FG, AFD to Strengthen Co-operation on Climate Action in Nigeria

Michael Olugbode in Abuja

The federal government and the French Development Agency, ‘Agence Française de Dévelopment’ (AFD) have renewed their commitment to strengthen their cooperation towards promoting climate action and the low carbon economic development in Nigeria.

This agreement was reached yesterday when the new Country Director of the FDA, Mr. Xavier Muron, paid a courtesy visit to the Minister of State for Environment, Chief Sharon Ikeazor, at her office in Abuja.

Muron said the visit was to discuss AFD strategies and priorities for climate action in Nigeria, especially based on the just concluded COP26 and the commitment of Nigeria in this regard.

He also said the meeting was intended to provide an opportunity to discuss the upcoming launch of the Nigeria Deep

Decarbonisation Project (DDP Nigeria) scheduled to hold in Abuja in the coming week.

The country director noted that AFD was already funding and collaborating with the ministry on several high-impact projects in the areas of waste management, biodiversity conservation, urban development, power transmission, and off-grid capacity development. Some of these, he said, are already ongoing while some are in the pipeline.

Muron said he was especially excited about the Nigeria Deep Decarbonisation Project which is a national research and capacity building project for the implementation of a Deep Decarbonisation Pathway Programme (DDPP) in Nigeria funded by the AFD with the International Relation and Sustainable Development Institute (IDDRI) as the programme coordinator.

The project is done in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Environment under a framework established through a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the federal government and the AFD signed in December 2020. The key objective of the DPP Nigeria is to mobilise and reinforce the capacities of local teams of experts and researchers in Nigeria to be able to produce country studies analyzing decarbonisation scenarios and low-emission development pathways. DDP is being led by the Centre of Climate Change and Development at Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Ndufu Alike Ikwo, with researchers from several universities across the country participating as research fellows.

The National Project leader for DDP Nigeria, Professor Chukwumerije Okereke, who is the Director of the Centre for Climate Change at Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Ebonyi State, said he was excited that the DDP Nigeria would build the capacity of Nigeria to develop scenarios produce robust quantitative models that can help guide Nigeria’s long term low emission development.

Responding, the minister thanked the AFD for their visit and for both their current funded projects to help Nigeria tackle climate change and related environmental challenges.

She said the ministry is determined to tackle the myriads of challenges posed by climate change with the support of both national and international cooperation.

Ikeazor expressed optimism that the analysis that would be done under the Nigerian Deep Decarbonisation project would complement the scenarios work done in the Energy Transition Plan so that the country will have a rich menu of options to pursue its decarbonisation agenda with a clear understanding of the implications of various decarbonisation options and pathways.