Stakeholders in the gas industry have called on the Federal Government to implement Nigeria’s National Gas Plan as it targets to achieve net-zero emissions by 2060.
The Executive Director, Centre for Transparency Advocacy (CTA), Faith Nwadishi, made the call at a one-day capacity development workshop tor Media and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in Abuja on Monday, May 27, 2024.
The workshop, which was organised by CTA in collaboration with the Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI), had “Right-Sizing Nigeria’s National Gas Plans for Non-Power Uses” as its theme.
Nwadishi said that Nigeria had set ambitious targets to achieve net-zero emissions by 2060, adding that gas was poised to be a critical transition fuel in this journey.
“We have an Energy Transition Plan; we have the Climate Change Act. We have always had this issue of Nigeria having a good plan but no implementation.
“To support implementation, you need to build the capacity of the people to understand what the issues are.”
She said that once those plans were in place, it was important that “you build the capacity of citizens to understand that there are issues to able to hold you accountable for what policies you are putting in place”.
“2060 is still a long way to go. But if you don’t plan toward 2060, you may continuously have a situation where government had continuously shifted the goal post for the end of gas flaring in the country.”
Nwadishi said: “We believe that by enhancing the Nigerian public’s understanding of the viability and implications of our gas utilisation plans, we can foster robust advocacy and informed public discourse.
“This, in turn, will help to steer Nigeria’s gas strategies towards more sustainable and appropriately scaled uses.”
Also speaking, Tengi George-Ikoli, a senior programme officer at NRGI Nigeria office, said the Nigerian government must make sure its Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) and Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) uses of gas ambitions matched its realistic capacity for gas expansion.
“The government proposes to ramp up gas production, utilisation and export, with the aims of supporting industrialisation, boosting domestic energy supply for power and non-power uses including LPG for cooking and CNG for transport.
“By doing so, the government expects to enhance economic activity, thus improving the lives of the half of the population living in extreme poverty.”
By Naomi Sharang
