Impacts of covid-19 pandemic on NDC implementation action plan for the agricultural sector in Nigeria

Abstract

Climate Change is one of the biggest challenges of the 21st Century. In 2015, the world reached a milestone in addressing this menace with the adoption of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. Article 3 of the Agreement requires Parties to the agreement to pledge and implement their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) towards climate change adaptation and mitigation. Nigeria as a signatory to the Paris Agreement deposited its NDC with the Agreement’s secretariat in 2017 and have also designed its internal NDC Implementation Action Plan for five Key sectors before the outbreak of the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic in 2019. In order to contain the spread of the coronavirus, certain restrictive measures (such as lockdown and closure of business) have been adopted both locally and internationally. This paper uses doctrinal research approach to appraise the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic and its containment measures on Nigeria’s NDC Implementation Action Plan for the Agriculture Sector. The paper finds that the Nigeria’s NDC Implementation Action Plan for the Agriculture Sector is highly ambitious if properly implemented. There is also no legal framework for the NDC Implementation Action Plan in Nigeria. This paper concludes by suggesting a procedural right-based approach for the Implementation of the Action Plan in Covid-19 and Post Covid-19 era in Nigeria.