During the high level debate on Climate change at the 77th United Nation’s General Assembly (UNGA 77) which held in Newyork on Wednesday, September 21, 2022, the Nigerian President, Muhammadu Buhari, has reiterated commitment of the Nigerian Government towards ensuring a rapid and strategic transition to renewable energy in consonance with the global efforts to combat climate change and preserve the world’s environment. The president noted that his administration had earlier in august this year, launched a home-grown, data-backed, multi-pronged energy transition plan, which is the country’s framework in achieving net-zero emissions by 2060.
According to the Commander-in-chief of the armed forces of Nigeria, the energy-transition plan of Nigeria prioritizes adoption of emerging technologies and alternative fuels such as hydrogen, bioenergy and waste-to-energy which would create a pathway for accelerated decarburization of energy systems and harnessing of new and diverse technologies towards low carbon development while aligning to the nation’s broader developmental aspirations in a fair and just manner.
Furthermore, the Nigerian president disclosed that “the plan also sets out a timeline and framework for the attainment of emissions reduction across five key sectors: power, cooking, oil and gas, transport and industry,” adding that, “gas will play a critical role as a transition fuel in Nigeria’s net-zero pathway, particularly in the power and cooking sectors.
“The clean energy goals of the plan include modernizing the power sector with large-scale integration of renewable energy, enhancing energy efficiency and conservation; and is expected to generate 250 gigawatts of installed energy capacity with over 90% made up of renewables.”
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President Buhari expressed confidence that the plan would put the nation on the path of prosperity, also assuring that a careful implementation would create significant investment opportunities as it will facilitate the establishment and expansion of industries related to solar energy, hydrogen and electric vehicles. According to him;
“It will guide Nigeria’s rapid transition to renewable energy and result in significant job creation with up to 340,000 jobs created by 2030 and up to 840,000 jobs created by 2060 driven mainly by power, cooking and transport sectors.”
Earlier, our analyst had reported that Africa now ranks as having the highest solar energy potential worldwide, ahead of Central and Southern America, North America, Asia, Oceania, Europe and Russia, according to data from the Global Solar Atlas to the World Bank as analyzed by Statista. It is believed that Nigeria could conveniently weather it’s current energy crisis by harnessing its renewable energy potential.
