President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday signed two bills passed by the National Assembly into law. The two bills signed into law are the Climate Change Act and the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) (Amendment) Act, amending the ACMON Act No. 4, 2010. The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu made this known in a statement titled, 'President Buhari signs climate change, AMCON (Amendment) bills into law.'
According to the statement, the Climate Change Act would allow for the establishment of a National Council on Climate Change and would also mainstream climate change actions, amongst other things.
Reports suggest that the Climate Change Bill was forwarded to President Buhari for assent, two weeks prior to COP 26, which was the UN Climate Change Conference that was held in Glasgow, Scotland.
At COP26, President Buhari pledged that Nigeria would reach net-zero carbon emission by 2060.
Net-zero carbon emission is a process that aims to reduce the amount of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere by balancing greenhouse gas emissions and the removal of carbon from the atmosphere.
The AMCON (Amendment) Act "provides for the extension of the tenor of the Resolution Cost Fund and grants access to the Special Tribunal established by the Banks and other Financial Institutions Act 2020, which confers on the corporation the power to take possession, manage, foreclose or sell, transfer, assign or otherwise deal with the asset or property used as security for eligible bank assets and related matters."
This would enable the corporation to confiscate and sell the assets and properties of debtors to fulfill their financial commitments to banks.