President Buhari, global climate action leader, champion – APC LAC

Tom Okpe, Abuja

The All Progressives Congress, (APC) Legacy Awareness and Campaign, (LAC) has said President Muhammadu Buhari is globally recognized as global climate action leader and champion.

The party’s think-tank group stated that the historic agreement was adopted within President Buhari’s first year in office, where Nigeria made significant commitments, known as ‘Nationally Determined Contribution’ (NDC), under the terms of Agreement reached at the Paris Climate Summit.

President Buhari’s Global Leadership on Climate Change, the group said, was fast forwarded to 2021, and the world, unequivocally recognized President Buhari as “a global climate action leader and champion.”

In a statement signed by national coordinators’ of the group, Barr Ismail Ahmed, Lanre Issa-Onilu, Tolu Ogunlesi and Salihu Moh. Lukman in Abuja on Wednesday, said President Buhari in March 2017, 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, reports that NDC outlines a target of 20 percent unconditional reduction of Nigeria’s 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 investment in renewable energy, massive afforestation campaign, elimination of gas flaring, clean cooking as a replacement for firewood and climate-smart agriculture.

“Since then, 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, Ministries of Finance and Environment, Budget Office, Debt Management Office, Development Finance Institutions, Capital Market Operators, and other stakeholders.

“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) attests to this.”

LAC said the 2022 Federal Budget, currently being considered by the National Assembly, is the first “climate-responsive” budget in the history of the country.

“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 creation, quarter of a million jobs in the energy sector alone.

“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 Nigeria’s efforts to decisively tackle climate change.

“Also this year, President Buhari approved the country’s Revised National Climate Change Policy (NCCP) (2021-2030) and National Climate Change Programmes.

“The President indeed takes Nigeria’s commitments under the Paris Agreement very seriously. On May 27, 2021, Nigeria formally submitted the 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.

“As Chairman of the Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC), President Buhari has been a strident advocate for the recharging of the Lake, which has shrunk significantly in the last five decades, due to effects of climate change.

“Nigeria is also, getting set to assume leadership of Conference of Heads of State and Government of the Pan African Agency of the Great Green Wall.”

According to LAC, the Federal Government has declared “Decade of Gas” for Nigeria, launched the National Gas Expansion Program, the National Gas Flare Commercialization Program, and commenced the construction of AKK Gas Pipeline Project, the largest of such project in the country.

“Ambitious and impactful climate action will no doubt be one of the many positive legacies of the Buhari Administration. At the just-concluded Climate Change Conference (COP26), President Buhari underscored Nigeria’s commitment, saying: “I do not think anyone in Nigeria needs persuading, the need for urgent action on the environment.

“Desertification in the North, floods in the centre, pollution and erosion on the coast are enough evidence.

“For Nigeria, climate change is not about the perils of tomorrow but what is happening today. Nigeria is committed to net zero by 2060,” the group said