A recent study reveals that to meet the 1.5°C target set by the Paris Agreement, the world must remove approximately seven to nine billion tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere annually.
The Paris Agreement, a global climate change treaty, was adopted by 196 countries at the COP21 conference in Paris on December 12, 2015, and came into force on November 4, 2016.
The 2024 State of Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) report, a collaboration involving over 50 experts led by researchers at the University of Oxford, was published on the university’s website in conjunction with World Environment Day 2024.
This annual scientific assessment evaluates the amount of carbon dioxide removal needed to limit climate change and tracks global progress toward meeting the Paris Agreement targets, which Nigeria has endorsed.
The report emphasizes the essential role of CDR in reducing emissions to achieve net zero. Currently, only two billion tonnes of CO2 are being removed annually through conventional methods like tree planting, far short of the required 7 to 9 billion tonnes.
The report urges governments to adopt policies that boost carbon removal efforts by incorporating CDR strategies into their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
“To meet the Paris Agreement, any kind of climate mitigation must be done sustainably,” the report noted, adding that it is vital for environmental and social sustainability to be embedded into planning and policy to minimize risks and maximize benefits.
The objective of the Agreement is to hold the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to above 1.5°C pre-industrial levels, according to the United Nations Climate Change.
This is because the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change stipulates that crossing the 1.5°C threshold risks unleashing more severe climate change impacts, including more frequent and severe droughts, heatwaves and rainfall.
To limit global warming to 1.5°C, greenhouse gas emissions must peak before 2025 at the latest and decline 43 per cent by 2030, according to the Paris Agreement.
Implementation of the Agreement requires economic and social transformation based on the best available science. The Agreement works on a five-year cycle of increasingly ambitious climate action carried out by countries.
Countries have since 2020 been submitting their national action plans through the NDCs. Each successive NDC is meant to show an increasingly higher degree of commitment compared with the previous version.
The Agreement reaffirms that developed countries should take the lead in providing financial assistance to vulnerable countries to combat climate change.
Nigeria’s wide range of livelihoods – agricultural practices and commodities – are threatened by climate change. Rising sea levels increase exposure to flooding and waterborne disease, while drought and rising temperature hinder agricultural production and fishing, threatening food security and negatively impacting health and nutrition.
The energy sector, deforestation and land-use change are the most significant contributors to Nigeria’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, according to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
In Nigeria, gas flaring from oil flow stations is common, particularly in some coastal states in the Niger Delta region. Oil and gas methane is responsible for 37% of human-derived methane emissions, according to the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP).
Climate and Clean Air Coalition, a UNEP-convened initiative last year, reported that Nigeria had made bold steps further to regulate the emissions of the oil and gas sector.
According to the report, for Nigeria to achieve its target, it would reduce methane emissions from flaring by 100 per cent by 2030 and fugitive methane from leaks by 95 per cent by 2050.
“In 2018, greenhouse emissions from oil and gas were the largest contributor to Nigeria’s energy sector emissions at 33 per cent. The reduction will comprise a major component of Nigeria NDC target – which are an unconditional reduction of 20% and conditional reduction of additional 47 per cent with international support,” the report said.
The country has failed in combating climate change, particularly in tree planting. During the 27 edition of the United Nations Climate Summit (COP27), the Nigerian government said it would engage youths to plant and nurture 250,000 trees annually as part of efforts to accelerate climate action in the country.
