Nigeria is committed to pursuing a just and equitable energy transition, the Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Abubakar Bagudu, said in Abuja yesterday.
The minister, who was the keynote speaker at the Global South Peer Learning Workshop on Country Platforms for Climate Action and Just Energy Transition, said the country had established institutions diligently implementing its energy transition plan (ETP).
“Our ETP is a homegrown, data-backed strategy for achieving net-zero emissions fairly and equitably by 2060,” he told the participants, explaining that the plan, unveiled in 2022, has become the country’s national policy that provides a framework that aligns climate ambition with the country’s development needs.
He said the country has prioritised five sectors, including power, transport, cooking, oil and gas and industry, which account for about 65 per cent of Nigeria’s total greenhouse gas emissions.
He added that universal energy access, poverty reduction, economic growth and job creation remained the country’s goals. Bagudu noted that Nigeria’s energy transition plan is multifaceted, targeting emission reductions and enhancing sustainability across all key economic sectors.
“Decarbonising power is central to our strategy in the power sector. Nigeria plans to aggressively expand its generation capacity through renewable sources, such as solar and wind, while strengthening its national grid and distribution networks.
“The transport sector’s priority is to reduce emissions through a two-pronged strategy that involves shifting to cleaner fuels and vehicles while expanding mass transit. Nigeria is promoting compressed natural gas (CNG) and electric vehicles (EVS) to replace gasoline and diesel in road transport,” he said.
He pointed out that the Presidential CNG Initiative was launched to convert mass transit vehicles to run on CNG, utilising gas reserves to reduce tailpipe emissions and lower fuel costs.
He informed the audience that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu unveiled a bold initiative to launch an initial fleet of 100 electric buses in Nigeria’s major cities, while prioritising cooking and household energy to facilitate the swift replacement of traditional firewood, kerosene and charcoal.
The minister added that the Federal Government had significantly increased access to liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), distributed LPG cylinders and stoves and implemented policies to ensure LPG was affordable and available.
Bagudu emphasised that Nigeria has undertaken significant policy and regulatory reforms to create an enabling environment for its climate goals. The Climate Change Act of 2021 is a landmark legislation that provides a legal framework for climate action across all sectors.
The act, the minister stated, establishes systems to incorporate climate considerations into national planning and outlines five-year carbon budgets with annual emissions targets.
“It also establishes the National Council on Climate Change (NCCC) to oversee the implementation of climate policies and ensure that the country stays on track toward the net-zero 2060 target.
“Additionally, Nigeria has updated its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement, enhancing the targets and aligning them with the net-zero vision. For instance, Nigeria enacted the Electricity Act 2023 in the power sector, liberalising the electricity market and allowing state governments and private investors to generate, transmit, and distribute power,” he noted.
