Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company (SNEPCo) has signed an agreement with Project Gaia Prospects Limited (PGPL) for the conduct of a pilot study on the use of Ethanol clean cookstoves, a cleaner and safer way of cooking. SNEPCo will provide 2,500 clean cookstoves and 15,000 canisters for distribution to households in Lagos while PGPL will ensure the supply of Ethanol fuel blended with methanol during the one-year study. The (M)Ethanol clean cookstoves project aims to reduce mortality associated with indoor air pollution by providing cleaner and healthier cooking alternative to kerosene, firewood and charcoal.
L-R: Director, Project Gaia International, USA, Mr. Harry Stokes; Managing Director, Project Gaia Prospects Limited, Mr. Joe Obueh; Managing Director, Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company, Mr. Bayo Ojulari; General Manager, External Relations, Shell, Mr. Igo Weli; and the General Manager, Production, Shell Nigeria, Mr. David Martin, at the signing of a partnership agreement for a pilot study on the use of (M)Ethanol clean cookstoves, at the SNEPCo office, Lagos… on Friday.
The Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves (GACC) estimates that household air pollution contributes to 70,000 premature deaths every year and affects 127 million people in Nigeria.
“We’re pleased to promote a safer cooking system in Nigeria as part of efforts to encourage access to a better source of energy,” said Bayo Ojulari, SNEPCo Managing Director, at the signing ceremony on Thursday, November 5, 2015. “There is a compelling case for action on a better and leaner cooking method. I’ll be taking a personal interest to ensure the agreement we’ve just signed delivers on all promises and opens the door to safer cooking in Nigerian households.”
Harry Stokes, the Director of Project Gaia International said: “We started this journey with Shell International in 2001 and executed the first project three years later in Brazil and Haiti with support from Shell Foundation. We then went to Ethiopia where the government has supported the use of Ethanol clean cookstoves in all refugee camps because of the inherent health benefits. We’re happy that the project is now in Nigeria with the active support of SNEPCo.” He said Project Gaia plans the fabrication and assembly of the (M)Ethanol clean cookstoves in Nigeria to ensure their availability and promote local content development in Nigeria.
Also speaking, Shell’s General Manager, Production, David Martin, who serves on the board of the GACC, said: “We eagerly look forward to the completion of the pilot study in Lagos so the benefits can quickly spread to other parts of Nigeria. This is about saving lives, stopping deforestation, and creating employment through the production of the clean fuels in-country and the planned local assembling of (M)Ethanol clean cooktsoves by Project Gaia.”
SNEPCo had earlier supported a pre-pilot health study in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, under the supervision of Prof. Christopher Olopade, a specialist in pulmonary medicine at the School of Medicine of the University of Chicago in the United States. The 150 households covered in that study said they found the Ethanol clean cookstoves better and more convenient. SNEPCo hopes to promote wider usage of the new cooking system and encourage families to switch from unclean fuels through the Lagos pilot.
SNEPCo’s role in the (M)Ethanol clean cookstoves project in Nigeria follows from Shell’s active participation in the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves. The Alliance is working with governmental stakeholders and partners to enable 17.5 million households to adopt clean cookstoves and fuels in Nigeria by 2020.
In this treatise he presented recently in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, Nnimmo Bassey of the Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF) explores the dynamics of engaging the skills, knowledge and expertise of local communities, in the light of an enabling environment
Nnimmo Bassey
Introduction: Our environment, our heritage
Our health and well-being is dependent on the health of our ecosystem. To the average Nigerian, and to Niger Deltans in particular, it is the truth when we say that the environment is our life. At the continental level, most Africans identify themselves as sons or daughters of the soil – when they speak about their lands of origin. In other words, our identity is tied to our land, tied to our soil.
Nature’s gifts, otherwise termed natural “resources” and nature’s cycles and actions, otherwise termed ecosystem services, are all gifts of nature. Our use and enjoyment of these gifts are expressions of stewardship and appreciation of the intrinsic value of nature. In other words, these benefits can be appreciated without recourse to monetary computations and payouts. The use of our soils, water, soil nutrients and organisms are gifts with deeper significance than financial filters can capture. Our duty as responsible children of the soil is ensuring integrated and sustainable management of our land, water, plants and living creatures.
Note 1: Our environment is not just where we live, it is our heritage. It offers us material, aesthetics and spiritual benefits. The challenge that we face today is that of human use and management of these gifts of nature.
Resource versus Re-Sources
The beginning point of our discussion is to interrogate our understanding of the word “resource.” Our understanding, is adequately captured in our publication, Re-Source Democracy. In it we posit that “the things we term ‘natural resources’ are the resources of Nature and not of humans. The fact that we discover them or extract them does not make these objects or things ours. At best, humans are merely borrowing from nature. Unfortunately, the process of borrowing often brings harm to nature, and her constituents, including humans.” We went further to elaborate that we should be speaking of re-source, with a hyphen as a way of reminding our self of our ties to the source. So re-source urges us to understand our close link to our source, nature.
As the title of our publication indicates, democratic relationship to nature’s re-sources opens up a vista of community ownership of those re-sources. This we believe should be the context within which ecosystem services ought to be framed and understood. Let us take a quick extract from Re-Source Democracy.
Re-source democracy hinges on the recognition that a natural ‘resource’ fundamentally belongs to Nature and secondly to communities of species and peoples who live in the territory or have traditionally held the territory where the ‘resource’ such as forests, rivers or grazing lands exists. Re-source democracy is about stewardship that recognises the right of citizens to establish rules and to act in line with traditional as well as best available knowledge to safeguard the soil, trees, crops, water and wildlife first as gifts of Nature and secondly to enjoy the gifts as necessary provisions that support their lives and livelihoods as well as those of future generations. Re-source democracy calls on us to re-source, to re-connect with Earth – our source of life – and to respect her as a living being with inherent rights, and not just a ‘resource’ to be exploited.
It hinges on pragmatic politics and wisdom that our relations with nature cannot be left to speculators and manipulators of market forces whose drive is to commodify Nature. It ensures the right (and demands a responsibility) to participate in decisions that determine our access to, and enjoyment of nature’s gifts and removes the obstacles erected by the politics of access while providing process for redress. It demands that certain places must be off limits to extractive activities especially when such re-sources are found in fragile ecosystems or in locations of high cultural, religious or social significance in order to support the higher objectives of clean and safe environments to ensure citizens’ wellbeing.
Note 2: Nature has intrinsic value and maintains its cycles. The services of nature should not be linked to financial compensations.
The Skills of Local Communities
The skills of local communities represent knowledge developed and acquired over centuries of living in, and interacting, with their environment. Their skills are thus encapsulated in the very cultural heritage that they pass down from generation to generation.
External factors and pressures make local communities appear to have lost skills with which to sustainably manage their environment. Such external pressures disrupt and impair ecosystems in various ways and to various degrees. In the Niger Delta, environmental damage occurs from various factors including oil pollution, gas flares, deforestation, dumping of toxic wastes, coastal erosion and invasion of alien species.
