The Climate Change Bill was passed by the 8th National Assembly but due to some contentious issues raised by President Muhammadu Buhari, he did not sign it into an Act but, however, made some suggestions on reworking the Bill.
After the passage of the Bill by the House of Representatives on 8th July, 2021, the sponsor of the Bill, a ranking member of the House, Mr. Sam Onuigbo, stated that they have addressed all the contentious clauses cited by the president that made him not to assent to it earlier.
The Nigerian Senate on Wednesday, October 13, 2021 passed the Climate Change Bill as well. So what is now left for the Climate Change Bill is for Mr. President to assent to it and for the National Council on Climate Change to be fully operational in order to make policies and decisions on all matters concerning climate change in Nigeria.
We need Mr. President to assent the Bill very soon before the COP 26 in Glasgow that is coming up from next week which he will also be part of and deliver Nigeria’s statement to the global community that Nigeria is committed fully to Paris Agreement.
The Bill when signed by Mr. President will give legal backing to the revised National Climate Change Policy approved by the government of Nigeria earlier this year.
The Climate Change Bill is very important as it seeks to provide a framework for achieving low greenhouse gas emission (GHG), inclusive green growth and sustainable economic development as well as full compliance towards attaining a net-zero GHG emission target for the year 2050 – 2070.
The Bill will also be of great benefit to the country’s access to financial resources without bottlenecks in order to support climate change activities in the country and also provide a mechanism for carbon tax for additional revenue base.
The Bill will boost research and development and encourage the participation of Nigerian academics into the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) the body responsible for providing scientific evidence on climate change data commissioned by the United Nations.
After assent by Mr. President, the Bill on Climate Change will foster low-carbon, high growth economic development path and build a climate-resilient society through the attainment of set targets by the Paris Agreement in 2017, which pledged to cut carbon emissions conditionally (with international support) by 45 per cent and unconditionally (without international support) by 20 per cent by 2030.
The Bill will provide a legal framework for mainstreaming climate change responses and actions into government policy formulation and implementation so that Nigerian society can tackle climate change issues with legal structure.
Professor Nasiru Medugu Idris
Dean, Faculty of Environmental Science,
Nasarawa State University
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