Authored By: Ngozi Augustina Okeibuno
Igbinedion University, Okada, Edo State, Nigeria
The enactment of the Climate Change Act 2021 represents a significant milestone in Nigeria’s response to climate change, positioning statutory regulation as a central mechanism for achieving climate justice. This paper critically examines the extent to which climate justice can be realized through statutory provisions alone. The study argues that although the Act establishes a structured legal foundation through mechanisms such as carbon budgeting, national climate targets, and the creation of the National Council on Climate Change, its effectiveness in delivering climate justice is often constrained by implementation challenges, weak enforcement structures, and limited access to remedies for affected communities. The paper concludes that while the Climate Change Act 2021 is a progressive legal instrument, climate justice in Nigeria cannot be attained through statute alone.
Keywords: Climate Justice, Climate Change Act 2021, Nigeria, Environmental Law, Statutory Regulation, Climate Governance, Sustainable Development, Human Rights and Environment, Emissions Reduction, Legal Framework
Introduction
Between 2010 and 2023, Nigeria recorded over 1,200 climate‑related environmental judgments, reflecting a growing reliance on the courts to enforce environmental rights and climate‑related obligations.[2]
Against this backdrop, the Climate Change Act 2021 was enacted to mainstream climate action into national planning, create the National Council on Climate Change, and guide mitigation and adaptation strategies.[3]
The article proceeds by first analyzing the key provisions of the Climate Change Act 2021, related existing environmental law,[4] examining relevant Nigerian case law,[5] and finally assessing climate justice.[6]
Legal Framework: The Climate Change Act 2021 and Its Constitutional Setting
The Climate Change Act 2021[7] is Nigeria’s primary legislative response to its climate‑change commitments under the Paris Agreement[8] and its domestic Agenda 2050.[9] The Act establishes a National Council on Climate Change, assigns the Federal Ministry of Environment as the lead implementation agency, and mandates the preparation of national climate‑change policy, mitigation and adaptation plans, and emissions‑reduction strategies.[10] It also requires sectors to develop climate‑compatible development plans and sets out mechanisms for carbon‑pricing, project‑audit, and reporting tools.[11] That, on paper, position Nigeria to internalize climate costs into decision‑making.[12]
The legal research question is: Can the Climate Change Act 2021 Effectively Deliver Climate Justice in Nigeria, or Does It Need a Constitutional Anchor?
It interrogates the Act’s framework for emissions reduction, institutional governance, and accountability mechanisms, while assessing whether these provisions sufficiently address the disproportionate impacts of climate change on vulnerable populations.
Furthermore, the paper explores the tension between legislative intent and practical realities, emphasizing that statutory measures, without robust judicial enforcement, public participation, and policy integration, may fall short of achieving substantive justice.
However, the Act operates within the 1999 Constitution, which only indirectly supports environmental protection. Section 20 imposes a general duty on the state to “protect and improve the environment,”[13] but this is framed as a directive principle of state policy, not a justiciable right. In practice, Nigerian courts have often treated environmental‑protection obligations as non‑enforceable,[14] leaving individuals and communities to rely on tort‑based claims (nuisance, negligence)[15] or indirect human rights‑based arguments under the African Charter.[16] This constitutional weakness means that even robust statutory schemes like the Climate Change Act 2021 rest on a foundation that does not guarantee direct legal recourse for environmental harm. A complementary approach involving institutional strengthening, judicial activism, and community engagement is essential to ensure equitable climate outcomes.
Key Case Law and Legislative Analysis
Nigerian courts have produced a growing number of environmental‑rights and climate‑related decisions, but these judgments also reveal the limits of relying on statute alone. In Gbemre v. Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Ltd. & Ors.,[17] the Federal High Court held that the Nigerian government’s routine gas flaring violated the constitutional right to life and dignity, finding that the harmful emissions constituted a serious environmental and health hazard.[18] The decision was heralded as a landmark affirmation of environmental justice, yet enforcement has been patchy and the government’s appeal has dragged the case through years of litigation, underscoring the fragility of judicial victories under the current framework.
Other cases, such as those seen involving oil‑spill compensation and environmental impact assessment compliance, show that some courts often struggle to impose consistent, enforceable standards across different sectors and regulators. The Climate Change Act 2021 was therefore introduced partly to fill this regulatory gap.[19]
Critical Analysis and Argument: Why a Constitutional Anchor Is Necessary
The central difficulty with the Climate Change Act 2021 is that it attempts to deliver climate justice through top‑down policy and administrative oversight, rather than through a bottom‑up, rights‑based framework.[20] Climate justice, in its fullest sense, demands not only regulatory structures but also accessible legal pathways for affected communities, especially the poor, women, and rural and coastal populations, to secure redress when climate‑related harms occur. The absence of a justiciable right to a healthy environment in the 1999 Constitution means that even where the Climate Change Act obliges the state to pursue low‑carbon development or adaptation, individuals often lack standing to demand specific outcomes or to compel enforcement.[21]
Two interrelated gaps weaken the Act’s capacity to deliver climate justice. First, there is a procedural gap: the Act does not systematically enable public‑interest litigation or citizen suits to challenge climate‑related inaction or maladministration. Without such procedural tools, communities affected by coastal erosion, flooding, or gas flaring must rely on common‑law tort claims or broad human‑rights arguments, which are uncertain and costly.[22] Second, there is a normative gap: the law does not clearly define climate justice as a legally protected interest, so courts lack explicit benchmarks for measuring whether the Act’s objectives have been met. As a result, judicial deference to executive policy choices often undermines the transformative potential of climate‑related legislation.
