ENVIRONMENTAL POLITICS AND CARBON FOOTPRINT IN NIGERIA: PROPOSAL FOR LEGISLATIVE REVIEW

Abstract

The negative impact of climate change makes carbon emission top the list of dangerous human activities against our planet. This negative fallout is bound to increase further because of un-abating carbon emissions. Although developing states do not feature prominently in net carbon footprint indexes, global mechanisms for climate change mitigation point towards an increase in the carbon footprint of developing countries, mostly from land-use alterations and the possibility of higher vulnerability to the first line risks of climate change. Yet, developing states have been virtually unresponsive to developing robust legal regimes in response to these environmental scare. Although Nigeria is not considered a net contributor to global warming resulting in climate change, certain barely considered environmental degradation activities such as logging for domestic and small scale industrial use add to the country’s carbon footprint, with a negative impact on the environment. Using doctrinal/analytical methodology, this paper examines the legal regime on climate change in Nigeria in the context of international environmental politics play in the process, and makes recommendations to tackle the challenges of carbon footprints in the country.