By Faith Nwadishi JP, mpi
April 2025 marked a decade since the World Bank and United Nations launched the “Zero Routine Flaring by 2030” initiative, a global framework for eliminating routine gas flaring—a practice that not only contributes to climate change but also inflicts severe health and environmental damage on frontline communities.
Most recently, during the 24th Nigeria Oil and Gas Energy Week Conference held in Abuja, 2025, the Chief Executive of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) officially confirmed that routine gas flaring is now expected to be eliminated by 2030 and that methane emissions from the upstream oil and gas sector will be reduced by 60% by 2031.
While these announcements signal renewed ambition, communities in the Niger Delta continue to live under the daily burden of active gas flares—many just metres from homes, farms, and water sources—enduring the health, environmental, and economic consequences of decades-long inaction.
A Decade of Delay: Still Waiting for Clean Air
At the 2015 ZRF launch event in Washington D.C., the Chief Executive Officer of the Koyenum Immalah Foundation (KIF), Ms Faith Nwadishi, raised concerns over companies and countries track records in gas flare elimination and urged leaders to match commitments with action.
Ten years later, her words remain sadly relevant. Not only has flaring not stopped—it has become more entrenched in some communities. The delays are not just about environmental failure; they represent a deepening of poverty, a worsening of public health, and an escalation of Nigeria’s climate risk profile.
What Has Nigeria Done So Far?
To be fair, Nigeria has not stood still. The past decade has seen the introduction of key policies aimed at tackling the gas flaring challenge:
• Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021 – includes flare penalties and provisions to encourage gas commercialisation.
• Nigeria Gas Flare Commercialisation Programme (NGFCP) – launched to turn waste into value by monetising flared gas.
• Climate Change Act 2021 – sets a national carbon budget and climate governance framework.
• Energy Transition Plan (ETP) – launched in 2022, commits to net-zero emissions by 2060, with gas identified as a transition fuel.
• Decade of Gas Policy (2021–2030) – a government initiative to transform Nigeria into a gas-powered economy by promoting domestic utilisation, industrial gas development, and flare gas capture infrastructure.
• Presidential Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) Initiative – promotes the shift from petrol and diesel to gas-powered vehicles, creating new domestic demand for flare gas and helping reduce transportation-related emissions.
• Nigeria upstream Petroleum Commission (NUPRC) Fugitive Emission Management Guidelines – introduced regulatory requirements and technical standards for reducing methane emissions across upstream oil and gas operations, including gas flaring, venting, and leak detection and repair (LDAR).
• Nigeria, 35 other countries, 60 oil companies (including NNPCL), and 15 development institutions endorse the Zero Routine Flaring Initiative.
These frameworks, while progressive on paper, have largely failed to translate into measurable improvements on the ground. As the World Bank-led initiative clearly states:
“Oil companies and governments will ensure that new oil fields are developed without routine flaring. In addition, they will proactively address the ongoing ‘legacy’ flaring to reduce or end it at the earliest opportunity.”
Yet, across Nigeria’s oil-producing belts, legacy flares continue to burn, and companies’ progress remains opaque, lacking independent verification.
The Missing Link: Methane Emissions and Accountability
Gas flaring emits not only CO₂ but also methane, a potent greenhouse gas over 80 times more damaging than CO₂ over a 20-year period. Nigeria ranks among the top methane emitters from oil and gas operations globally, with most emissions coming from flaring, venting, and leaks across upstream operations.
Recognising this, the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) has developed specific regulations and guidelines on fugitive emissions, covering flare monitoring, leak detection and repair (LDAR), and other mitigation measures in line with global best practices. These efforts aim to institutionalise methane management across the oil and gas value chain.
At the 24th Nigeria Oil and Gas Energy Week Conference, the NUPRC Chief Executive reaffirmed the government’s commitment to reduce methane emissions by 60% by 2031. To drive real change, we must now support this ambitious target with strong enforcement, transparent reporting, and community involvement.
Further supporting these efforts, the NRGI (Natural Resource Governance Institute) in 2022 supported the formation of a Nigeria CSO Expert Group on gas (the writer is a member of the group) campaigning for a reduction in methane emissions by promoting independent monitoring, policy dialogue, and accountability.
The civil society partners work on flare monitoring, data transparency, and energy justice.
This initiative aims to push for more granular tracking of methane leaks, flaring hotspots, and corporate compliance—especially by those companies that have endorsed global climate commitments but show little change on the ground.
Call to Action: From Promises to Progress
As we mark this critical 10-year milestone, KIF and its civil society allies issue a renewed call to action:
- The Nigerian government must enforce the provisions of the PIA, the Climate Change Act, and accelerate the implementation of the Energy Transition Plan—particularly monetising flared gas for domestic energy use.
- The National Assembly should commission a legislative review of Nigeria’s gas flaring commitments and why targets keep shifting.
- The Nigeria Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) should strengthen methane emissions reduction frameworks along the midstream and downstream sectors.
- The regulators must disclose companies performing well and those not living up to expectation.
- Oil companies, especially those operating in Nigeria and endorsing the Zero Flaring Initiative, must publicly disclose their progress on flare reduction, including methane emission reduction plans in line with Nigeria’s nationally determined contributions—field by field.
- Development partners and climate financiers must support state-level implementation, particularly in flare-heavy states like Delta, Bayelsa, and Rivers, in line with the Electricity Act 2023 empowering states, companies and individuals to generate, transmit and distribute electricity.
- Civil society, journalists, and local leaders must amplify public scrutiny through data tools, citizen reporting, community engagement and media visibility.
- Affected communities must be seen not as passive recipients of harm but as active partners in co-creating clean energy futures. Women, youth, persons with disability in communities should also be involved in the decision-making processes as well as be involved in government processes monitoring the process by companies in meeting their emissions reduction targets.
Conclusion:
Let Nigeria Lead, Not Lag
Routine gas flaring is a triple threat:
It wastes valuable energy that could power homes and schools.
It destroys health and livelihoods across entire communities.
It accelerates climate change, threatening national security and food systems.
Ten years of delays are enough.
Let us not be known as a nation that continually alters the course while communities suffer. Let us be remembered as a nation that led the way—toward clean air, climate accountability, and energy justice.
It’s time to stop the flares. It’s time to start the future.
Faith Nwadishi, is a former Global board member of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), Former CSO representative on the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), convener Women in Extractives, Executive Director Centre for Transparency Advocacy, CEO, Koyenum Immalah Foundation and a member of CSO expert Group on gas, supported by NRGI.
