Environmental Conditions

However, no plan reached the last step. Law has a crucial role in bringing about the widespread use of renewable energy. Although there is a legal framework for renewable energy development, some of the policies are long overdue for revision and still pending approval.

As mentioned by Sambo et al. (2012), it is difficult to implement something that never became a law, highlighting the importance of the government's role in this matter.

Table 4. “How much do you know about climate change?”. Rural vs. urban areas. Odjugo (2013)

In fact, if only 15.8% of people in the urban area never heard of it, the number increases, reaching the 33.4% experienced in rural areas (see Table 4). The same happens for the category “know little about it”, while the opposite goes for the “know much about it”. Relevant is how only 9% of the rural area population - according to the submitted questionnaires - states to know a lot about climate change.

Moreover, the author comments on the supposed unreliability of the numbers of who knows little or much about it because, when sometimes questioned, they could not even describe the meaning of climate change. Particularly interesting is also that, during the questionnaire, most of the people residents in the rural areas answered that climate change is caused by God as a punishment for the numerous human sins.

As the author considers, awareness is spread thanks to the access people have to public information, which should be available on television, radio, printed materials, teachers, colleagues, friends. When all of those are missing, or they are only available for a small share of the population, it is difficult to make people aware.

4.4.6.2 Climate change challenges

The low general awareness does not imply that the problem is not evident. As suggested by Haider (2019), climate conditions have also changed in Nigeria. The consequences are multiple, such as an increase in temperature, variable rainfall, rise in the sea level, drought and desertification, land degradation and more frequent extreme weather events. The forecasts predict an increase in rainfall in the future, which will imply a continued increase in the sea level, which is expected to overcome

The impacts for a country where agriculture accounts for 24% of the GDP are highly important (Varrella, 2021). Agriculture in Nigeria is mostly rain-fed, and its unpredictability could make it difficult for farmers to plan their operations in advance (Haider, 2019). Both men and women are engaged in the agricultural sector. While men are usually in charge of working in the fields, women are in charge of gathering wood for cooking and heating, collecting household water supply and ensuring food security (Haider, 2019). Moreover, economic sectors like fishery will be compromised too, given the damage to the sea conditions. Other challenges related to climate change include food security and water, forestry, health, and energy production.

Security within the country has consequently been threatened by climate change. In fact, as we have seen, climate change has an impact on the harvests. In addition, the tendency of losing basic commodities essential to daily life needs incentivises people to fight for them, which has increased conflicts among groups (Haider, 2019).

Even though the local response has been quite sceptical related to climate change, all around the world, it is an issue that is getting concerns from the bigger organisations.

Hundreds of organisations worldwide have been working collaboratively to find solutions, both local and international non-profit, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and pressure groups that have promoted the development of renewable energy in Nigeria (The Law Reviews, 2020). NGOs have managed to support the growth of the sector through capacity-building, provision of financing, and promoting public awareness.

In 2013 the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and the European Union (UE) created the Nigerian Energy Support Programme (NESP) (The Law Reviews, 2020).

Since its creation, NESP has helped the development of policies with the collaboration of the federal government, the establishment of the Federal Ministry of Power, rural electrification by developing the Mini-Grid Regulation. NESP has had a primary role in the incentivisation of investments in renewable energy.

The program, in fact, was implemented with the aid of co-financing from the EU of 20 million euros (Giz, 2021). Moreover, during the last four years of the existence of NESP, different achievements have been accomplished. The program results show that 16,000 people have gained access to solar power, and the plan was to provide it to another 100,000 people before 2020 (Giz, 2021). Eleven laws

and regulations have been implemented, and some of those are national guidelines for RE and energy efficiency. Training courses on photovoltaics and mini-grid design were made available for more than 600 people, which can help in the spread of awareness about Renewable Energy Technologies. NESP is today focused on supporting Nigeria in utilising its potential in order to scale up rural electrification (Giz, 2021).

To mention others, the International Centre for Energy, Environment and Development Foundation (ICEED) is also actively working in Nigeria. The foundation has become Nigeria’s leading centre on energy access and climate change (ICEED Nigeria, 2021). Their contribution to Nigeria begins with market development expertise, capacity building, project implementation and behaviour communication to the country.

They help with the development of the Nigeria Renewable Energy Master Plan and with the development of the Greenhouse Gas Emission Inventory for Nigeria, given their high expertise on policy’s reform and market development for the expansion of clean energy (ICEED Nigeria, 2021).

As we could see from their official website, ICEED developed several projects in Nigeria since 2001.

To mention some of the latest projects, from 2019, they have been working on the provision of solar electricity for education and health facilities in the Ebonyi State of Nigeria. Moreover, the same year they started a program focused on spreading awareness and business development in Kano State (ICEED, 2021). In addition, since 2014, they are working on a “Solar Nigeria Programme” which aims at creating a sustainable distributed solar market with increased electrification rates in urban and rural areas.

4.4.6.3 Social Acceptance towards RETs

Although climate change might not be perceived as a major problem within the population, different surveys show a general decent acceptance towards renewable energy technology. Akinwale et al.

2014 conducted a survey in 2013 in the southwestern part of Nigeria to have an idea of the public understanding and attitudes towards Renewable Energy sources. The total sample included 200 people around Lagos, Oyo and Osun.

Interestingly, their findings show that the general acceptance is actually quite high. In fact, looking at Figure 7, we can see that 85.2% of the sample disagree/strongly disagree with considering renewable energy investments a waste of public funds. Accordingly, 83.2% of the respondents are

Figure 7. International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, 4(4), 636.

On the same wave, Wojuola et al. (2017) also conducted a survey to understand the public perceptions about renewable energy in Nigeria. The focus group, in this case, is 420 respondents.

Their findings also show a general acceptance of renewable energy technologies. When asked about RETs’ usefulness, indeed 80% of them answer that renewables can help to protect the environment and therefore they are useful. As reported by the authors, there are negative perceptions around the RETs, such as towards the National Electric Power Authority (NEPA) and their actual inefficiencies in providing energy to the country, lack of general information about RETs and how they work, how much they will cost. In fact, even though the respondents have faith in RETs, they do not have the same faith in the country’s governance and, therefore, in the authorities. Some answers show how much they are worried about costs that they probably could not afford, the inadequate maintenance that there is in the country. A respondent also suggested that in such a context, it is possible to even spend the money to buy a solar grid but then not being able to make it work or fix it when it starts showing issues. According to the respondents, the lack of expertise and experts is another major challenge for the development of RETs. Some other respondents admitted their lack of information about RETs by citing that they do not even know if those technologies might harm the environment.

Hence, as Wojuola argued, there is a general need for both formal and informal energy education.

According to both studies, even though there is a general acceptance of these new technologies, the market inefficiency certainly wins.