These disruptions are so dramatic that local communities have no time or financial resources to acquire reasonable means of adaptation. This can be said to be the case in many parts of the Niger Delta where hopes that oil extraction would bring wealth and well-being has consistently delivered irredeemable horrors.
Persistent and protracted pollution and other forms of disruptions of ecosystems can lead to a loss of memory of what constituted community well-being at a time in the past when the environment was managed by the people without external interferences. Memory loss matches loss of skills to defend and sustainably enjoy the gifts of nature.
Note 3: The enabling environment to restore and secure the skills of local communities can best be achieved by the remediation or clean-up of their environments in a way that places it in a suitable state to support local livelihoods.
Expertise of Local Communities
The expertise of local communities does not include knowledge of how much carbon is stored in the trunks of trees or in soils. Market environmentalism or the notion that nature can only be protected or managed when assigned monetary value has become widespread because its rests on the bedrock of dominant and predatory economic systems. Rather than take steps to protect ecosystems in full understanding that its services are essential for our survival and that of other living species, actions and notions of protection are often based on market mechanisms including carbon trading offering participants the opportunity to trade in air and other contrived and imaginary products.
Local expertise in this context, on critical interrogation, could amount to nothing more than whipping local communities into line, in order to preserve certain ecosystems for the ultimate benefit of persons located far away from the communities. We will explain this in the next section. But let us add here that the expertise that will be disproportionately compensated in any project anchored on carbon speculation and trade will ultimately be the experts or consultants who speak the language of the trade and can look at a forest and basically see nothing but carbon, Naira, Dollars and Euros.
This is one of the huge negatives in these processes. They are processes of exploiting local communities and Mother Earth as well.
Note 4: Carbon trading benefits speculators and carbon traders, not local communities.
Environmental Limits and Carbon Speculation
Are we saying that our ecosystems should not be protected? Are we saying that communities should not benefit from nature’s gifts in their environment? The answer to both questions is NO. What we are saying is that to tie the services of nature to monetary considerations as the sole impetus or propelling reason for protecting such services is more suspicious than some may think.
In The Rights of Nature, Maude Barlow writes in the chapter on “Nature: A Living Ecosystem From Which All Life Springs,” that, “many in power now use the term (green economy) to essentially protect the current economic system that promotes more growth, production and global trade.”
And here is where we explain what we hinted at in the last section. How does the estimation and payment for ecosystem services provide less benefits to communities? Here is how.
The world is currently faced with a number of crises, among which is that of environmental change, including climate change. The Niger Delta has become one of the most polluted places on earth due largely to the extraction of crude oil from the region. This sorry state of affairs makes the Niger Delta a rather attractive place for projects that promise to bring benefits to the local communities. However, the starting point of who benefits from market environmentalism and conservation is not the challenged environments in poor communities. The starting point is the fact that rich countries, by their consumption levels have largely exceeded environmental limits and they need to find a way to compensate for this. These mechanisms permit them to continue on unsustainable paths while believing that they are somehow taking concrete steps.
One way this overconsumption is compensated for is through what is known as carbon offsetting. What this means is that if a limit is known as to how much a company or a country is permitted to pollute the atmosphere with carbon, for instance, the company or country can come to a forest in Bayelsa State or in Cross River State and secure a sizeable piece of the forest whose trees are estimated to have as much carbon as what the company or country is releasing into the atmosphere somewhere else. It could also be that a company or country is not polluting at all, but decides to invest and own the carbon in the trees in your community. If the company or country is polluting elsewhere, and happens to have more carbon in trees in a forest in a community, it can see the excess carbon that is over and above its polluting levels as its carbon credits which the company or country can sell to another entity to enable it continue polluting without changing its production systems.
Carbon credits help the owners to make money and also gives the buyers the license to carry on polluting. This may sound strange, but it is built on the old pattern of payment for indulgence or for forgiveness of sin so that a sinner could go off with a clear conscience, perhaps sin again, come back to pay some more sin credits and go off again absolved of his or her sins to repeat the cycle.
Note 5: Carbon credits offer the rich the licence to pollute or to promote pollution.
Ecocide
The level of pollution in parts of the Niger Delta is such that one would not be wrong to wonder if they could ever be restored. The level of ecological harm can best be classed as ecocide, including irreversible disruption of the cycles of Nature. The perpetrators of these atrocities should be held fully accountable.
Some communities in Bayelsa State suffer persistent and regular oil spills. The story of the devastation of Ogoniland is well documented and authenticated. The recent report by Amnesty International and Centre for Environment, Human Rights and Development (CERHD) confirm that even places that have been certified as cleaned up are far from being so in reality. Among other things, the report showed that Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) recorded a total of 1,693 oil spills between 2007 and 2014, claiming to have spilled an obviously understated 351,000 barrels of crude oil into the Niger Delta environment. That is just one oil company. The report also confirmed that oil companies make empty claims of cleaning up their mess in the region. We are here referring to their oil spills. We are not speaking of the obnoxious gas flares and the other toxic wastes and produced water dumped in the already battered environment.
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) report indicates that it will take a whopping thirty years of dedicated work to clean the land (5 years) and water (25 years) in Ogoniland. UNEP also stated that about $1billion would be required to set up the structures and commence the clean-up processes. Four years down the road, that clean-up has not begun.
With the depth of the environmental degradation the best benefit the people of Niger Delta can receive is a clean-up of their environment to rescue them from the claws of death. With a thorough clean up, the people would enjoy good health, enjoy beautiful creeks and sea foods and carry on with productive livelihood activities.
We posit that the best value of environmental services that they people could get is the value of fully restored and healthy environment. The polluters should pay the full restoration costs and their directors should be held personally liable in addition.
Note 6: What the ecosystem benefit the people of the Niger Delta should have is those provided by restored natural environments. This will become more urgent if oil becomes an unwanted or worthless product.
A REDD Card
As the No REDD in Africa Network (NRAN) states in its upcoming book, “The worst form of slavery is to willingly offer yourself on the auction block, get bought and pretend you are free. This is what participation in the mechanism called Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) is. Coming at a time when climate action has shifted away from legally binding requirements to voluntary, “intended nationally determined contributions”, REDD provides a perfect space for polluters to keep polluting while claiming they are champions of climate action.” NRAN also states that “The REDD mechanism is already resulting in the violation of individual rights, as well as collective rights of communities and indigenous peoples. REDD offers polluting industries, carbon speculators, and governments that serve them the freedom to continue officially endorsed misbehavior.”
NRAN also characterises REDD in Africa as a new form of colonialism that threatens to trigger a continent grab. According to NRAN, REDD is a mechanism whose name sells what it cannot deliver. Everyone desires an end to deforestation and no one approves of forest degradation. The network also explains that REDD takes advantage of the critical role forests and all other ecosystems play in the ecological balance of Earth to sell the concept, while at the same time giving climate criminals the opening to enclose the commons, abridge community rights and gamble away our future through African carbon stock markets such as the African Carbon Exchange (ACX) in Kenya and the African Carbon Credit Exchange (ACCE) in Zambia. Looking up to market mechanisms such as REDD and all its variants as a solution to deforestation, poverty, hunger, climate impacts, etc, is another kite being flown to hoodwink the poor and permit the powerful to displace the poor and to literally grab the carbon in the trees and environment generally.
