By Rosemary Ogbonnaya
Minister of State for Environment, Chief Sharon Ikeazor said that the Ministry of Environment is positioned to take the lead in aligning Nigeria’s national climate plans and strategies with the country’s energy transition efforts.
Ikeazor said this at the
High-Level Meeting of the Inter-ministerial Committee on Climate Change held on Monday.
She said Nigeria’s energy transition has a significant potential to create new jobs.
” Taking cognizance of the challenge that comes with transitioning to a green economy, one interesting fact to note is that Nigeria’s energy transition has a significant potential to create new jobs, including up to 170 thousand jobs in off-grid solar deployment in the power sector and up to 200 thousand jobs across the supply chain for clean cooking solutions.
“Net jobs creation can be up to 840 thousand jobs with the boost of electric vehicles and off-grid solar,” she said.
Ikeazor therefore called on the support of other relevant Ministries to deliver on the Ministry’s mandate and Nigeria’s climate commitments.
“With eight years to go until the deadline for achieving the energy access Sustainable Development Goal 7, and with 2060 fast approaching the time begins Now
It is imperative to note that as we initiate all of this by discussions here today, we must accelerate actions on ground with catalytic partnerships, frameworks, policies, and regulations needed to crowd-in investments at scale to achieve our objectives,” she said.
Keeping into cognisance of the country’s vulnerability to climate change and the huge social, economic, security costs associated with impacts of global warming, and as an oil dependent nation, the Minister alarmed that economic and developmental aspirations will be compromised if nigeria do not define her transition pathways to align with her broader developmental goals.
“Nigeria as a Party to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change,UNFCCC, actively participated in the negotiations held at the recently concluded Conference of Parties,COP26, in Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom, from 31 October to 13 November 2021 and the need to galvanize political will demonstrated by President Muhammadu Buhari on Nigeria’s Net Zero Emissions commitment by 2060.
This has created an even greater urgency to implement activities for rapid reduction of emission across all sectors of the economy to avert disastrous and catastrophic climate impacts,” she said.
