COP27: We can't afford more delays, blame game should stop - Buhari

President Muhammadu Buhari has made more commitments, on behalf of Nigeria, to tackle the global climate crisis. He also urged world leaders to stop the blame game and avoid delays in implementing efforts to tackle climate change.

Mr Buhari spoke at the clean energy transition event organised by Bloomberg Philanthropies and Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL), on Monday, on the sidelines of the ongoing Climate Change Conference (COP27) in Egypt.

The president, represented by Nigeria’s Minister of Environment, Mohammed Abdullahi, acknowledged that the world is at a critical time regarding its climate future.

He said the actions today and over the next few decades will determine the fate of future generations and the planet.

Mr Buhari recounted the climate disasters that have happened this year alone across the world.

“This year, we have witnessed disastrous extreme weather events from terrifying wildfires in the United States to unprecedented heat waves in India, Pakistan, and Europe, to intense floods in my country, Nigeria. From early summer till now, devastating floods have affected about 33 states in Nigeria, displacing over 1.4 million people, destroying over 100,000 hectares of farmland and causing about 600 deaths. In addition, we are witnessing increased desertification, erosion, and pollution in the country; the impacts of which are too severe to ignore,” he said.

The president said these glaring climate signals indicate that the world does not have the luxury of time when it comes to the impacts of climate change.

He, therefore, called for urgent and decisive climate action from the countries most responsible for the emissions that cause climate change, saying the case for accelerated climate action is even more pressing. He said developing countries are pledging to take action despite contributing very little to climate change.

“As will be strongly demanded here at COP27, we cannot afford any more delays; our people and nations are on the line. The blame game should stop, affirmative and positive commitment to address these challenges must begin NOW.”

Mr Buhari said African countries are committed to tackling climate change by embarking on bold actions.

He said; “African nations are demonstrating commitment via the signing of the Paris Agreement, the submission of highly ambitious Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and spending up to 9 per cent of GDP in addressing climate change.

“However, as we seek to pursue our climate ambitions, we are acutely aware of other pressing concerns that must be addressed, not least of which is the energy poverty on the continent. With energy consumed for electricity, heat, and transport accounting for over 70 per cent of global emissions, we acknowledge that a rapid energy transition must be at the centre of our climate efforts, but we also know that we need significantly more energy.”

Still talking about energy deficits, Mr Buhari said it has staggering quality and length of life ramifications. “For instance, the clean cooking deficits lead to about 500 million premature deaths from household air pollution in Sub-Saharan Africa annually, and due to the electricity deficits, half of secondary schools and a quarter of health facilities in the region have no power.”

The president said African nations, and most developing countries, must balance contributing their quota to the global climate response with resolving their significant energy needs.

He said the clean energy transition is perhaps the main tool to achieve this.

Talking about Nigeria’s action on energy transition, the president said the country sought to scale its climate mitigation efforts while providing sufficient energy to meet the needs of the 92 million Nigerians without access to electricity and the 175 million Nigerians without access to clean cooking solutions.

The President boasted that in 2021, Nigeria became the first African country to design a detailed Energy Transition Plan to tackle the dual crises of energy poverty and climate change and deliver universal access to energy (SDG7) by 2030 and net-zero by 2060.

“Our plan details pathways for significant low-carbon buildout of energy systems across 5 key sectors: Power, Cooking, Transport, Industry, and Oil & Gas, and within its scope, 65% of Nigeria’s emissions are affected.”

Speaking further, he said although Nigeria’s plan recognizes the role of gas as a transition fuel for delivering clean cooking solutions and increasing power capacity, renewable energy is the bedrock of Nigeria’s transition pathway.

“Nigeria is set to deploy an unprecedented amount of renewable energy capacity to deliver the energy access and climate goals of our transition plan.

“For example, the plan calls for the deployment of about 5.3 Gigawatts (GW) of solar capacity every year till 2060 with the inclusion of storage and hydrogen. The plan envisions vibrant industries powered by low-carbon technologies; streets lined with electric vehicles, and livelihoods enabled by sufficient and clean energy; this is an exciting vision.”

Mr Buhari said Nigeria has developed an audacious plan and adopted it as a national policy, but the critical thing now is delivering the plan’s targets. He called on developed nations and international partners to partner with Nigeria to raise about $410 billion above business-as-usual spending to deliver a just energy transition partnership by 2060.