Note 7: REDD does not deliver on what the name suggests. It may displace deforestation but would not stop it. Even where trees stand, knowing the amount of carbon in them is a part of the game of carbon speculation.
Conclusion: Money cannot buy Life
A commentator writing about the joy that greeted oil find Ugandan gives a universal warning: We have what remains of our natural past because there was connectivity between certain cultures and the environment, with these cultures making their environments and the environments making the cultures. But now this is threatened. The preferred culture of money characterised by spiralling consumerism and, poverty production is compounding the problematic.
This short contribution has been presented to remind us all that our environment is our life and that nature cannot be placed on the market shelves. We also seek to warn ourselves that off-setting mechanisms are not new in the history of exploitation of our continent. We only need to think back to what beads and whiskies exchanged for a couple of centuries ago. Real action to halt deforestation and enthrone sound management systems, including community management of community forests should be supported and promoted without recourse to carbon speculation.
Carbon trade, ecosystem service payments are definitely attractive to polluting oil companies and other remote players in the world. But what would it benefit communities in the Niger Delta if their forests, lands and creeks are enclosed in exchange for ecosystem service payments while the communities remain mired in rampant oil spills, explosions, fires and gas flares?
The enabling environment for engaging the skills, knowledge and expertise of local Niger Delta communities will happen when the environment is cleaned up and the principles of re-source democracy, including re-source ownership and defense are guaranteed.
Reactions have trailed the recent decision by President Barack Obama of the US to deny TransCanada’s application to build the Keystone XL pipeline. Observers say that, through this singular act, Obama has made history by being the first world leader to turn down a major infrastructure project because of its impact on the climate.
US President, Barack Obama
Co-founder of 350.org, Bill McKibben, says: “President Obama is the first world leader to reject a project because of its effect on the climate. That gives him new stature as an environmental leader, and it eloquently confirms the five years and millions of hours of work that people of every kind put into this fight. We’re still awfully sad about Keystone south and are well aware that the next president could undo all this, but this is a day of celebration.”
Executive Director of 350.org, May Boeve, adds: “This is a big win. President Obama’s decision to reject Keystone XL because of its impact on the climate is nothing short of historic – and sets an important precedent that should send shockwaves through the fossil fuel industry.
“Just a few years ago, insiders and experts wrote us off and assured the world Keystone XL would be built by the end of 2011. Together, ranchers, tribal nations, and everyday people beat this project back, reminding the world that Big Oil isn’t invincible – and that organised people can win over organised money.
Bill McKibben
“But the win against Keystone XL is just the beginning, because this fight has helped inspire resistance to a thousand other projects. Everywhere you look, people are shutting down fracking wells, stopping coal export facilities, and challenging new pipelines. If Big Oil thinks that after Keystone XL the protesters are going home, they’re going to be sorely surprised. Today in Canada, dozens of people are risking arrest at Prime Minister Trudeau’s residence as part of the ‘Climate Welcome’ action to urge him to put an immediate freeze to tar sand expansion.
“More than anything, though, today’s decision affirms the power of social movements to enact political change, and a clear sign that our movement is stronger than ever. We’re looking to build on this victory, and show that if it’s wrong to build Keystone XL because of its impact on our climate, it’s wrong to build any new fossil fuel infrastructure, period. With the same broad coalition that stood up against this pipeline and took to the streets during the People’s Climate March, we’re better positioned than ever before to make real climate policy a top priority for the U.S. government and achieve meaningful progress in this year’s climate talks. Our movement simply will not rest until our economy shifts away from the dirty fossil fuels of yesterday to the clean renewables of tomorrow.”
Prince Odey Oyama, the Executive Director of Rainforest Resource and Development Centre (RRDC), an environmental NGO based in the Cross River State of Nigeria, in this piece lists concerns relating to the Super Highway project, charging President Muhammadu Buhari to urgently seek answers to pending issues
President Buhari unveiling the plaque with Governor of Cross River Prof. Ben Ayade during the Ground Breaking Ceremony of the 260km Super Highway Double Carrier Road from Calabar to Northern Nigeria on 20th Oct 2015. Photo credit: vanguardngr.com
By the act of performing the ground breaking event of Tuesday, October 30, 2015, on the invitation of the Governor of Cross River State of Nigeria, Professor Ben Ayade, the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari, has tacitly given consent to the Cross River Bakassi-Katsinna Ala 260km, six-lane dual carriage super highway project. This event that signaled the official date of commencement of the project took place at Obung Village, in Akamkpa Local government Area of Cross River State of Nigeria. The RRDC is concerned about pending issues and obvious insufficiency of vital information pertaining to the project. The pertinent issues pertaining to the project, which appears to be proceeding without adherence to relevant legislations and due process as well as compliance with regulations in environmental safety and protection, are summarised thus.
Transparency & Accountability
The cardinal programme of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and Federal Government of Nigeria is Transparency and Accountability. Now that the Governor of Cross River State has decided voluntarily to involve President Buhari in the said project, issues of transparency and accountability now demand urgent clarifications
Funding
So far the sources of funding of this huge highway project, to be fitted with digital internet connectivity, speed cameras and toilet facilities, have not been fully disclosed to the public.
We expect that such disclosures ought to be made to the Federal Government, the Cross River State House of Assembly, as well as the entire people of Cross River State. In a project like this, the issue of disclosing the sources of funding is of paramount importance. Firstly, it would be inadvisable to secure funding from sources that could amount to national security risk to the people of Nigeria. Secondly, except the sources of funding of projects are made public and placed under public scrutiny, the risk of opening the door for money laundering could arise. It is easy for people to use opportunities of very popular projects such as this to recycle stolen public funds and thereafter make the proceeds to appear as legitimate income. This must be avoided and the doctrines of transparency and anti-corruption which constitute the cardinal principles of the Federal Government must be made to apply at all times. Essentially, it should be observed that concealment or disguise of the true nature and source of funding for this super highway project would tantamount to a violation of the following laws: i) Economic and Financial Crimes Commission Act 2004, ii) Freedom of Information Act, 2011, and iii) others, Laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Nature and scope of the project
A super highway project is a “public interest” project. It should be expected that the land survey and engineering drawings as well as all the technical reports that form the foundation of this project ought to have been made public. However, this has not been the case and it makes it very curious that the blueprints of such a huge project running across the entire Cross River State of Nigeria was not made public before the commencement of construction at the ground breaking event. Significantly also, the blueprint of the said project has not been made public till this moment. This is a contravention of the Freedom of Information Act, 2011 of the National Assembly as well as other related legislations and in particular, the doctrine of transparency of the government.
