Lagos, Nigeria. Photo by Obinna Okerekeocha on Unsplash

Nigeria

CCAC Partner since
2012
Key policies
CCAC projects
Other activities
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Nigeria has been a Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC) partner since 2012. As a country with an agriculturally-based economy, widespread food insecurity, and where the effects of climate change are already evident, reaping the multiple benefits of short-lived climate pollutant (SLCPs) mitigation is critical.

In 2019, Nigeria’s National Action Plan to Reduce SLCPs was approved by the National Council of Ministers. The plan hopes to advance SLCP mitigation efforts across sectors and the country while also implementing standards to monitor and evaluate them. The 22 priority measures the plan identifies would result in an 83 percent reduction in black carbon emissions by 2030 and reduce methane emissions by 61 percent. These measures would simultaneously reduce other air pollutants, including nitrogen oxides, particulate matter, and carbon dioxide which means they could result in an overall reduction in air pollution exposure of 22 percent by 2030. This would not only have a meaningful effect on public health, saving an estimated 7,000 people from premature death due to air pollution by 2030. It would also increase crop production, vital for the 3 million Nigerians who are food insecure.

In 2019, the National Environmental Standards Regulations and Enforcement Agency (NESREA) began working to halve air pollution by ensuring environmental compliance and enforcement. Following the ranking of Nigeria as the 4th most polluted country in the world, the Director General of the agency, Professor Aliyu Jauro, stated at the 9th regulatory dialogue on the Implementation of National Environmental Regulation in Abuja that the agency proposes to assess the level of implementation of air pollution regulation.

On the first International Day of Clean Air for blue skies on 7 September 2020, Nigeria became the first African nation to join the BreatheLife Network. “Nigeria’s ambitious National Action Plan to Reduce Short-Lived Climate Pollutants can deliver real health benefits to Nigerians through improved air quality, while helping Nigeria meet its international climate change commitment,” Director of Public health, Federal Ministry of Health, Dr. U. M. Ene-Obong.

Nigeria joined the Global Methane Alliance in 2019 (along with Cote D’Ivoire) at a high-level meeting hosted by the CCAC and the United Nations Environment Programme. Countries who join the alliance commit to absolute methane reduction targets of at least 45 percent by 2025 and a 60-75 percent reduction by 2030, though this depends on their oil and gas industry and overall methane emissions. To achieve these goals, the CCAC is helping to improve data collection through methane science studies as well as initiating peer-to-peer regulatory support.

“As a full-fledged member of the Global Methane Alliance, we are fully committed to our ambitious actions to significantly reduce methane emissions in the oil and gas sector by 2030, as reflected in our Nationally Determined Contributions, and call on all other state and non-state actors to join the Alliance towards achieving its laudable objectives,” said Dr. Muhammad Mahmood Abubakar, Nigeria’s Minister of the Environment, recently at the United Nation’s Climate Change Conference, COP 25.

The CCAC also supported Nigeria to mitigate methane in its oil and gas sector. This work included adding measures to their Nationally Determined Contributions by analysing how best practices for methane mitigation can be adapted for the local context, improving the methane emissions inventory for the oil and gas sector, and directly supporting regulatory development. 

Key SLCP policies

Policies and plans

NDC measures and targets

Nigeria’s 2021 NDC update includes emissions reduction objectives for carbon, methane, hydrofluorocarbons, particulate matter (PM2.5), and nitrous oxides (NOx):

  • 60% reduction in fugitive methane emissions by 2030. The priority mitigation measure in the waste sector is a 10% reduction in methane emissions.
  • Reduce hydrofluorocarbon emissions by 2% respectively by 2030.
  • Carbon, methane and hydrofluorocarbon emissions reduced by 42%, 28%, and 2% respectively by 2030 compared to a baseline scenario. 
  • Other health-damaging air pollutants such as particulate matter (PM2.5) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) would also be reduced by 35% and 65%, respectively.

CCAC projects

Nigeria has received CCAC project funding since 2012. Our latest projects are listed below. See more projects in Nigeria

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Other activities

General

  • In 2016, Nigeria published a revised version of the National Policy on the Environment which regulates air quality in Nigeria through the National Environmental Standards and Regulation Enforcement Agency (NESREA).  Its clean air strategies include designating and mapping National Air Control Zones that will have air quality standards and objectives as well as monitoring stations. It will also license and register all major industrial air polluters and monitor their compliance with air pollution abatement standards. When it comes to fuel and vehicles it establishes standards for fuel additives as well as stringent emissions standards for both automobile exhausts and energy generating plants. Finally, it recognizes the importance of regional cooperation in minimizing atmospheric pollutants.
  • In 2014, the National Environmental (Air Quality Control) Regulation was formed to better monitor ambient air quality by acquiring equipment to monitor and generate accurate data on the state of air quality in Nigeria.

