Climate Change bill seeking domestication of Paris agreement passes in House of Reps

The House of Representatives Wednesday passed a bill to provide legal framework for the formal inclusion of climate change actions into government policy, and also domesticate the 2015 Paris Climate agreement in line with Nigeria’s endorsement of it.

The bill also proposed the establishment of a council to coordinate climate change governance as well as support the adaptation and mitigation of the adverse effects of climate change in the country.

Speaking on the bill, the sponsor, Sam Onuigbo said that the need for a strong national institution to address the effects of climate change compelled him to come up with the bill.

According to him, the absence of a law on issues of climate change had scared away investors from coming into the country.

“Today, there is no law on climate change, all we have are policies and that has been a serious setback for the country as far as climate actions are concerned.

Read also: SPECIAL REPORT: 3000 hectares ruined, ‘food basket’ threatened; How floods ravaged Benue, raising concerns over impact of climate change

“Climate change is a global issue that cuts across the world and that is what informed the move of the United Nations’ convention on climate change.

“But back home, there is no law both at the national and sub-national levels and that has necessitated this bill.

“The early coming into force of the 2015 Paris Climate agreement reinforced the necessity of a climate change legislation.

“It will facilitate the domestication of the agreement and enable Nigeria to effectively implement its commitments, particularly the emission reductions target.

“This bill will provide a framework for a federal budget appropriation process that institutionalises transparency and accountability of climate related sources, including international climate finance”, he said.

He added that it would also aid the “setting up of guidelines for prescription of range of economic instruments and regulatory techniques to reduce Green House Gas emissions.

“Pursue high economic growth rate at a low carbon trajectory at the same time reduce environmental risks and ecological scarcity in an inclusive manner, and growing new jobs.”

Onuigbo said the bill would be transmitted to the Senate for concurrence on Wednesday and subsequently to the President for assent.

“Every leader determines what happens to his subjects, and the President has given climate change a go by the signing the UN treaty on Climate Change and his subsequent speeches back home,” he added.

Recall that the House of Representatives adopted the committee report on Climate Change on October 26.

 

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