Gas flaring: CSOs raise concern over poor enforcement of Methane emission laws in Nigeria

Civil Society Organisations in Nigeria, Policy Alert and BudgIT Foundation have raised concern over the gap in the enforcement of methane emission regulations and laws in the country.

They said the situation had worsened following the media’s inability to give maximum attention to the area through rigorous and sustained reportage.

During a Webinar themed: “Media, Accountability and Methane Emissions Enforcement” convened by the organisations on Tuesday, the CSO’s noted that accountability and proper enforcement of emission laws will strengthen environmental governance in the country.

Edidiong Dickson, the Lead Energy Extractive Desk at Policy Alert, decried the poor accountability of relevant actors of methane emission, which according to him have impacted negatively on the lives and livelihoods of host communities even as he noted that journalists are the only ones who can project the concerns of the people and ensure enforcement of extant laws.

He said, “For too long, gas flaring has been treated as a routine cost of doing business, when in reality it is a routine cost imposed on the health, air, and livelihoods of host communities.

“Weak enforcement of the laws we already have means these communities keep paying a price that operators have long stopped accounting for. That is why the media’s role matters so much here, journalists are often the first and only line of accountability standing between a flare stack and the community beneath it.”

In his remarks, Enebi Opaoluwa of BudgIT Foundation, regretted that enforcement of Methane emission accountability has not been effective in Nigeria because of under reporting arguing that “when reporting is rigorous and sustained, it turns technical compliance failures into public conversations, and public conversations are what move regulators to act.”

His words, “At BudgIT, we’ve long argued that accountability starts with visibility, you cannot enforce what you cannot see, and you cannot see what isn’t reported. Methane emissions enforcement in Nigeria suffers from exactly this gap: the data exists, the regulations exist, but the follow-through does not. Journalists sit at the centre of closing that gap.”

Meanwhile, participants at the engagement acknowledged that methane emissions, particularly from routine gas flaring, continue to pose significant environmental, public health and climate risks. They stressed the need for sustained, evidence-based journalism to improve public awareness, scrutinise regulatory compliance, amplify the experiences of affected communities, and support enforcement efforts by relevant authorities.