- The CSOs argued that the Energy Transition Plan (ETP) did not involve youths in the formulation.
- The programme sought the Federal Government’s review of the ETP to mainstream youth perspectives in the implementation.
A group of civil society and youth-driven organisations (CSOs) led by Policy Alert has launched a national campaign tagged #Youth Voices2060 to mainstream young people and their priorities in Nigeria’s energy transition. The programme, launched virtually, was organised in partnership with the Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI) and BudgIT Foundation. It sought the Federal Government’s review of the Energy Transition Plan (ETP) to mainstream youth perspectives in the implementation.
A statement by the Media Officer of Policy Alert, Nneka Luke-Ikenna, stated that Policy Alert’s Programme Officer for Energy, Extractives, and Climate Justice, Edidiong Dickson, said it is a loose network of young people and youth-focused organisations contributing skills, energy, and innovations towards Nigeria’s fossil fuel phaseout and the transition to a clean energy future.
According to the statement, some domestic policy frameworks on decarbonisation, including the ETP launched on August 24, 2022, neither involved youths in their formulation nor contained any explicit references to youth priorities. The statement also urged the Nigerian government to review the ETP and mainstream youth perspectives in its implementation as the country approaches 2060, its target year to attain carbon neutrality.
The statement read in part, “Youth Voices 2060 is launched as an organic marketplace of ideas for and by young people, with over 70 per cent of its population below 30. Nigeria, which has the world’s biggest youth cohort relative to its population size, has one of the largest energy deficits globally. In the context of the global energy transition, this contradiction offers a demographic opportunity to transform the country’s energy system in clean and sustainable ways that can benefit both young people and society in general.”