Every Nigerian needs to be carbon literate

There are many benefits in fighting climate change, but for a country like ours, the major incentive should be the poverty-eradication potential. Millions of citizens would be lifted out of poverty when they are connected to modern green energy services and when the government equitably manages the potential job losses in the oil sector resulting from global decarbonisation. This is what is known as just transition. But all these will not be as seamless and effective as they should be when the citizens do not have an idea of what carbon is all about, in the first place.

A fortnight ago, Nigeria had the privilege of joining the countries that are on the path of carbon literacy. Green Waka, an indigenous communication-focused advocacy organisation, in collaboration with the United Nations-recognised Carbon Literacy Project, unveiled the country’s first two certified carbon literate citizens, Michael Mbaike and Michael Etta, who now drive the Carbon Literacy Project in Nigeria.

I believe the carbon literacy training will help lay the foundation for Nigeria’s just transition to a net-zero future by motivating citizens from all walks of life to devise and deliver their best climate action and thereby ensure that we collectively push the nation into fulfilling its commitment to achieving net-zero emissions by 2060, as pledged at the Conference of the Parties, 2021, in Glasgow.

Carbon literacy is defined by the Carbon Literacy Project as, “An awareness of the carbon dioxide costs and impacts of everyday activities and the ability and motivation to reduce emissions on an individual, community and organisational basis.” It is hoped that the training will foster a widespread low-carbon culture in Nigeria, as it is doing in the 26 nations across which more than 700 unique accredited Carbon Literacy courses are already being delivered.

Created and founded in 2011 and launched publicly in November 2012, the Carbon Literacy Project has certified nearly 100,000 global citizens as carbon literate, who together have pledged at least 200,000 actions, saving over 360,000 tonnes of CO2e – the equivalent emissions of approximately 921 million miles driven by a car. It is delivered by testing and certifying successful individuals as Carbon Literate after they have participated in a day’s worth of learning and action.

First, it will help each individual become aware of his or her carbon footprint. A carbon footprint is the total amount of greenhouse gases (including carbon dioxide and methane) that are generated by our actions; that is, the accounting of the mark left by a person, organisation or product on the planet. This realisation helps us to take action to save our planet from polluting GHGs.

Second, it is important for the growth of public and private institutions. According to Change Agents UK, carbon literacy helps the organisation to succeed in a climate-challenged work environment. Offering your staff carbon literacy training shows them that you are committed to learning more about your carbon footprint and lets them know you are serious about sustainability. This sense of responsibility not only boosts your corporate image but also helps to foster a motivated and dedicated workforce, and one that understands that their actions can truly make a difference both locally and globally.

Third, an understanding of carbon impacts not only increases competitive advantage but can lead to innovation. Once your citizens understand their footprint and its effects they can apply this knowledge to how they work, finding new lower-impact solutions. The pledges the participants make at the end of the training as part of their certification act as a driving force, an accountability check and ensure that the learning is carried forward to actionable items.

To me, the greatest advantage is the fact that the Carbon Literacy Project training manual is specifically designed according to the peculiarity of each country, and it is sector-specific. Therefore, as the net-zero target focuses on technologies that maximise emission reduction across critical sectors, carbon literacy would serve as the foundation for the workers and stakeholders to be able to engage in the decarbonisation process in Nigeria seamlessly and efficiently.

In the building sector, emissions reduction will be driven primarily by a shift to electricity and biogas-based cooking. In the oil and gas and industrial sectors, emissions reduction will be enhanced by the global response to climate change mitigation using technologies such as carbon capture and storage, direct air capture, hydrogen fuel, among others. In the transport sector, emissions will be largely decreased by the uptake of electric vehicles and hybrid renewables from transition energy sources. In the power sector, emissions will be reduced by increases in the use of solar power, and as renewables replace natural gas as a transition fuel. At the domestic level, there will be replacement of firewood stoves by a less carbon-emitting cooking system.

The Nigerian government should key into this because it will increase productivity, creating a sense of ownership in the energy transition initiatives of the government. As a result, workers shall not constitute themselves as a nuisance to a climate-impacted society trying to cope, rather they will become the agents of change to be deployed in climate crisis. Furthermore, the knowledge would serve as the foundation for entrepreneurship as more avenues are opened up for solving the climate crisis. By knowing what is carbon and how not to emit it, they would find the creativity to innovate carbon-friendly products and services even as they engage more advanced stakeholders and emerging technologies. This is the spirit of just transition.

Some challenges militating against the 2060 net-zero target would be solved when a reasonable percentage of the citizenry becomes carbon literate. For instance, our net-zero target may be affected by the slower replacement of firewood stoves with clean cooking stoves and technologies in buildings; lower rate of adoption of electric vehicles in the transport sector, delayed implementation of the hydrogen furnace in the heavy industries, among others. These problematic scenarios could be ameliorated by a carbon literate workforce who are determined to clean their own carbon footprint in their primary work stations, and also by conceptualising ideas to engage their wider communities.

Meanwhile, there is an interesting historical angle to this. The Carbon Literacy Project was born in Manchester, in the United Kingdom. Interestingly, Manchester was the world’s first industrial city, at the advent of the Industrial Revolution. To the climate activists, the city shares responsibility for the global dependence on the fuels that generate carbon dioxide. Therefore, it is only fitting that the city should be the first to originate a project like the Carbon Literacy Project, thereby forging a path towards a low-carbon culture for the entire globe.

On the other hand, Nigeria is the most populous black nation on earth. Remember, it was the Industrial Revolution that brought the socio-economic conditions that aided the abolition of slavery. By increasing efficiency through mechanisation, the Industrial Revolution decreased the manpower needed to produce commodities. The revolution brought a new demand for efficiency, free trade and free labour; all this was out of step with slavery.

Therefore, as one of Africa’s most populous countries with a vibrant economy, Nigeria has a grand opportunity to become an African leader in climate policy as the UK is; being the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution became the first country in the world to legally mandate greenhouse gas emissions reduction through the Climate Change Act in 2008. The coming into existence of Nigeria’s Climate Change Act is an ambitious step which we can now take a little bit further by making our citizens carbon literate. It is a tool to fight climate change in a continent that is most affected by its deleterious impacts.