Nigerian Minister Outlines Measures to Lower Emissions, Preserve Environment

By Adaobi Rhema Oguejiofor

The Nigerian Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Gas), Ekperikpe Ekpo, has listed the Federal Government’s efforts to cut back on methane emissions and ultimately preserve the environment.

Ekpo stated this while speaking during a Ministerial Panel on the actions being taken to accelerate compliance with the Methane Pledge at the 28th meeting of the Conference of Parties (COP28) on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates.

According to him, some of the measures put in place include gas flares commercialisation programme, the establishment of energy transition and carbon monetisation units in regulatory agencies, carbon market development and enhanced social governance.

The gas minister, who described President Bola Ahmed Tinubu as an advocate of just, fair and equitable energy transition, added that Nigeria has set in place guidelines to ensure methane is kept under control, especially in the oil and gas sector.

In his own words, “we have the decade of gas initiative to promote low carbon natural gas as the preferred choice of fuel and energy in Nigeria. The country is actively steering its energy landscape towards a lower methane intensive path aligning with the methane pledge. 

“We are focused on transitioning towards lower methane emissions.We are committed to consistently publishing comprehensive methane emissions data demonstrating accountability and progress in line with the methane pledge. In Nigeria we are doing everything possible to ensure that flare gas is eliminated.”

The Methane Pledge targets the reduction of global anthropogenic methane emissions by at least 30 percent by 2030 and limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.