International and national policy responses to combating global warming and climate change in Nigeria

Abstract

Oil and gas exploration in Nigeria has contributed to global warming and climate change. The growing global impact of climate change and the need for resilience demand action to reform the impact thereof. This article reviews policy responses to reform climate change and global warming in Nigeria in light of oil exploration and gas flaring in the Niger Delta region. A desktop study of related literature, drawn from repositories such as SCOPUS, Google Scholar, and Web of Science, provided policy responses such as the Climate Change Act 2021, the implementation of the Nigeria Gas Flare Commercialisation Programme, and other gas utilisation programmes by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company, the Petroleum Industry Act 2021, and other global commitments to end gas flaring by 2030. The article reviews the provisions of climate change mitigation in these policy responses and how it was implemented in Nigeria. The review revealed the need for more commitment from Nigeria to various international agreements on climate change. It, therefore, recommends, among others, a better utilisation of gas from its oil-rich regions to meet the nation’s power-generation need and other needs.