Due Process
The process of awarding public contracts such as this are clearly specified in the “Cross River State Due Process and Price Intelligence Bureau for Public Procurement Law No. 15 of 30th December, 2011. Part III, Section 21 subsection (1) (c-d) of the said Law states inter alia:
21(1): Subject to any exemption allowed by this law, public procurements shall be conducted –
c) by open competitive bidding…
d) in a manner which is transparent, timely equitable for ensuring accountability and in conformity with this Law and Regulations”
Also, “The Cross River State Public Private Partnership Council Law No. 6 of 4th August, 2010,” has specified various stages of approval through which projects contained in the Mater Plan could be executed as Public Private Partnership (PPP) projects. Part II Section 9(h) of the PPP Law provides that the State Bureau of Public Private Partnership (PPP) shall “review, evaluate and recommend project proposals and feasibility studies and oversea the procurement process for PPP projects on behalf of the Public Sector.” Up till this moment, there are no publications indicating that the 260km Super Highway was ever advertised, bided and conducted by the PPP Bureau through the due process as demanded by law. Due process implies that such publications should be made in the State Government Gazette. The government advocates open and transparent people oriented governance with emphasis on greater disclosure of government contracts prior to awards and during implementation. The Governor (Senator, Prof.) Ben Ayade’s administration of Cross River State would appear to be proceeding with the Super Highway project contrary to the rule.
Land Use Act
The Land Use Act No. 6 of 1978, demands that schedules of compensation should be compiled and made public in respect of public projects that encroach on private or community lands and property. This project is traversing several thousands of hectares of private and community forests and agricultural lands as well as sundry properties. By the time of the commencement of the project (that is, the ground breaking event of Tuesday, October 30, 2015) no schedules of compensation has been made public. Up till the present moment also, schedules of compensation (including the names of beneficiaries) have not been made public. The risk is that this project could end up escalating rural poverty if the issues of compensations are neglected. This is so because the affected indigenous people and communities of Cross River State of Nigeria who own these resources could end up losing their sources of livelihoods, income and wellbeing, as well as their natural heritage and territories if the considerations for alternative farmlands and/or payments of compensations are neglected. The interest of the government is anchored on the fact that the government of Cross River State invited the President to perform the ground breaking event. Thus, it becomes necessary for the President to demand answers to compelling issues such as this.
Buffer zone of the Cross River National Park
In as much as the blueprint of the project has not been made public, the extent of the impact of the project on the buffer zone of the Cross River National Park (CRNP) (being a legally established forest zone on the periphery of the CRNP) cannot be immediately established. It has therefore become necessary for President Muhamadu Buhari to demand the submission of the blueprints of the project to the CRNP and the National Park Service for scrutiny. This is significant because it has been observed that the super highway project is now being routed to traverse through the buffer zone of the Cross River National Park and other associated areas of conservation interest. In so doing, it has been made to encroach upon lands constituting the support zone of the National Park. It is evident, therefore, that the super highway project will provoke adverse and debilitating consequences on the wildlife population of the Park thereby contravening Part VI, Section 31, subsection 1(m-o) of the National Park Service Act which states inter alia:
“31(1) A person who, unless authorized to do so under this Act or the regulations made under this Decree –
(m) carries out an undertaking connected with forestry, agriculture, grazing or excavation; or
(n) does any leveling of the ground or construction or any act tending to alter the configuration of the soil or the character of the vegetation; or
(o) does an act likely to harm or disturb the fauna and flora; …in a National Park, is guilty of an offence under this Act.”
The position of the Rainforest Resource and Development Centre on this specific matter is that, the Cross River State government of Nigeria cannot rout the super highway through the buffer zone of the National Park knowing that the “buffer zone” is a creation of law stipulated under Part VII, Section 47 of the National Park Service Act to protect the boundaries of the Park from disturbance. The routing of the super highway through the buffer zone is clearly in contravention of the provisions of the National Park Service Act CAP. N65, (Laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria). Under this law, Part IV, Section 22, sub-section C (iv-vi) stipulates that:
“(iv) any work which could alter the configuration of the soil or the character of the vegetation, or
(v) any water pollution, or
(vi) any act likely to harm or disturb the fauna flora…is prohibited.”
Importantly, it should be observed that Part VII, Section 45 of the National Park Service Act specifies that the Federal Environmental Protection Agency (now subsumed under the Federal Ministry of Environment) should undertake the production of an Environmental Impact Assessment reports for projects such as this. Therefore, any act contrary to this provision is a contravention of the law.
National Park Service Act, Cap. N65.
The National Park Service Act, CAP. N65 was previously established as Decree No. 36 of 1991 and later promulgated as Decree No 46. This law which is now an Act of National Assembly is made to protect all lands and territories constituting National Parks in Nigeria. It prohibits forest-based and construction activities that are likely to harm or disturb fauna and flora within the delineated National Park areas as well as the Buffer Zones of the Parks. Emphasis is also placed on the need for EIA reports to be produced on all projects or activities to be sited in all areas and/or buffer zones adjoining the Parks. Emphasis is equally placed on the participation of communities in such projects.
Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Law
This legislation prohibits activities carried out in sensitive areas where such are carried out in the absence of mandatory studies. The intention of the EIA law is to safeguard the population and environment with regard to any form of environmental degradation resulting from unplanned development projects. So far no Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report has been published in respect of the super highway project for public scrutiny as demanded by the Environmental Impact Assessment Degree No. 86 of December 1992, which is now an Act of National Assembly, CAP. E12. The consequences of sighting a super highway close to sensitive habitats are indeed very severe. The legal instruments that mandatorily demand a full Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Report of the sighting of Construction of Mass Rapid Transport projects in such sensitive locations are subsisting and available. Also, the creation of Federal and State Environmental Protection Agencies under Degree No. 59 of 30th December, 1992, (which is now an Act of National Assembly, CAP. F10) and the Cross River State Edit No. 4 of 29th August, 1996 (both of which are now subsumed under the Federal and State Ministries of Environment), as well as the National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA) Act No. 25 of 31st July 2007 and the National Park Service Act, CAP. N65 provides the reason and means to enforce the EIA Law. The siting of the super highway project within the forest estate and sensitive habitats of Cross River State must be made to comply with existing legislations to provide EIAs where necessary and to undergo scrutiny by the Federal and State Ministries of Environment, the National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency and the National Park Service before being given final approval to proceed. In this respect the following Federal Laws are yet to be complied with:
The Land Use Act No. 6 of 1978;
The Environmental Impact Assessment Act, CAP. E12
The Federal Environmental Protection Agency Act, CAP. F10
The Cross River State Edit No. 4 of 29th August, 1996;
National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency, Act No. 25 of 31st July 2007; and,
The National Park Service Act, CAP N65.
