Reforming The Clean Development Mechanism (cdm) To Tackle The Environmental Policy Gap In The Nigeria Oil And Gas Industry

ABSTRACT

The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is a catalyst for sustainable development and a vehicle for economic development, but has largely been undergoing reforms through learning by doing pattern . The market instruments of the CDM provide the developing countries the opportunity to earn additional revenue in the form of Certified Emissions Reductions (CERs) to improve the viability of the projects. Thus, this article argues that the CDM concept and policy influence in the Nigerian oil and gas industry as a panacea to the failure of the national environmental regulations is marginal because it failed to account for sustainable development perspectives. Gas flaring in Nigeria is estimated at about 43 million tons of C02 annually, and there appear a huge gap, and to a large extent, contradictions in the sustainable development concept of a climate protection instrument of the CDM and the pace of gas flaring in the Niger Delta region. Thus, this paper focuses on longstanding and deeply rooted debates on the environment, sustainable development and reforms to translate the substantial flared associated gas in the Niger Delta rural communities to offer attractive opportunities for supporting Nigerian s development priorities through the CDM.