Opportunities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from households in Nigeria

Efforts to mitigate climate threats should not exclude the household as the household is a major driver of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions through its consumption patterns. This paper derives an emission index that could be used to estimate inventories of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from kerosene combustion for lighting in Nigeria and also looks at the implications of solar pv lighting replacing kerosene lamp in Nigeria. Findings indicate that (1) average CO2 emissions from kerosene combustion for lighting in Nigeria is about 0.06 kg per hour per lamp, which can be taken as the kerosene lamp CO2 emission index for Nigeria. (2) about 3 x 10W(p) solar pv will be required to replace a kerosene lamp, while about 0.124 tonnes of CO2 will be avoided per lamp per year, operating at 6 h daily. At the national level, under the kerosene lamp replacement projection assumptions made, between 0.4 and 1.0 million tonnes of CO2 will be avoided per year. The household investment required to owe a solar pv, including the capital cost of switching from kerosene lamp, is about US$ 356, while the national capital investment outlay is between 1,138.265 and US$ 2,848 million. (3) Certified Emission Reduction (CER) units, assuming CO2 is traded, will generate significant annual revenues on the order of 6.96 to almost US$ 17.4 million per year, while earnings from unspent household kerosene fuel could amount to between 2,520 and US$ 6,300 million over the life span of the solar pv. The micro-economic assessment carried out indicates the non-attractiveness of solar pv use at the household level, and (4) to promote solar pv use, both long and short term policy measures that aim at cost reduction were suggested. The paper concludes that, factoring the suggested measures into the climate, energy, and financial policy decision discourse in Nigeria could empower the households to play a significant role in achieving global CO2 emission reduction, but at the local level.