The most convincing way to close these gaps is to embed a justiciable environmental right explicitly encompassing climate protection into Nigeria’s Constitution. Such a constitutional anchor would do three things. First, it would empower courts to hear climate‑justice claims directly, reducing reliance on indirect tort or human rights routes. Second, it would oblige the legislature and executive to design climate‑policies and institutions (including the Climate Change Act’s framework) that are consistent with a clearly defined right to a healthy environment. Third, it would raise the political and social salience of climate justice, making it harder for governments to ignore or deprioritize climate‑related obligations.
In a nutshell, the Climate Change Act 2021 marks an important step toward institutionalizing climate governance in Nigeria, but it cannot, by itself, guarantee climate justice. To achieve that goal, the Act needs a constitutional anchor: a justiciable right to a healthy environment that transforms climate‑related obligations from aspirational policy commitments into enforceable legal entitlements for the most vulnerable.
Conclusion
The Climate Change Act introduces important institutional and policy tools for mainstreaming climate action in Nigeria, including the National Council on Climate Change, sectoral climate plans, and carbon‑reduction mechanisms.[23] However, this framework operates within a constitutional setting that treats environmental protection as a non‑justiciable directive principle,[24] limiting the ability of courts to enforce climate‑related obligations directly.[25] Landmark decisions such as Gbemre v. Shell[26] show that Nigerian courts can recognize environmental harm, but they also reveal the fragility of climate‑justice outcomes when remedies depend on tort or indirect human rights claims rather than clear statutory or constitutional rights.[27]
To close this gap, a concrete reform would be to amend the 1999 Constitution to embed a justiciable right to a healthy environment that explicitly encompasses climate protection.[28]
Bibliography
Table of Cases
- Gbemre v Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Ltd & Ors (2005) AHRLR 151 (NgHC)
Table of Legislation
- Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended)
- Climate Change Act 2021
- National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (Establishment) Act 2007
Table of Treaties and International Instruments
- African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (adopted 27 June 1981, entered into force 21 October 1986)
- Paris Agreement (adopted 12 December 2015, entered into force 4 November 2016)
Books
- Boyle A and Anderson M (eds), Human Rights Approaches to Environmental Protection (OUP 1996)
- Shelton D, Human Rights and the Environment (Edward Elgar 2011)
Journal Articles
- Adewale O, ‘Climate Change Governance in Nigeria: Issues and Challenges’ (2019) 11 Journal of Sustainable Development Law and Policy 45
- Ajibade I and McBean G, ‘Climate Extremes and Adaptation in Nigeria’ (2014) 5 Climate and Development 1
- Jegede AO, ‘The Justiciability of the Right to a Healthy Environment in Nigeria’ (2007) 51 Journal of African Law 199
- Okonkwo T, ‘Environmental Rights and the Nigerian Constitution: A Need for Reform’ (2018) 12 Nigerian Bar Journal 67
Reports and Policy Documents
- Federal Government of Nigeria, National Climate Change Policy for Nigeria 2021–2030
- Federal Government of Nigeria, Nigeria’s Nationally Determined Contribution (Updated NDC) 2021
- Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Sixth Assessment Report (2021)
- United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Emissions Gap Report (2022)
Other Sources
- National Council on Climate Change, Climate Change Action Plan and Strategy Documents (Nigeria)
- Federal Ministry of Environment, Nigeria Agenda 2050
[1] College of Law, Igbinedion University, Okada, Edo State, Nigeria
[2] Olufemi Oke, ‘Climate Change Governance and the Law in Nigeria’ (2022) 10(1) Nigerian Journal of
Environmental Law 45
[3] Federal Republic of Nigeria, Climate Change Act 2021
[4] Federal Republic of Nigeria, National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (Establishment) Act 2007; Environmental Impact Assessment Act Cap E12 LFN 2004
[5] Gbemre v Shell Petroleum Development Company Nigeria Ltd (2005) AHRLR 151 (NgHC); Centre for Oil Pollution Watch v Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation [2019] 5 NWLR (Pt 1666) 518 (SC); Social and Economic Rights Action Centre (SERAC) v Nigeria (2001) AHRLR 60 (ACHPR 2001)
[6] United Nations, Paris Agreement (adopted 12 December 2015, entered into force 4 November 2016); Federal Republic of Nigeria, Nationally Determined Contribution (Updated NDC) (2021)
[7] Climate Change Act 2021 (Nigeria)
[8] Paris Agreement (adopted 12 December 2015, entered into force 4 November 2016)
[9] Federal Republic of Nigeria, National Development Plan 2021–2025 (often linked with Agenda 2050 policy framework)
[10] Climate Change Act 2021, ss 1–3
[11] ibid ss 19–24
[12] ibid ss 25–32
[13] Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) s 20
[14] ibid s 6(6)(c)
[15] Abacha v Fawehinmi (2000) 6 NWLR (Pt 660) 228 (SC)
[16] African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act, Cap A9 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004
[17] Gbemre v Shell Petroleum Development Company Nigeria Ltd (2005) AHRLR 151 (NgHC)
[18] ibid
[19] Climate Change Act 2021, ss 1, 6
[20] Climate Change Act 2021
[21] Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) s 33
[22] Centre for Oil Pollution Watch v Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (2019) 5 NWLR (Pt 1666) 518 (SC)
[23] Climate Change Act 2021 (Nigeria)
[24] Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) s 20
[25] ibid s 6(6)(c)
[26] Gbemre v Shell Petroleum Development Company Nigeria Ltd (2005) AHRLR 151 (NgHC)
[27] Abacha v Fawehinmi (2000) 6 NWLR (Pt 660) 228 (SC); African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act, Cap A9 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004
[28] Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) s 20
