AN APPRAISAL OF LEGAL RESPONSES TO GAS FLARING AND GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSION MANAGEMENT IN NIGERIA

Abstract

This paper aims to identify and evaluate the legal responses to the challenges of gas flaring and greenhouse emission management in Nigeria. In Nigeria, there is a need to combat the problem of indiscriminate flaring of gas to provide a safe environment for yet-unborn generations. Gas flaring has resulted in the extinction of species in the environment, and once species are depleted to the point of extinction, they cannot be renewed; as a result, the loss of these plant and animal species will make it difficult for future generations to meet their needs. As a result, it is critical to protect these resources to ensure long-term development. In the face of pollution and environmental degradation, maintaining the environment will be a difficult and debilitating challenge to the ecosystem. Exploration of oil and gas has therefore become an environmental albatross in the Nigerian oil and gas industry. The discharge or flaring of gases from exploration sites pollutes the air, water, and soil. The overreliance on fossil fuels to power cars, industrial machinery and home energy sources in Nigeria has created a risk for petroleum resources, threatening long-term growth. The paper thus introduces the incidences of gas flaring in Nigeria, highlights a brief review of opinions and scholars’ perspectives on the subject and the overview of the challenges of gas flaring and greenhouse gas emission in Nigeria, and explores the impacts of gas flaring in the Nigeria Delta area and the Nigerian ecosystem. The paper finds that there are a number of challenges with the operation, administration and content of the existing legal frameworks and mechanisms available to combat gas flaring and greenhouse gas emissions in Nigeria and there is a need for improvement, to ensure they engender proper clean-up and remediation. The paper concluded by stating that there exists a need to strike a healthy balance between economic development and sustainable development and this can only be achieved if there is a political will on the part of the Nigerian federal government to enforce its anti-gas flaring laws to guarantee energy security and ensure a safe, clean, and healthy environment for all and sundry in Nigeria whilst giving recommendations on the need for effective management, capture, re-use and conversion of flared gases into a power-lean-and-clean project and the regulation/administration of greenhouse emission in Nigeria.