THE EMERGING TRENDS IN ENERGY USE AND LEGAL POLICIES IN NIGERIA AND SOME OTHER JURISDICTIONS

Abstract

Energy is an essential part of life. This essay examines the very most recent trends in energy use that portends towards achieving a decarbonised environment. While decarbonisation and a cheaper energy regime is a goal in the reduction of climate change, the ultimate focus of these new trends will be not just using renewable forms of energy along with their fossil counterparts, but in embracing the concepts of energy efficiency and conservation. This will mean that energy output will not only increase, but will last much longer, and save the consumptions of those forms that are in finite form. These goals are in line with some of the policy directions of the National Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Policy (NREEEP) 2015.1 It is recommended that a clear cut legal framework be fashioned out to capture all facts of this modern energy momentum. The road blocks to effective energy transition are more prevalent in countries that have abundance of fossil resources such as Nigeria. In distributing costs, the place of civil society must be considered. In Nigeria especially, those who live in the oil extractive zones such as the Niger Delta must be given prominence.