By Chuks Oyema-Aziken
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Climate, Finance and Stakeholder Engagement, Ibrahim Shelleng has identified the carbon credit market as avenue to increase Nigeria’s revenue base.
He said this on the second day of ongoing 3-Day Stakeholders Engagement on Nigeria’s Carbon Market Policy and Manual of Procedure, organized by National Council on Climate Change Secretariat (NCCCS) with the support of the UNDP, the EU, UK government and others
“The global carbon markets provides a fantastic opportunity for Nigeria to gain much needed non-oil revenues. We can design projects that will help offset carbon emissions in different countries,” he said.
“The new adoption of the Article 6 framework allows Nigeria to be able to tap into that market. Whilst we are not major emitters, we have the opportunity to create offsets, carbon offsets that can be traded with with various other countries by having bilateral agreements.
He stressed the need for all stakeholders within the country to understand what the carbon markets are about.
“Right down to the local level, because we need stakeholder buy-in to be able to achieve some of the projects that we want to go ahead with.
“So this is one of the reasons why various stakeholders here are gathered, to be able to understand the process, to be able to understand what the carbon markets are and to be able to understand their rights within that market as well. So whilst projects are being developed in different communities, there’s aspects of it that talks about carbon rights and it’s vital the local communities are able to understand that and partake in it equitably.
“We need all the sub-nationals here, as I said, down to local government levels, to understand what this carbon market is about. It’s an emerging field, so it’s important that everybody understands it and we get stakeholder buy-ins before implementing this policy and framework.
“And it’s not the purview of just the national government, it goes down to sub-national levels, it goes down to civil society organisations, NGOs as well. So it’s all about everybody coming together to be able to achieve this potential avenue for revenue for the country
In similar vein, CEO of Natural Eco Capital, Mr. Eugene Ituah welcomed the enthusiasm towards the carbon markets, saying it will boost revenue.
“And you can see that every stakeholder here is paying that close attention on what this is all about, and how they can all participate in it. And indeed, how they can take this further to others that are not here.
“Now, the idea here is for us to create a robust policy and manual of procedures that will support Nigeria in ensuring that we do not miss anything that is necessary, and the things that can support us as a nation in this area.”
