91st Power Dialogue Report: The Need for Local Solutions to Nigeria’s Climate Crises

• The 91st Power Dialogue report highlights the fact that climate change impacts Nigeria disproportionately despite its impartiality, exacerbating existing challenges such as energy scarcity and infrastructure vulnerability, necessitating proactive measures to mitigate potential disasters like floods and droughts.
• Effective climate management in Nigeria requires community engagement, prioritization of agriculture over petroleum dependency, and initiatives like the National Council on Climate Change’s focus on integrating climate-smart practices and reducing emissions intensity, emphasizing awareness campaigns and sustainable behaviours to unlock opportunities in agriculture.

The 91st Power Dialogue report highlights that climate change exhibits no bias; it disregards the origins of its production or the activities that fuel it. Despite its impartiality, Nigeria bears the brunt of its consequences.

Nevertheless, energy remains a critical need in Nigeria, a nation struggling with energy scarcity. Managing the impacts of climate change effectively requires a proactive stance that emphasizes averting potential catastrophes such as floods, rising sea levels, and droughts before they manifest.

Presently, the absence of protective infrastructures like sea walls or river walls renders communities susceptible to destruction, resulting in the loss of homes and farmlands. Community engagement emerges as pivotal in gathering essential feedback throughout the project implementation phase.

This collaborative approach ensures that proposed solutions are not only pragmatic but also aligned with the actual requirements of the affected communities. Despite petroleum being a significant source of foreign exchange, Nigeria’s historical dependence on oil has led to the neglect of other critical sectors such as agriculture.

Returning to fundamentals, prioritizing agriculture, and guaranteeing food security become imperative. The National Council on Climate Change (NCCC) endeavours to integrate climate-smart agricultural practices and reduce emissions intensity, particularly within the livestock sector, a significant contributor to methane emissions.

Tackling low-hanging fruits within Nigeria’s purview, such as methane emissions from rice cultivation, landfills, and waste, enables the redirection of investments for maximum impact. The emphasis should shift towards executing awareness campaigns, ensuring comprehensive communication from the government about the realities of climate change, and fostering sustainable behaviours among the populace.

The unlocking of opportunities in climate-smart agriculture is feasible by addressing the practical challenges encountered by subsistence farmers.

Read the comprehensive report from the Electricity Hub’s 91st edition of the Power Dialogue by clicking on this link.