Agriculture

  • In 2020, the first-ever mapping of fires in sub-Saharan Africa was funded by the CCAC in collaboration with the International Cryosphere Climate Initiative (ICCI) and Miami University Ohio and included detailed mapping for Nigeria. This will help the Nigerian government and agriculture stakeholders make more targeted mitigation efforts.
  • In 2019, Nigeria's National Short-Lived Climate Pollutant Action Plan was approved by the Federal Executive Council of Ministers. The plan prioritizes SLCP mitigation measures for the agriculture sector including a target of 50 percent uptake of the methane-reducing agricultural strategy of intermittent aeration of rice paddy fields by 2030, reducing open burning of crop residues by 50 percent by 2030, a 50 percent reduction in methane emissions through improved manure management, and reduced methane emissions intensity by 30 percent by 2030.

Household energy

  • In 2019, a clean cooking programme was launched by Nexleaf Analytics, Rural Women for Energy Security (RUWES), the Ministry of Environment, and the CCAC. The partners will work with Nigerian communities to evaluate existing clean cooking solutions in resource-limited environments. The program will then identify stoves and fuels that meet the needs of rural women while also reducing emissions.
  • In 2017, the Nigerian government in collaboration with United Nations Environment Program and the CCAC launched a programme to phase out kerosene lighting.  A set of recommendations were developed for the government and other key stakeholders in the Nigerian renewable energy sector for actualizing the transition to clean modern lighting and energy access for all Nigerians by 2030.
  • In 2017, Standard Microfinance Bank (MFB) received technical training which brought solar lighting to homes in Nigeria’s Adamawa State.

Cooling

  • In 2019, Nigeria launched the CCAC’s global initiative on energy efficient cooling along with France, Japan, and Rwanda. The initiative aims to build high level leadership to enhance energy efficiency in the cooling sector while countries implement the phasedown of hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) refrigerants under the Montreal Protocol’s Kigali Amendment.
  • Since 2019, Nigeria has been developing a National Cooling Plan with the support of United Nations Industrial Development Organization and funding from K-CEP.
  • In 2016, an emission model for HFCs in Nigeria was published through the CCAC’s Hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) Initiative based on the information and materials generated in the 2015 HFC Inventory. The emission model concluded that annual emissions of HFCs in Nigeria are expected to more than double between 2008 and 2020.
  • In 2013, the CCAC’s HFC Initiative undertook an initial survey of HFC consumption in Nigeria to establish current consumption and provide growth projections by substance and sector. It also aimed to identify opportunities and challenges to transition to lower emissions alternatives. In 2015, Nigeria’s HFC Inventory was published as a result of these efforts.

Transport

Waste

  • In 2016, Lagos State started the Cleaner Lagos Initiative to turn waste to energy and create jobs in the city. A private waste management contractor called Visionscape Sanitation Solutions was appointed to implement the plan, with Lagos Waste Management Authority (LAWMA) as a regulatory body.
  • In 2014, the government of Lagos State issued a full set of waste resource recovery guidelines. This included a plan to convert the Epe dump site into a material recovery station, increasing the treatment capacity of Odoguyan composting site to 500 tons, and providing sorting bins to waste sites and incentives for their use. The guidelines also involved plans to invite private investors to partner on waste recovery with Lagos State and established the LAWMA Recycling Bank to use recycling to reduce the waste that ends up in landfills.

Climate finance

  • In 2019, the President of Nigeria expanded the Green Bond Programme which embodies the country’s efforts to reduce emissions and adapt to the effects of climate change, which includes the water and waste sector. If fully implemented, these efforts will pave the way for a low carbon economy resulting in a 50 percent reduction in emissions.
  • In 2017, Nigeria issued the Nigerian Government Green Bond Programme to align its own financial markets with the government’s climate objectives as detailed in the country’s 2015 Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC). The bond mostly targets solar energy projects and national afforestation programmes. ​ 

Contacts

The following government entities participate in our work:

Federal Ministry of Environment
Abuja, Nigeria

Website

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