By Emmanuel Obisue
The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, NMDPRA, on Monday said it is implementing strategic initiatives aimed at mitigating the effects of climate change, with a focus on expanding gas utilisation, promoting cleaner fuels, and strengthening host community participation in safeguarding critical oil and gas infrastructure.
Speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the Africa Infrastructure and Climate Change Summit (AICIS) in Abuja, Dr. Mustapha Lamorde, Executive Director, Health, Safety, Environment (HSE) at NMDPRA, said the agency is playing “a pivotal role in making sure that a lot of gas resources are available for driving industrialisation”.
Represented by Engr. Dr. Ebi Ogionwo, Deputy Director, HSE, Lamorde noted that with the creation of NMDPRA in 2021 under the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), more visibility has been given to midstream gas projects, leading to notable energy improvements in some oil-producing states.
“We cannot talk about mitigating the effect of climate change for Africa without talking about gas, making use of gas as a cleaner means of fueling or energising the economy of Africa and of Nigeria.
“We are all witnesses to how Abia State recently now boasts of 24-hour power supply… It’s all because of the little input that is coming from the midstream that is powering that sector,” he said.
On environmental sustainability in oil-producing areas, Lamorde highlighted the PIA’s Host Community Development Trust as a key intervention to promote local involvement and safeguard assets. “When the host communities form this trust, there is a percentage which is supposed to be due to the host communities from the production of crude oil… It now behoves on those host communities to ensure that they safeguard these oil and gas assets in order for them to benefit from the resources,” he explained.
He stressed that reduced vandalism and better community engagement would not only protect infrastructure but also ensure sustainable benefits for residents.
The NMDPRA, he said, is also committed to harnessing Nigeria’s vast gas reserves as part of the global energy transition. “Nigeria has over 3000 trillion cubic feet of gas that is stored underneath the ground and we need to harness these resources to the benefit of all Nigerians and to Africa at large,” Lamorde added.
Earlier, while declaring the pan-African event opened, President Bola Tinubu emphasized that the global climate emergency demands “our collective, courageous, and sustained leadership”. “For Nigeria, the urgency of this moment is clear: we view climate action not as a cost to development, but as a strategic imperative,” Tinubu, represented by Engr. Gagare Nadungu, Permanent Secretary, Political & Economic Affairs Office, OSGF, stated.
He outlined the nation’s Energy Transition Plan, ETP, covering power, cooking, transportation, oil and gas, and industry, as a pragmatic roadmap to achieving net-zero emissions by 2060. He also revealed that to deliver on this vision, Nigeria plans to align its regulatory frameworks, fiscal incentives, and institutions to ensure energy access, decarbonization, and economic competitiveness proceed in lockstep.
In his commitment to fostering clean energy access across the continent, Tinubu shared that Nigeria is positioned as an anchor country in the Mission 300 initiative, aimed at delivering electricity to 300 million Africans by 2030. He additionally highlighted the finalization of the Nigeria Carbon Market Activation Policy in March 2025, targeting up to $2.5 billion in high-integrity carbon credits and investments by 2030, and noted that the country’s updated Nationally Determined Contributions, NDCs, will be presented soon by September 2025.
In her goodwill message, H.E. Pascaline Yakivu, Ambassador of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, DRC, to Nigeria, described the DRC as a “solution country” in the fight against climate change, citing its vast tropical rainforest, estimated at 155.5 million hectares, including 99 million hectares of dense humid forest, which represents nearly half of Africa’s tropical rainforest.
The ambassador said these forests “can mitigate the effects of climate change and biodiversity,” underscoring the country’s potential to contribute significantly to global environmental stability.
She added that while the government is pursuing major infrastructure and energy projects, such as the Inga Rehabilitation Project with capacity to supply electricity to the entire nation and the continent, conflict in the eastern regions has slowed progress. The envoy expressed confidence that the summit’s outcomes would “benefit our respective countries” and help accelerate Africa’s development through shared experience.
