pollution.”
He expressed worry that except Nigeria takes necessary measures to reduce impacts of climate change in the country, the condition’s induced calamities will continue.
Adopting the motion, the House mandated its relevant committees to liaise with the National Council on Climate Change and Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment to ensure compliance and report to the House, within one week for further legislative actions.
