Promoting Environmental Sustainability Through Renewable Energy: A Suggested Legal Approach By Michael Dugeri

Renewable Energy has an important role to play in meeting the future energy needs of both rural and urban populations in Nigeria. The term “renewable energy” is defined as energy that comes from resources which are naturally replenished on human timescales such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, waves and geothermal heat.

The energy sector is said to be about the largest source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and the International Energy Agency has estimated that globally, energy-related emissions would increase by about 16% by 2040. Nigeria currently relies heavily on fossil fuels to generate power, with visible negative impacts on its environment, especially in the South-South region of the country. Considering the environmental degradation and release of harmful gases to the atmosphere emanating from the exploitation and use of fossil fuels, there is  need for Nigeria to diversify its energy mix in not only meeting its energy needs but also in protecting its environmental resources. This means, among other things that Nigeria should be able to increase its renewable energy uptake such as hydro, solar, biogas and wind resources into rural and urban energy planning, production, distribution and consumption.

Sustainable energy entails the provision of energy services for all people in ways that, now and in the future, are sufficient to provide the basic necessities, affordable, not detrimental to the environment, and acceptable to communities and people. The link between sustainable energy and factors such as efficiency and economic growth has been investigated and discussed in many fora. David Brooks, in his book, Friends of the Earth, aptly described the relationship between energy and development as follows: ‘Energy is, put most simply, the fundamental unit of the physical world. As such, we cannot conceive of development without changes in the extent or the nature of energy flows. And because it is so fundamental, every one of those changes of flows has environmental implications. The implications of this are profound. It means that there is no such thing as a simple energy choice. They are all complex. And they all involve trade-offs. However, some of the choices and some of the trade-offs appear to be unequivocally better than others, in the sense that they offer more development and less environmental damage.’

One of the overarching objectives of Nigeria’s National Energy Policy (NEP) 2003 is “to guarantee adequate, reliable and sustainable supply of energy at appropriate costs and in an environmentally friendly manner, to the various sectors of the economy, for national development.” It is to be noted that Nigeria’s National Energy Masterplan (2007) acknowledges that the main constraints on the rapid development and diffusion of technologies for the exploitation and utilization of renewable energy resources in the country are, among other things, lack of appropriate legal, regulatory and institutional framework as well as incentives to attract investors. In order to address these challenges, the Policy stipulates that Nigeria should prioritise “providing enabling environment through financial and fiscal incentives, legal and regulatory framework for attracting FDI and indigenous.” The National Energy Masterplan was conceived to translate the provisions of the National Energy Policy (2003) into implementable projects, activities and programmes in order to achieve the desired objectives.

The NEP articulates Nigeria’s enormous potentials in renewal energy resources, such as solar, hydropower, biomass, wind and other renewals, and strategies on how to harness these resources for sustainable development. On solar energy, for instance, the policy notes that the solar energy resources of Nigeria are significant and very competitive in terms of availability and environmental costs of its utilization. The Renewable Energy Master Plan (“REMP”) 2003 issued by the Federal Ministry of Environment articulates Nigeria’s vision and targets for addressing key development challenges through the accelerated development and exploitation of renewal energy. The REMP is based on certain economic and social assumptions, such as 20% of the entire energy mix being renewables. While the REMP, like the NEP, has no legislative force, it proposes the regulatory framework for achieving its objectives and targets to include strategies like legislating “renewal energy as part of an ‘Energy Efficiency Act’ and harmonising all relevant renewal energy government policies to strategically position Federal Ministry of Environment as the Authority on renewal energy for the country”.

A review of Nigeria’s legal and institutional framework on renewal energy shows that the approach is not well focused on the ideals of environmental sustainability, as the emphasis seem to be more on energy access and sufficiency than on environmental sustainability. The many regulatory institutions that exist in both the power sector and the environment sometimes have overlapping mandates and responsibilities, resulting in disagreements between agencies over jurisdictional boundaries. The Energy Commission of Nigeria (ECN) Act 1979 established the ECN as the coordinating agency for energy matters in Nigeria. The ECN has the function of the strategic planning of energy; policy coordination and performance monitoring for the whole energy sector, setting guidelines on the utilization of energy; developing recommendations for the exploitation of new sources of energy. Within the ECN is the Department for Renewable Energy Sources established under the Act. There is no noticeable connection between the ECN; the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) and the Federal Ministry of Power in the Electric Power Sector Reform Act (EPSRA) 2005. As a result, there is a possibility of overlap of functions and stakeholders sometimes have to cherry-pick the directives of one over the other. More significantly, there is little in the legal and institutional framework on how regulatory agencies in the power can collaborate with agencies in the environment on ways to minimise the impact of power generation, distribution and consumption on the environment.

The use of renewable energy in the power sector has not been promoted, despite Nigeria’s abundant renewable energy potentials. Using the law to integrate renewable energy into the Nigerian power sector will promote energy security and access, a clean environment and economic development. In order to effectively harness the potentials afforded by renewable energy, Nigeria needs to have a robust legal regime that promotes and regulates the development and utilisation of renewable energy. With an abundance of natural gas in the country and with the potential of this form of fossil fuel serving as a transition fuel, the policy and regulatory framework must carefully balance Nigeria’s need for economic development vis-à-vis preservation of its environmental resources.

Michael Dugeri
www.mikedugeri.wordpress.com
Tel:+234 8036760623 (Cell Phone)