Nigeria Berates Europe, Global Leaders for Defaulting on $10bn Annual Climate Change Investment Pledge

Peter Uzoho

Nigeria through the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum Resources, Mr.  Gabriel Aduda, has berated Europe and other global leaders campaigning for climate change and transition to renewables over their alleged failure to fulfill their pledge of investing approximately $10 billion annually to help the country achieve her net-zero and energy transition plans.

At the 26th Climate Change Conference of Parties (COP26) held in 2021 in Glasgow, Scotland, the global leaders had pledged to support developing countries including Nigeria with funds to help them invest in renewables and achieve NetZero and energy transition targets.

But expressing his misgivings during a Ministerial Roundtable at the just-concluded World Petroleum Congress in Calgary, Canada, with the topic: “What Does the Energy Transition Mean for your Country”, Aduda lampooned Europe and other global leaders for defaulting on their pledge to invest approximately $10 billion in Nigeria’s net-zero and energy transition plans by 2060.

He said various global leaders had at the United Nations COP26 in 2021, made various commitments, which stood at $10 billion, stressing that the fund was to aid Nigeria’s agenda made on commitments to attain net-zero by 2060, but with conditions.
“The truth of the matter is that promises were made as to how the initial injection of $10 billion was going to be done. But, l seat here to tell you that not a cent has been moved,’’ he said.

He explained that part of the conditions was transition to renewable, which he noted did not come cheap, pointing out that Nigeria was not shy to say that it lacked the finances to implement the energy transition project.
The permanent secretary maintained that if Nigeria was going to achieve net zero by 2060, it meant that there would be significant financial injection into the system from the country.

He noted that there would also be support across the world, especially those that were responsible for heavy emissions.
Aduda explained, “Now these issues were agreed to and promises were made at COP26, but how much of these promises have been fulfilled?
“The truth is that Africa still sees huge financial exclusion when it comes to the issue of climate change and we have always said it, and the numbers are clear.
“In 2021, 2022, 600 billion dollars of green burns were generated but less than 0.26 per cent came to Africa. When we made this commitment at COP26, His Excellency, the then president, said we would need at the very beginning about $10 billion with a target of $410 billion till 2060.”

He said a larger chunk of the funds would be used for funding of infrastructure, especially gas infrastructure across Nigeria.
The permanent secretary, however, noted that Africa remained the most compliant continent in the area of renewable, arguing that it was because Africa had been able to prove that no other continent had been close to where it was on the use of renewables.
He added that out of the 54 countries in Africa, close to 30 use one form of renewable energy or the other citing Kenya that has 70 per cent of renewables and quite a number of other countries that could also boast at least 40 per cent.

Aduda further said, ‘‘But, what we have been able to put together across all the continent, no other continent is as compliant as African is. Yet, Africa is the least emitter of this hydrocarbons or contributor to this climate issues that we are dealing with.
“More importantly, what does energy transition mean to us as a country? A lot. We totally understand that we are a very rich country in natural resources and our very strength is in gas, which in Nigeria is even much more than crude deposit.

“The proven quantum of gas that we have is about 260TCF with the potential for more. Now we have identified gas in Nigeria as our transition fuel.
“We have tried to rally round in all our policies, everything we need to see that would work within a framework, that allows us to push domestic injection of gas across Nigeria and of course across Africa.

“Because we have always exported gas, NLNG, name it, and we are still working that we reach out with our deposit to other Africa countries and even beyond.”