Members of Wellbeing Economy Africa Network (WE-Africa) rose from their meeting held in Pretoria, South Africa, November 27 to 29, 2017 with a strong call to put an end to modern day enslavement of migrants and refugees in Libya and for the prosecution of those complicit in the dehumanising acts for crimes against humanity.

WE-Africa is an action-research alliance of likeminded scholars and practitioners who share a common concern about the current socio-economic conditions in which we live and are willing to work together to promote a transition to a wellbeing-based economy for Africa. WE-Africa works to consolidate evidence for change while focusing on building a new economy and promoting alternative development policies.

WE-Africa recognises that the abominable events in Libya are a culmination of a number of factors, none of which, however, excuses the inhuman acts. Such factors include the fact that most African nations are riddled with conflicts and dependent on wasteful economic policies that do not meet the basic needs of their citizens. Some of these refugees were thus seeking an escape from poverty, war, unemployment and environmental destruction. They had already endured the hazards of passing through the hostile Sahara Desert before being held in Libya, with Europe turning a blind eye to such gross human rights violations. Their journeys into slavery began as migrants as well as economic, political and climate refugees hoping to make their ways to the Mediterranean coasts of Libya and crossing over to Europe.

WE-Africa says it recognises that facilitating the downfall of regimes through external military intervention without creating the necessary conditions for a democratic transition has created a fertile condition for serious humanitarian disasters and human rights abuses. An example, it adds, is the military intervention in Libya by NATO, which has contributed to the present situation, adding to centuries of colonialism and decades of neo-colonialism that have led to ecological mayhem and rising inequality in Africa.

Against the backdrop of the Euro-Africa summit taking place in Abidjan (Cote d’Ivoire), WE-Africa calls on the European Union to recall its complicity in what is happening in Libya and not to forget their long-standing relations with Africa, including historical, ecological and climate debts, and ease access to their territory as this would eliminate the power of illicit cartels trading in human misery.

WE-Africa regrets that, at a time when economies of African nations are said to be “growing”, the social and economic realities of citizens remain abysmal.

In a declration, WE-Africa called on the African Union and African governments to:

1. Request the United Nations Human Rights Commission to conduct a detailed investigation and bring those who are accountable for this terrible and inhuman act to justice.
2. Go beyond demanding for a probe of the subhuman treatment being meted to Africans by other Africans on our continent and take an immediate diplomatic and political actions to stop these inhuman acts.
3. To carry out investigations on why their citizens prefer to embark on the hazardous journey to Libya rather than remain in their home countries.
4. Urgently put in place pro-people measures that ensures full employment, security, access to health, education and other social needs.
5. Urgently recognise and utilise the rich human resources and gifts of Nature in the continent to derive alternatives pathways to wellbeing, including increased human development indices.
6. Question the use of indices such as Gross Domestic Product (GDP) that give false notions of growth while citizens groan under the weight of unjust and inequitable economic relations.
7. Embrace a difference approach to development inspired by the concept of “Wellbeing Economy” to build the pathway to an egalitarian future and entrenched in the spirit of Ubuntu.

“We cannot be silent. African governments cannot be silent. Time to act is now!” declared the group.

Some members of a community in Bayelsa on Wednesday, November 29, 2017 disrupted oil production at Adibawa Oil field operated by Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), shutting two oil wells.

A reliable source, who pleaded anonymity, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the protesters were from Tanbiri II, Biseni in Yenagoa who were demanding power supply from the nearby oil facility.

NAN gathered that two oil wells, Adibawa well 4 and Adibawa well 10 feeding the Adibawa flow station, were shut down by the protesters.

NAN correspondent, who visited the oil fields, reports that hundreds of residents comprising youths, women and elders blocked access road to the shut oil wells, singing solidarity songs amidst songs from local musical instruments.

Mr Oyeso Atena, the Youth President of Biseni Community, said that they were aggrieved over the inability of SPDC to link the community to a power plant located at Adibawa flow station in spite of several meetings.

“We took the step as a last resort following several talks; the oil firm had given us hope, but they later backed out by telling us that the transmission line to our community is not strong enough and cannot carry the power.

“We have several oil wells here and merely shutting two of them has put the entire Adibawa flow station out of action and that shows that without the oil wells from here, the flow station cannot fire and we are just asking that they should give us electricity from that facility.

“We are not asking for too much for a company that has operated here since 1972 and there is no history of hostage taking, no attack on oil workers and no incident of vandalism of facilities.

“Our expectation is that they reciprocate our peaceful dispositions and not take our peaceful nature for weakness, we have vowed to remain here until they respond to us” the youth leader said.

When contacted Spokesman for the Joint Task Force deployed to protect oil facilities in the Niger Delta region said that he had no information on the incident, saying he would verify the claim and respond.

Also efforts to reach Mr Joseph Obari, an SPDC spokesman, were futile as he could not be reached on his mobile phone.

By Nathan Nwakamma

It is a classic case of one ministry proposing and another disposing. A new analysis of the coal-based power sector by Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) indicates that the sector – with active help from the Ministry of Power (MoP) and the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) – is all set to avoid complying with the new emission norms that will come into effect shortly. These new norms were enacted by the Union Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) in December 2015 in view of the sector’s massive contribution to air pollution and its huge water withdrawal.

Of the total emissions from the industrial sector, the power sector alone contributes 60 per cent of the PM (particulate matter), 45 per cent of the Sox (sulphur dioxide), 30 per cent of the NOx (nitrogen oxides) and 80 per cent of the mercury emissions.