Conclusion
Despite the obvious inadequacies of information pertaining to the articulation of the project, Buhari was made to give consent for the construction of the project in the ground breaking event. It has therefore become necessary for the President to demand answers to the ethical issues that have been raised here above. Since the government of Cross River State decided to involve the person and office of the President in this project, it behooves the same government of Cross River State to make declarations on all these matters. It should be observed that the performance of ground breaking event makes it urgently necessary for answers to be provided to these burning issues. It is the position of the Rainforest Resource and Development Centre (RRDC) that Mr. President should kindly look into these matters and take concrete steps towards ensuring that Governor Ben Ayade of Cross River State provides the urgently needed answers to these compelling issues.
A collaboration for efficiency in water consumption, energy and chemical use in the textile industry won the prestigious 2015 Habit Fashion Award for Sustainability on Wednesday, November 5 in Stockholm, Sweden. Sustainable Water Resources (SWAR) is a joint initiative between Stockholm International Water Institute, Sida, Swedish fashion brands Indiska, KappAhl and Lindex, their Indian suppliers and sub-suppliers. SWAR was honoured by the Habit jury for its impact in increasing efficient water, energy and chemical use at factory level.
“SWAR piloted in 2013 in densely-populated north-western India where the groundwater situation is dire. Basin levels continue to drop at an alarming rate, and pollution continues to stagnate human development in the region. We are proud that SWAR was recognised by Habit for directly increasing the efficiency of water, energy and chemical use in textile production in a systematic, cost-efficient, and sustainable way.’’ Said Torgny Holmgren, Executive Director, SIWI.
SWAR factories saved 7 per cent of their total annual water use, 360 million litres. This amount equals the daily need of more than 3.5 million people. Through its parent network, Sweden Textile Water Initiative (STWI), the pilot programme has now scaled up across India and in China, Bangladesh, Turkey, and Ethiopia, expanding its impact to 120 factories supplying 20 major Swedish brands.
“Water and Energy are the most important resources for our business. Therefore our biggest driver to join SWAR was water and energy conservation. Apart from this, the cultural change in the factory, resulting from SWAR also helped us to continue our water and energy conservation activities,” Said Mr. Anuj Batra of Bee K Bee Prints, one of the factories participating in the programme.
“SWAR has enabled us to over-perform on almost all social, environmental and business metrics that we identified at the project start. In addition, it provided clear evidence and data through exact measurements of water consumption meters, project implementation sheets for each implemented projects, and testimonials provided by the factories. This kind of accurate intelligence is often very hard to secure when working across industry borders,” said Indiska, Lindex and KappAhl jointly.
The SWAR initiative puts the value of water at the heart of resource efficiency and sustainable development solutions. The approach combines achieving measurable results with building capacities and empowering people at brand headquarters, factory, and institutional levels. It is a market-driven approach that creates demand for sustainable water use in production, based on real risk mitigation, and supplies management solutions to meet that demand.
“We are honoured to be awarded this significant prize and hope that sharing our success story can inspire others to enter into similar collaborations. The cooperation between Sida, SIWI and KappAhl, Lindex and Indiska achieved substantial results in both water and chemical savings and was a winning formula within itself,” says Charlotte Petri Gornitzka, Director General of Sida.
SWAR is a capacity building and technical support programme for 42 suppliers and sub-suppliers to Swedish brands Indiska, KappAhl and Lindex in India (Delhi NCR and Rajasthan). The STWI brings together Swedish leather and textile companies in collaboration with the specific aim of reducing water, energy and chemical use in their supply chains. SIWI provides and promotes water wise solutions for sustainable development, while performing research, builds institutional capacity and provides advisory services. The Habit Fashion Awards are organised by the leading Scandinavian fashion trade journal Habit Sko & Mode. The Awards are in their ninth year and in 2015 the Sustainability Award was introduced for the first time.
Existing policies and strong engagement by nations submitting their contributions ahead of the Paris climate meeting will limit anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2030, but a new climate agreement can encourage further action to limit global temperature rise to 2°C by 2100, according to a new United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) report.
Achim Steiner, Executive Director of UNEP. Photo credit: www.spiegel.de
The Emissions Gap Report is an authoritative assessment undertaken by a team of leading scientists and modelling experts from around the world. It presents an assessment of the 119 Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) submitted the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) by 1 October 2015, covering 146 countries (including the European Union submitting as a bloc) and up to 88 per cent of global GHG emissions in 2012.
The INDCs represent GHG emission reductions of 4 to 6 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent per year (GtCO2e/yr) in 2030 compared to projected emissions under current policy trajectories. 2030 projections based on current policies are themselves 5 GtCO2e per year lower than the estimate of 65 GtCO2e, based on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Fifth Assessment Report scenarios, which assumed no additional climate policies are put in place after 2010.
This indicates that efforts to tackle climate change, including those taken before the Paris agreement and full implementation of the INDCs, could cut up to 11 GtCO2e from projected emissions in 2030. This is however around half of the total required to reach the global emission level of 42 GtCO2e in 2030 consistent with having a likely chance (>66 percent) of staying below the 2°C target in 2100.
The challenge is to bend the emissions trajectory down as soon as possible to ensure that the net zero emissions goal in 2060-2075 is within reach.
UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner said, “The current INDCs, combined with policies over the last few years, present a real increase in ambition levels and demonstrate an unprecedented commitment and engagement by member states in tackling this major global challenge.
“The INDCs assessed in this Emissions Gap report signal a breakthrough in terms of international efforts to bend the curve of future emissions. While in themselves not sufficient to limit global temperature rise to the recommended level of 2°C this century, they represent a historic step in the direction of decarbonising our economies. However, in order to close the gap it is essential that the Paris Agreement adopt a dynamic approach in which ambitions, the mobilisation of climate finance and other forms of cooperation can be adjusted upwards at regular intervals.”
If all INDCs are fully implemented, the 2030 emissions gap would still be 12 GtCO2e, putting the world on track to a temperature rise of around 3°C by 2100, and bringing significant climate impacts. However this scenario assumes that nations would not review and further accelerate efforts in subsequent years – i.e. in 2025 or 2030.The report also shows the uncertainties that exist for different scenarios based on the best available scientific evidence.
The report also recommends early action on climate to keep costs as low as possible and avoid deeper and more challenging cuts later.
With regard to the various potential scenarios for the emissions gap in 2025 and 2030, the report finds the following:
The global emission levels consistent with a chance of staying below the 2°C limit, following a least-cost pathway from 2020, 48 GtCO2e (range 46 to 50) in 2025 and 42 GtCO2e (range: 31 to 44) in 2030.
Emissions are projected to be 54 GtCO2e (range 53 to 58) in 2025 and 56 GtCO2e (range 54 to 59) in 2030, if all unconditional INDCs are implemented. This gives emission gaps of 7 GtCO2e (range 5 to 10) and 14 GtCO2e (range 12 to 17) in 2025 and 2030 respectively.
If conditional INDCs are included, the global emissions projection is 53 GtCO2e (range 52 to 56) in 2025 and 54 GtCO2e (range 52 to 57) in 2030. This would give emission gaps of 5 GtCO2e (range 4 to 8) and 12 GtCO2e (range 10 to 15) in 2025 and 2030 respectively.
