CLIMATE CHANGE GOVERNANCE IN NIGERIA: LEGAL FRAMEWORK, ENFORCEMENT CHALLENGES AND REFORM IMPERATIVE

Abstract

Climate change is one of the most pressing threats to Nigeria’s environmental, economic and social stability, manifesting in recurrent flooding and desertification. This paper undetakes a doctrinal appraisal of the legal and institutional framework that Nigeria has assembled to mitigate climate change, examining the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999, the Climate Change Act 2021, the National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA) Act 2007, the Environmental Impact Assessment Act 1992, the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) Act 2006, the Petroleum Industry Act 2021, the National Climate Change Policy 2021-2030 and Nigeria’s obligations under the UNFCCC, the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement. Adopting a doctrinal, library-based methodology involving statutory analysis and case-law review, this paper argues that Nigeria’s difficulty is less a deficit of legislation than a crisis of enforcement, institutional coordination and political will. It finds that overlapping mandates among regulatory agencies, weak sanctions, poor climate data infrastructure and low public awareness continue to undermine an otherwise commendable normative framework. The paper further evaluates the judiciary’s evolving role in environmental accountability through cases such as Gbemre v Shell Petroleum Development Company (Nigeria) Ltd and Centre for Oil Pollution Watch v NNPC. It concludes by recommending the harmonisation of overlapping agency mandates, the operationalisation of the Climate Change Fund, stronger judicial enforcement of environmental rights, and sustained public climate literacy as legal and non-legal pathways towards effective climate governance in Nigeria.