Evaluating Corporate Reporting Obligations under Nigeria’s 2021 Climate Change Act: Corporate Compliance Challenges and Strategic Measures (Published)
The 2015 Paris Agreement mandates member states to reduce the global temperature increase to below 2°C. In 2021, Nigeria committed to this mandate and enacted its first climate-focused statute, the 2021 Climate Change Act. The Act requires businesses to appoint Climate Change Officers and submit annual reports consistent with the National Carbon Budget Plan. The Act seeks to institutionalize climate actions and incorporate environmental sustainability into business practices. However, debates exist whether this current regulatory framework on climate change is sufficient to ensure businesses effectively comply with their reporting obligations under the Act. Therefore, this paper analyzes the Climate Change Act and existing scholarship on corporate compliance and climate accountability to determine whether there are regulatory gaps, institutional, and technical factors that may hinder reporting compliance under Nigeria’s Climate Change Act. The paper argues that corporate reporting compliance with the Act may be ineffective due to statutory ambiguity, inadequate technical capacity, limited corporate awareness, sector-specific complexities, poor corporate governance culture, and restricted access to climate incentives and finance. The study further argues for clearer statutory language, technical capacity building, robust corporate awareness, sector-specific reporting mechanisms, and incentive-based regulation to encourage effective corporate compliance that supports Nigeria’s 2060 net-zero target.The paper builds on existing literature on corporate environmental governance in developing economies. The paper further provides a conceptual analysis of the Act’s compliance framework and its implications for corporate climate governance in Nigeria. The paper’s analysis contributes to existing debates on corporate climate governance and emphasizes the need for more practicable compliance mechanisms to support Nigeria’s 2060 net-zero emissions target.
Keywords: Challenges, Nigeria’s 2021 climate change act: corporate compliance, corporate reporting obligations, strategic measures