If countries that have not yet submitted an INDC were to reduce their emissions at the same percentage as those that have already submitted, the gap would narrow by a further 0.5 GtCO2e in 2025 and 1 GtCO2e in 2030.
INDC process as foundation for closing the gap
The INDCs will likely have benefits beyond the estimated reductions to GHG emission levels as new climate policies and actions are being galvanised by the process, the report says. The preparation of the INDCs has incentivised the exploration of links between development and climate, and the development of new national climate polices, and may be considered as the first step in a transition towards low-carbon economies.
The Paris Agreement could build on and support these processes and provide the framework for mobilisation of the enhanced mitigation efforts required, the report says.
Further options available
Enhanced energy efficiency – with a particular emphasis on industry, buildings and transport – and expanded use of renewable energy technologies for power production will be critical. Other key sectors emphasised in the studies include forestry, agriculture and waste.
In recognition of the significant opportunity for climate change mitigation through forest-related actions, the report includes a focus on REDD+ and finds the theoretical potential of reducing forest loss and restoring forests could be 9 GtCO2e/yr in Africa, Asia and the Pacific and Latin America and the Caribbean combined. However, economic and land-use factors are likely to reduce this theoretical potential.
This reflects the fact that forest loss, which reached 7.6 million ha per year between 2010-2015 accounts for the largest portion of emissions from land use. While the full potential of REDD+ has not yet been reached, many countries are expressing their willingness to undertake large-scale forest-related mitigation.
REDD+ also has the potential to contribute to the large-scale restoration of degraded forest landscapes, which would boost food production and support adaptation to climate change.
The impact of actions by International Cooperative Initiatives – such as the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, the Compact of Mayors, and the Cement Sustainability Initiative – can also be significant, the report finds. Preliminary assessments indicate an emission reduction in the range of the range of 0.75 to 2 GtCO2e in 2020.
Today more Americans and more American Catholics are worried about global warming than six months ago and more believe it will have significant impacts on human beings, says the report from a newly conducted study.
According to the report, some of the changes in Americans’ and American Catholics’ views can be attributed to the Pope’s teachings, as 17 percent of Americans and 35 percent of Catholics say his position on global warming influenced their own views of the issue.
The report’s results draw from a unique study design of within-subject surveys of a nationally representative sample of American adults conducted in the Spring, prior to the release of the Pope’s encyclical Laudato Si’, and again in the Fall, after the Pope’s visit to the United States.
Key findings include:
Americans have become more concerned about global warming
More Americans say that global warming is happening (Americans: from 62% in March to 66% in October, +4 points; American Catholics: from 64% in March to 74% in October, +10 points).
More Americans have become worried about global warming (Americans: from 51% in March to 59% in October, +8 points; American Catholics: from 53% to 64%, +11 points).
More Americans say that the issue of global warming has become very or extremely important to them personally (Americans: from 19% to 26%, +7 points; American Catholics: from 15% to 23%, +8 points).
More Americans think global warming will harm people here and abroad
More think global warming will cause a great deal or moderate harm to people in developing countries (Americans: from 48% to 63%, +15 points; American Catholics: from 45% to 62%, +17 points).
More think global warming will harm the world’s poor (Americans: from 49% to 61%, +12 points; American Catholics: from 42% to 62%, +20 points).
More think global warming will harm future generations of people (Americans: from 60% to 70%, +10 points; American Catholics: from 63% to 74%, +11 points).
More Americans (from 48% to 57%, +9 points), and more American Catholics (from 45% to 58%, +13 points), think global warming will harm people in the United States a great deal or a moderate amount.
Aligned with Pope Francis’s message, Americans are more likely to think global warming is:
A moral issue (Americans: from 32% to 38%, +6 points; American Catholics: from 34% to 42%, +8 points).
A social fairness issue (Americans: from 21% to 29%, +8 points; American Catholics: from 21% to 25%, +4 points).
A religious issue (Americans: from 8% to 12%, +4 points; American Catholics: from 6% to 13%, +7 points).
According to the Centre, the report “includes many more fascinating results, including public views of Pope Francis, the salience of global warming as an issue, changes in key beliefs, feelings and thoughts about global warming, changes in how the issue is conceptualised by Americans, their moral responses, and their support for climate action.”
Foremost development finance institution, Bank of Industry (BoI) in a collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), recently commissioned 48KW pilot model off-grid solar home systems in two rural communities in the North-East and South West zones of the country. Olufemi Adeosun writes that the initiative will not only help to cater for the energy needs of the people in these areas, but also preserve the environment
BoI Managing Director, Mr. Rasheed Olaoluwa, at the Osun event
While inadequate supply of electricity has been identified as one of the factors responsible for collapse of industries in the country, little has been said about its impacts of on the lives of thousands of rural dwellers who are not connected to the national grid and, as such, denied access to basic amenities that make life worth living.
In order to meet their energy needs, these neglected members of the society are consigned to hewing firewood for cooking, rely on kerosine lanterns and oil lamps for illumination, as well as adopt other sources of power which are not only inimical to their healthy, but also harmful to the environment.
It is these thousands of off-grid communities that the BoI is targeting through its Solar Energy Partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Under the programme, the development finance institution is providing long-term financing for the installation of off-grid solar home systems in six communities under a pilot phase.
The decision of BoI to fund renewable energy projects, company officials say, is in line with the policy direction of the present administration. According to them, apart from being the first President that openly made concerns for climate change as part of his campaign issues, Mohammadu Buhari had during the Nigeria Alternative Power Expo (NAEE), called on investors in the power sector to shift emphasis towards environment friendly alternative sources of power generation in order to protect the ecosystem.
Apart from the already commissioned 24KW micro-grid solar electrification each in Bisanti (a remote village in Katcha Local Government Area of Niger State) and in Ife-North LGA in Osun State, the project is to be replicated in four other communities, namely: Ogbekpen, Ikpoba in Okha LGA, Edo State; Kolwa Kaltunga LGA, Gombe State; Onono, Anambra West LGA, in Anambra State; and Carwa/Cakum, Markarfi LGA, Kano State.
The over 200 rural dwellers in each of the communities captured under the project are expected to have sufficient solar electricity to power three LED light bulbs, one electric fan, one radio/TV set and a mobile phone charging system. Unlike in the grid system in which electricity bill is by fiat, the solar power system will be anchored on Pay-as-You-Go prepaid technology.
BoI Managing Director, Mr. Rasheed Olaoluwa, underlined the need to impact on the lives of thousands of people in remote villages that are not connected to the national grid, saying that this was the driving force behind the project. According to him, the rural electrification solution would not only help in reducing the rural-urban migration, it would help to preserve the lives of the people as well as the ecosystem.
He said, “Those that are worse hit by the current electricity situation in the country are the rural communities, especially the off-grid areas which have always been without electricity and have resigned their fate to the use of kerosine lanterns, oil lamps and other types of dangerous and unhealthy sources of light to be able to live their daily lives.
