Introduction
On 18 November 2021, President Muhammadu Buhari signed into law the Climate Change Bill 2021 following the passing of the bill by the Senate just a month earlier on 13 October 2021. The Climate Change Act 2021 (the “Act”) has been described as one of Nigeria’s life-changing laws. Given the increasing need for environmental sustainability, low-carbon climate-resilient development and ecosystem conservation, Nigeria has joined frontline nations of the world and taken deliberate steps towards environmental sustainability and the preservation of the earth.
The Act reinforces Nigeria’s commitment to the Paris Agreement on climate change and her updated Nationally Determined Contributions (“NDCs”) at the 26th Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Glasgow, which include cutting Nigeria’s carbon emissions to reach net-zero by 2060.
