By Chuks Oyema-Aziken & Felix Khanoba
The Federal Government says plans are underway to develop a green budget that will address the problems of climate change in the country.
The Minister of Budget and Economy Planning, Abubakar Bagudu, made this known at the public presentation of the Review of Nigeria’s 2024 Climate Budget and the Energy Transition Plan on Thursday in Abuja.
Represented by the Director, Social Development Department of the Ministry, Dr. Sanjo Faniran, the minister expressed the readiness of the Federal Government to mobilise resources from both the private and public sectors to meet the nation’s climate needs.
He said various innovative approaches are being considered to mobilise resources for the sector.
“We are working towards agitation or having a brainstorming session on green funding (budget) for climate change in Nigeria, and we will do that one on a high-level basis,” he said.
On his part, Dr. Michael David, Executive Director of Global Initiative for Food Security and Ecosystem Preserva (GIFSEP)- the organisers of the event, expressed concerns on the low allocation for climate in the 2024 budget.
David, who said the event, which attracted critical stakeholders, was to evaluate how climate-friendly Nigeria’s budget is, called on the government to do more.
His words: “Today we have brought all the critical stakeholders to look at the 2024 Nigerian budget, and the key question we are trying to ask today is how climate friendly Nigeria’s budget is.
“The government made targets through her NDCs (Nationally Determined Contributions) to ensure we combat climate change in the country. A lot of policies have been made, and these policies will remain on paper without cash backing. The only way we can be sure that action will be taken on climate change is when it is backed up with the budget, so we took a critical look at the national budget, checking all the ministries to see what climate-friendly projects we have in the country.
“From the report we had so far, it will interest you to know that nearly all the ministries in the country have one or two climate friendly budget lines or items; the challenge is, what is the amount? And that is where the issue is.
In all, the climate-friendly projects within the budget amounting to just about N599 billion, if you put that aside with the total budget of about N28 trillion, you will see that it is very small.”
Speaking further, David said Nigeria to improve its allocation for climate change in subsequent budgets to address the major problems affecting the country.
“The 2024 appropriation Act is not climate-friendly, so the country actually needs to move in the side of green budgeting considering the impact of climate change on our economy, on our food security, security and on our way of life, climate should be treated as an emergency situation, and in that case we should increase funding for climate,” he added.
The event, which attracted representatives of the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, civil society organisations, among others, also witnessed a presentation on the Review of the Nigerian Energy Transition Plan by Professor Shuaib Hassan of the University of Abuja.