Though the industry was given two years to comply, there has been very little progress so far. The norms come into effect from December 2017, but the CEA is now recommending that plants be given another five years (which means the deadline should be extended from 2017 to 2022) to comply with the new norms. CSE, however, has recommended to the MoEF&CC and the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) not to accept the fresh timelines proposed by power ministry and the CEA.

Chandra Bhushan, Deputy Director General, CSE, said: “Another five years to meet these standards is unacceptable. Power plants have already wasted two years doing virtually nothing. It is important to push for ambitious timelines for compliance with the new norms. The environment ministry needs to come up with a tight implementable deadline and a concrete roadmap for each and every plant to ensure compliance.”

He added: “Implementing the new norms will provide significant environmental benefits — major pollutants from coal-based power plants such as SOx and NOx will be cut by 70-85 per cent.”

The MoP and CEA have consistently objected to these norms and their deadlines. They have supported the industry in its stiff opposition to these norms.

“The CEA’s own reports show that issues raised by the industry such as lack of technology suppliers, suitability of technology for Indian coal, high capital costs, and tariff impact of the pollution control technology measures can be easily managed, and are not serious impediments. It is inconceivable why the CEA and the ministry has still done very little to oversee and push implementation of the new norms,” said Priyavrat Bhati, Programme Director-Energy, CSE.

CEA’s 2022 plan – glaring weaknesses

The plan submitted by CEA to implement the standards by 2022 suffers from many shortcomings:

• There is no clarity on the pollution control technology needed by plants. Most plants have done very little to even assess their technology needs or the investment required, let alone begin the projects to install pollution control equipment. For instance, the CEA is asking all plants to install FGD (flue gas desulphurisation) to control SOx emissions. CSE’s analysis shows that it is not required for smaller and older units.
• The plan is heavily back-loaded. Most plants will do nothing for the next two-three years. They will start putting equipments only from 2020 onwards. There is a major risk that in 2020 the sector will again ask for an extension.
• The CEA plan is not backed by written commitments from power stations to install new equipment.

What CSE has proposed instead

CSE recommends that an aggressive timeline needs to be pursued, considering the gravity of the problem. It has also proposed that plants located in densely or critically polluted areas must be prioritised. According to CSE’s proposal:

• CEA’s own report suggests that about 65 per cent of the capacity meet PM standards. These plants should produce evidence of compliance by December 2017. However, if some of the plants exceed the norms by a small margin, they could do minor retrofits to meet PM norms by March 2018. The remaining one-third capacity should meet PM norms by March 2019.
• About 50 per cent of the capacity is estimated to be complying with NOx norms based on emissions data from CPCB and industry experts. The remaining can meet the norms during annual maintenance over the next two years by December 2019.
• About 50 per cent of the capacity should meet SOx norms by December 2019 and the remaining, by December 2020.

“Our analysis shows that these are achievable. But to ensure that there are no further delays, the environment ministry should back these timelineswith penalties and bank guarantees,” said Priyavrat Bhati.

“These standards can be met with less than 3 per cent annual increase in the electricity tariff for the next three years. In comparison, in the last five years, electricity tariff in India has increased by 8 per cent annually. This is a low price to pay for a significant gain in environmental and health benefits,” added Bhushan.

Energy company Royal Dutch Shell on Tuesday, November 28, 2017 announced its intention to halve its carbon footprint by 2050 and to increase its spending on clean energy to up to $2 billion a year in order to help meet the goals of the Paris Climate Change Agreement.

The central objective of the Paris agreement is to limit the global average temperature rise well below 2 degrees Celsius and to as close as possible to 1.5 degrees C in order to prevent the worst impacts of climate change, which include severe droughts, flooding and storms. For the this to happen, around 80% of the world’s existing fossil fuel reserves would need to be left in the ground.

In a letter to the Executive Secretary of UN Climate Change, Patricia Espinosa, Royal Dutch Shell’s Chief Executive Officer, Ben van Beurden, on Tuesday said: “Shell is announcing an ambition to bring down the net footprint of our energy products (expressed in grams of CO2 equivalent per Megajoule consumed) by around half by 2050. As an interim goal, we aim to reduce it by around 20% by 2035- an ambition that we believe is compatible with a 2° C roadmap. This ambition includes emissions direct from Shell operations, emissions caused by third parties who supply energy for that production and emissions caused by the use of our products by consumers, as well as activities that reduce or offset C02 emissions.”

On the same day, Shell announced to shareholders that it would increase capital allocated to clean technologies to $1 to 2 billion a year through 2020, and that the company would measure progress on cutting its net carbon footprint by annually disclosing information not only from its operations and energy use, but from the use of its energy products.

In his letter to the UN’s Patricia Espinosa, Shell CEO Ben van Beurden wrote that meeting the goal of halving its carbon footprint by 2050 would involve providing lower-carbon fuels like biofuels and hydrogen to customers, in addition to generating renewable power from solar and wind; driving demand for battery electric vehicles by growing the number of charging points and developing gas markets for power and transport.

“We also plan to pursue further operational efficiencies in our assets and will seek to develop carbon capture and storage. And increasingly we will work with nature, forests and wetlands, to help compensate for those emissions from uses where alternatives do not yet exist or will take time to scale,” he wrote.

Ben van Beurden said that these efforts require well-targeted regulation, support for technological innovation and clear long-term policy frameworks that give strong investment signals and drive different choices and behaviours across the economy.

“Shell will continue to work with governments to help shape the policy frameworks that promote the decarbonisation of all sectors of the economy without unwanted side effects. All of us recognise that the challenge of tackling climate change can only be met through a cross-generational, multi-faceted approach to which we all contribute and around which we all collaborate,” he wrote.