Presidency Directs Council to Develop Flood Management Strategy, Resuscitation of Shrinking Lake Chad

•Fuel subsidy removal saves 42,800 tons of carbon dioxide emissions daily, says VP

Michael Olugbode in Abuja

The Presidency has directed the National Council on Climate Change to immediately develop a Comprehensive Climate Change Adaptation Project for Flood Management in Nigeria and also find a way to resuscitate the shrinking Lake Chad.

This was even as the Vice President, Senator Kashim Shettima, revealed that the removal of oil subsidy has led to 30 per cent reduction in daily fuel consumption, amounting to about 20 million litres, which he said was equivalent to an estimated daily saving of 42,800 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2e) emissions.

Speaking at a one-day workshop on unpacking the outcome of 58th Sessions of the Subsidiary Bodies of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Shettima lamented that climate change was perhaps the biggest challenge facing humanity today.

He noted that even as a developing nation in the global south, Nigeria was gravely impacted by the negative effects of climate change.

The vice president who was represented by the Deputy Chief of Staff, Senator Ibrahim Hassan, said: “For instance, Nigeria is ranked as one of the ten most vulnerable countries to the impacts of climate change in the world. This is despite our negligible contribution to overall global carbon emissions responsible for climate change.

“In fact, Africa as a whole, accounts for less than four per cent of total global carbon emissions. For me and a lot of the people that come from the North Eastern part of Nigeria, we bear the scars of climate change effects and have had to live with its impacts, such as drought and desertification, disruption of rainfall patterns, leading to sandstorms, severe floods, destruction of farmlands, infrastructure and human settlements. These and many more occur in other parts of the country too.”

He added that: “We are all living witnesses to ravaging floods of last year (2022) which held the country to a standstill for days. The World Bank’s Global Rapid post-disaster Damage Estimation (GRADE) assessment put the total direct economic damage to infrastructure be about $7 billion.

“This is equivalent to 1.6 per cent of Nigeria’s estimated 2021 (GDP), not including loss of over 600 lives. For Nigeria, that was climate change at its worst.

“Consequently, and in order to avert future occurrences of such severe floods, the National Council on Climate Change is hereby directed to develop a Comprehensive Climate Change Adaptation Project for Flood Management in Nigeria.  The Project should include resuscitation of the Lake Chad Basin.”

The vice president said: “The plan for decarbonising our energy systems highlights the key role that natural gas will play in transitioning our economy across sectors. The data and evidence show that Nigeria can continue to use gas until 2040 without detracting from the goals of the Paris agreement.

“Nevertheless, we are rapidly advancing the development and deployment of renewables through various programs such as the $550million Nigeria Electrification Project (NEP) supported by the World Bank which is promoting the use of solar mini-grid and solar home systems across Nigeria.

“There is also the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority(NSIA) managed project jointly financed by Kano State and the Federal Government, which completed a 10MW solar plant, the largest in the country.”

He added: “Another intervention is the Energising Education Programme, implemented by the Rural Electrification Agency which is delivering clean energy to Federal Universities and Teaching Hospitals across the country.

“Furthermore, government is also subsidising clean energy for rural women through the Rural Women Energy Security(RUWES) project and Rural Energy Access Project (REAP). Other schemes include the Clean Energy Transportation Scheme (CETS) and National Clean Cooking Scheme (NCCS) which promote the deployment of CNG powered buses in major Nigerian cities and clean cooking in communities and boarding schools respectively.”

The vice president said further: “Our vision and expectations for COP 28 will include increased climate action on many fronts, particularly increased and available climate finance.

“We note with concern, the lack of progress on the mobilisation of the $100 billion meant for adaptation financing by 2020 pledged by western countries since 2009 at COP15.

“The Loss and Damage agreement which provided hope for many low-income countries bearing the brunt of climate change, must be finalised in Dubai; Just Energy Transition where we expect discussions to focus incentivising and enabling emerging economies to transit sustainably in accordance to their national priorities,  capacities,  and based on greater financial support must also be finalised, taking cognisance of the need to include more favourable terms for developing countries, along with technology transfer.”