“Firstly the installation of off-grid solar home systems in the two communities will help develop the communities. Secondly, we can begin to see a slowdown in rural-urban migration, and possibly a reversal. It is a model we are deploying in six communities across the six geopolitical zones.
“Solar is a green energy that relies on energy from the sun. The solar panel stores energy and the one that is not used during the day is stored in a battery. It is a self-sustaining model, environmentally friendly and we are proud to be supportive of the process.”
Olaoluwa, who said the bank’s medium term vision was to install solar systems through the combination of micro-grid and stand-alone solar systems in 100,000 homes in the next five yearss, also expressed his readiness to partner with state governments and private investors with a view to replicating the project in other communities across the country.
While urging the nation to tap into the abundant renewable energy sources in the country, he emphasised: “Renewable energy such as hydro, wind and solar are growing in relevance and commercial adoption on a global scale. The critical role of renewable energy was re-emphasised at the G7 summit which held in June 2015, where the leading industrial nations agreed to decarbonise the global economy by phasing out the use of fossil fuels by the end of this century.”
An environmentalist, Dr. Patric Tolani, noted that the project would help to stem the tide of deforestation occasioned by felling of trees to generate energy. He said that preliminary studies carried out by Community Energy Africa had revealed that the project was also capable of offsetting thousands of carbons per year.
He added, “A cursory look at this community will no doubt reveal that the people depend wholly on wood and kerosine for their energy needs. In this case, they rely on trees, which they constantly cut down for domestic use, causing deforestation with its attendant consequences on the lives of the people and the environment. Having a project like this will offset carbon that goes to the environment.
“Also, against the backdrop of the community reliance on lanterns, people inhale a lot of smoke in the process and that definitely affects their health. We have calculated that, through this project, we are going to offset several thousands of carbon units a year. And I can assure that the offset, in the near future, can translate into carbon credit which I can categorically say can be fed back into the community for development.”
On ways of ensuring the sustainability of the project, Tolani, who is also the Chief Executive Officer, Charity Aid and Development Foundation for Africa, explained that, apart from the fact that GVE, the project contractor, would be available to provide a stand-on assistance in the engineering aspect, the most viable way to make it enduring was through community ownership.
His words: “This commissioning will not end the relationship, GVE would have their engineers here, like the one in Igbeke. The one in Igbeke has been running now for three without one day downturn. This project will be run by GVE Project Limited to manage the engineering aspects. The good thing about solar is that you don’t need to buy diesel, you don’t need to buy any fossil fuel. It is from the sun.
“However, it is also important we make the community part of the project so that they see it as their own. We are looking at the opportunity of issuing shares to members of the community so that they can see the asset as their own. They can have share ownership, and not just that, shared posterity. I can say to you that if we are able to work that out, when there is profit, they will get dividend,” he added.
Managing Director, GVE Project Limited, Ifeanyi Orajaka, stated that the project would help the beneficiaries to conserve money, adding that the cost of purchasing kerosine lamp, candles and generators was capable of constituting a strain on the pockets of ordinary people.
He noted, “Before now, this community used to rely on kerosine lamps, candles and generators. You and I know that, apart from being unclean and unhealthy to both human and the environment, they are generally expensive to operate. But, with this solar energy system, they are now introduced as a clean, reliable and affordable power solution.”
President Muhammadu Buhari has said that, in order to grow the sector and harness its potential for sustainable national development, his administration remains committed to sustaining key lands, housing and urban development policies. He listed these to include the Housing Policy, National Urban Development Policy, National Integrated Infrastructure Master Plan, Vision 20:2020, National Building Code, and the ongoing Medium Term Successor Plan (2016-2020).
President Muhammadu Buhari
In a keynote address he delivered last week at the 46th Annual Conference and General Meeting of the Nigerian Institute of Town Planners (NITP) held in Ilorin, Kwara State, the President stated that, to complement these efforts, government has activated the Roadmap for Nigeria’s Housing and Urban Development Sector while producing a National Land Policy to induce far-reaching reforms in land administration and management in the country.
The conference had “Making cities in Nigeria functional” as its theme.
“I am delighted to be informed that, in preparing these strategic documents, members of your esteemed Institute served creditably as the core consultants and resource persons,” said Buhari, adding that effective design, provision, maintenance and improvement of public spaces on a continuous basis in all facets of physical planning and development activities.
Buhari, who was represented by the Parmanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Lands, Housing & Urban Developmet, Mr George Ossi, added: “In addition to the human management skills, we need the technology and sustainable flow of finance to fully exploit the city’s transformative potential to spur the informal sector, infrastructure, productivity, mobility, and gainful employment for our citizens. Here, the issues of urban governance, urban transportation, planning for the socially disadvantaged, parking facilities and open spaces become critical.
“Human settlements can only facilitate the growth and development of the various aspect of our national life if it is inclusive and properly managed. In Nigeria, the emergence of cities that will serve as engine of growth and development will depend to a large extent on the collaboration and partnership between the public and the private sectors of the economy, as well as broad-based consultation, such professional town planners. It is only then that we will truly be able to achieve Goal 11 of the SDGs of ‘making our cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable’.”
Dr Femi Olomola, President of the Nigerian Institute of Town Planners (NITP)
President of the NITP, Dr Femi Olomola, solicited the cooperation of the National Assembly to ensure the success of the Landuse Planning and Analysis Report (LUPAR) project. The LUPAR document contains templates that would provide realistic, comprehensive and relevant data on all facets of physical development.
Initiated by the present administration, LUPAR’s production took off early in the year and has been completed, disclosed Dr Olomola, adding that the Institute would interface with the National Assembly, Corporate Affairs Commission (for registration of business names), Central Bank and other financial institutions (for opening of accounts to checkmate fraud), and security institutions (for security check).
“It is envisaged that LUPAR would equally generate more than 5,000 units of jobs for planners, and even others in the allied professions.”
Besides seeking the cooperation of the National Assembly to ensure the success of the LUPAR project, Dr Olomola appealed to Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki, to ensure that Urban and Regional Planning is included in the Concurrent List of the Constitution – a matter in respect of which the NITP made a submission to the National Assembly in the last dispensation.
“No meaningful economic planning/development can be achieved without good physical planning/development which is the main thrust of Urban and Regional Planning,” submitted the NITP president, even as he solicited the support of the Kwara State Government to:
Ensure the preparation of Physical Development Master Plans for major urban centres like Ilorin, Offa, Lafiagi and Omu-Aran; as well as preparation of Regional Plans for socio-economic and physical development of the state.
To see to the implementation of the URP Law in Kwara State.
Chairman, Kwara State Chapter of the NITP, Deacon Atoyebi Mike Tunde, stated that, besides producing vibrant leaders in the past, the state chapter had contributed immensely to the growth and practice of the profession.
