The vice president, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, has said for Nigeria to achieve net –zero emission in 2060 and Transit into Green Energy fully it would need over $400 million or $10 million annually.
The vice President who was speaking at the 60th anniversary of the Oil Producing Trade Group (OPTS) of the Lagos Chambers of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), held at Eko Hotel and Suits, Lagos on Thursday, urged members of the group to up their game in the journey to Green Energy .
“You must be involved more actively in the conversation”, he said
“When Nigeria gets this fund, in addition to capital flow from both government and private sector, local and international, it would then be able to address majority of the issues relating to Climatic Change in the country. Nigeria has made a case that it should be on the G7 panel partnerships which will attract significant funding.”
The plan, he explained, is anchored on certain key objectives including lifting 100 million people out of poverty in a decade, bringing modern energy services to the full to the population, increasing economic growth and managing the expected long-term job loses oil and gas sector due to global decarbonisation.
“The plan also recognized the role natural gas must play in the short term and medium term to facilitate the establishment of base energy capacity and address the issue of Liquefied Petroleum Gas( LPG)
Gas is of course, critical to integrating a greater share of renewable energy in the country’s energy mix. Also natural gas, methane is an important chemical of its own, especially for the production of ammonia for fertilizers “
Narrating his conversations with the World Bank, United State Representative on Climatic Change and U.S Treasury Secretary, he stated that their discussions were based on how to ensure that Africa’s largest economy, and in fact, the biggest producer of fossil fuel could be assisted to fund the programme in a manner that it would work and make sense.
He advised that it is important that Nigeria participate fully in the global carbon finance market in addition to all its funding expectations.” We have to participate fully in all the financial resources available, the global finance market is one
He said the voluntary carbon market can play a significant role in achieving the objectives of this programme.
He said also given the escalating debt profile of many developing countries including Nigeria, made worse by Covid 19 and Russian invasions of Ukraine, he said, there should be debt for climate swap in the climate financing mix, whereby bilateral and multilateral debts are forgiven by creditors in exchange for a commitment by the debtors to use some outstanding debts for certain climate actions. So we can increase the fiscal space of climate-related investment and ease our debt pressure at the same time.
The Vice President lauded OPTS at 60 for its resilience, saying that the group deserve to be commended for its outstanding role in the growth and development of the nation’s oil and gas sector and for the numerous social development projects undertaken by the members through the years
