Vice President Kashim Shettima says the decision by President Bola Tinubu to remove petrol subsidy was aimed at improving Nigeria’s climate change response by reducing fuel consumption and in return, reduce the amount of carbon emissions released into the environment.

“At the onset of this administration, President Bola Tinubu took the bold step to put an end to the petrol subsidy. Preliminary analysis conducted by the National Council on Climate Change on the co-benefits of fuel subsidy removal indicates that there has been about a 30 per cent reduction in daily fuel consumption, amounting to about 20 million litres, equivalent to an estimated daily saving of 42,800 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions,” Mr Shettima said.

Mr Shettima made this known at the one-day workshop organised by the National Council on Climate Change with the theme, “Unpacking the outcomes of the 58 sessions of the subsidiary bodies of the United Nations framework convention on climate change”.

Represented at Monday’s workshop by his deputy chief of staff, Senator Ibrahim Hassan, Mr Shettima said the decision by the President to remove fuel subsidy, which has economically impacted Nigerians, will save over 15 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions in one year.

“When projected over one year, it amounts to over 15 million tonnes of  CO2  saved, representing about 40 per cent greenhouse gas reduction from the baseline projection of 45 million metric tonnes of total GHG carbon dioxide equivalent by 2030. This places Nigeria on course to achieve our NDC targets ahead of time,” he added.