FG Makes Clean Cooking Part of Climate Change Response

By Bennett Oghifo

Nigeria is currently revising its commitment to the Paris Agreement. It has identified the provision of clean cooking energy as one important effort to alleviate poverty and reduce emissions of harmful gases that cause climate change.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics, only 10.5% of all households currently use LPG for cooking. During a workshop with the theme “scaling up clean cooking and Nigeria’s climate change response held in Abuja on December 14, 2020, Ewah Eleri, the director of the International Centre for Energy, Environment and Development (ICEED) stated that it will take a seismic shift in policy and political prioritization for goal of universal access to clean cooking to be reached by 2030. According to Eleri, “there is the need to have a clear and strong national agency to lead the effort to reach universal access. States and local governments must be involved in the delivery of clean cooking energy services. It is also important that we strengthen the supply chain for LPG and improved wood stoves, and ensure that this fuel and technologies reach the poor”, he stated. ICEED is currently leading the research work for integrating clean cooking into the revised Paris Agreement commitment.

The current process of expanding the use of clean fuels for cooking brings together several stakeholders, including the office of the Vice President and the Federal Ministry of Environment.

According to Dayo Adeshina, the Project Manager of the LPG Programme under the Office of the Vice President, “the Federal Government is committed to providing 30 million households with LPG in the next few years. This will be important in reducing emissions of greenhouse gases from the use of firewood and kerosene”, he stated.

The Federal Government of Nigeria has taken steps to ensure that clean cooking becomes a central part of meeting its obligations to the Paris Agreement on climate change. Speaking during the ongoing revision of Nigeria’s commitment to the Agreement, the Minister of State for Environment, Chief Sharon Ikeazor stated the determination of the Federal Government to meet its climate change obligations by ensuring that Nigerian households convert from harmful cooking fuels such as fuelwood, charcoal and kerosene to cooking gas and efficient wood stoves.

According to Chief Ikeazor, “the adoption of the Paris Agreement and its ratification, has made it obligatory for Nigeria to meet up with 20% unconditional reduction of emission of greenhouse gases by 2030 and 45%, if we are supported by the international community. To actualize this target, expanding clean cooking access is crucial to meeting our obligations to the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goal number seven. This goal seeks to provide ‘access to affordable, reliable and modern energy services for all’ by 2030. There is therefore an urgent need to scale up clean cooking access in Nigeria”, she remarked.

The Minister of State for Environment, Chief Sharon Ikeazor thanked the Heinrich Boel Foundation, World Resources Institute’s NDC CAEP Partnership for providing funding for the collaborative research project. She welcomed the leading role ICEED is playing to ensure that the issue of clean cooking remains in the front burner of national policies and pledged the support of the Ministry of Environment in providing the enabling environment for reaching the targets of the Federal Government on clean cooking and climate change.