“It is on record that the state has produced a past president in the person of late Chief C O. Aimola. It is also germane to mention that the planning instrument for the processing of titles and other documents, called Site Analysis Reports (SAR), originated from Kwara State Chapter of NITP. The instrument is in use all over the country presently. The instrumently has recently been improved upon by the national body,” declared Deacon Tunde.
Besides the induction of 237 new members by the NITP, an AGM that led to the re-election of Dr Olomola and the entire National Executive Council for a second one-year term, and the 2015 conference of the Commonwealth Association of Planners (CAP) (that had “Planning for tourism in the West African sub-region” as its theme), the week-long gathering likewise featured the main conference that entailed the presentation of five papers, and listed to include:
Urban planning and community resilience: Towards building functional cities in Nigeria (by Dr Kingsley Ogboi, David Osiyi and Gladys Chukwura);
Planning for physical and social infrastructure and services for cities in Nigeria in the context of resilient cities (by Prof Joy Ogbazi);
Planning for parking facilities and complementary services for cities in Nigeria (by Ayo Adediran);
Planning for the informal economy: The spatial dimension (by Lekwa Ezutah); and,
Planning for the socially disadvantaged (by Mohammed-Bello Yunusa).
Papers presented at the CAP conference were:
Need to plan and develop ecotourism potentials of Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria for sustainable development: Ecological inputs into regional master plans in focus (by Dr Edem Eniang);
Sustainable tourism development in the Niger Delta Region: Prospects and challenges (by Faith Ekang); and,
Prospects and challenges of revenue mobilisation from tourism by local government authorities in Africa: Lessons from the Yilo Krobo Municipal Assembly in Ghana (by Dr. Ronald Adamtey).
President Muhammadu Buhari will fail to keep his vow that, under his watch, Nigeria will become a “forceful and constructive player” in the global fight against climate change if he ignores five actionable suggestions highlighted in this article. Climate change is a global emergency with local consequences.
President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria
This article was inspired during a reception hosted by the Presidency of African Ministerial Conference on Environment (AMCEN) – Egyptian Ministry of Environment where I had a deep but honest discussion with one of the key administrators of the AMCEN secretariat who was with one of the United Nation’s environmental agencies before his appointment to serve his country. In the third week of August 2015, I had been working from the Dusit Thani Lakeview Hotel, Cairo, Egypt as part of a team of experts from Small Island Developing States (SIDS), Least Developed Countries (LDC) and Africa convened by the UN Secretary-General’s office on Climate Change to brainstorm on Climate Resilience under the proposed Anticipate, Absorb and Reshape (A2R) framework. On the sidelines of this event, the African experts had been brainstorming on how to deliver on an African Heads of State mandate to the African Ministerial Conference on Environment (AMCEN) to develop with the African Group of climate change Negotiators (AGN) a proposal for enhanced support to Africa on Adaptation, Loss and Damage, in the context of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) as the momentum peaks for the upcoming 21st meeting of the Conference of Parties (COP 21) in Paris, France this December where a legally binding global agreement on climate change is expected to be agreed.
You see, when push comes to shove, the African continent stands on a tripod of Egypt, South Africa and Nigeria as the arrow head but that is where the problem starts. Egypt and South Africa have been doing their best in responding to the climate challenge, harnessing opportunities thrown up by a changing climate and leveraging on climate diplomacy to advance the best interests of their countries. Where is Nigeria? Gone missing in action as usual but while we are so used to carefree attitude of successive governments in Nigeria on a critical issue that has local, national, regional and global ramifications like climate change, this has become a source of pain and heavy burden for other countries in Africa – with far reaching consequences for our citizens, communities, country and continent. If Nigeria walks, Africa runs and if Nigeria runs, Africa flies! This opinion paper triples as an encouragement and guide as well as a direct challenge to President Buhari and the 36 state governors to go ahead and do the needful to protect Nigeria’s economy from the ravaging impacts of climate change!
It is unpardonable for the “Giant of Africa” to stay aloof while countries such as Rwanda, Tanzania and Kenya access far more climate finance than Nigeria. This is shameful, unacceptable and does not fit our status as the biggest economy in Africa!
In his acceptance and inauguration speeches, Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari assured all foreign governments and our long suffering citizens that Nigeria will become a major influential country in the global fight against climate change. For those of us in the climate change community championing the mainstreaming of climate change into Nigeria’s infrastructural development master plans and economic growth blueprints, this statement of intent from a man who would steer the destiny, dreams and aspirations of over 170 million people in the next four years, is as reassuring, relieving and refreshing as it gets. But he needs our support and here is mine! These are the five actions President Buhari must take before the end of 2015 in order to put Nigeria in the driver’s seat and provide climate leadership for Africa and other developing countries.
Firstly, President Buhari should tap into Nigeria’s avalanche of best brains in the field of climate change by inviting Nigerians who are members of the United Nations Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to a breakfast meeting in Abuja. The IPCC is a global group of scientists and experts who provide the scientific body of evidence encapsulated in their series of periodic Assessment Reports upon which the UNFCCC has been trying to surmount the challenge of climate change. President Buhari will come out of this meeting with deeper insight and broader perspective on the best way forward after initiating an honest discussion with these Nigerians who are part of the team advising the United Nations on climate change.
Secondly, President Buhari should appoint and empower a Presidential Special Envoy on Climate Change whose main duty is to champion Nigeria’s climate diplomacy as well as lead both regional and international action to mobilise multilateral resources in pursuit of mainstreaming climate change into Nigeria’s development blueprints like MDGs and Vision 2020. Few weeks ago, I was involved in an expanded version of Climate Finance workshop with Ministry of Environment, Nigeria Infrastructural Advisory Facility (NIAF), UNDP and the Intended Nationally Determined (NAPA/NAMA) Contributions (INDCs) forum – a Paris COP21 preparatory platform for Nigeria where I made it clear that Nigeria was not accessing enough of green funds and punching far below her belt – as usual, in harnessing benefits and opportunities presented by UNFCCC backed Climate Finance.
Many countries are already realising and tapping into the manifold benefits of having a Presidential Special Envoy on Climate Change (PSECC). Indonesia is a good reference point with Dr. Rachmat Witoelar driving their international climate change diplomacy in the capacity of a Presidential Special Envoy on Climate Change. As someone who has been proactively working to encourage the local, national and global transition to low carbon economy while also encouraging public and private sector institutions and businesses to embrace environmental responsibility and climate change governance as veritable foundation to build national and corporate sustainability frameworks in Africa, I can authoritatively affirm that Nigeria has a lot to gain by empowering a “Climate Change Czar” in the person and office of the Presidential Special Envoy on Climate Change!
Thirdly, President Buhari should enable Nigeria’s institutional framework to address climate change by quickly signing into law the Nigeria Climate Change Commission (NCCC) Bill presently oscillating between the National Assembly and Presidential Villa. President Buhari should also re-tool and redirect part of the resources in the Ecological Fund Office towards meeting Nigeria’s climate change capacity building and knowledge management needs. The Ecological Fund has become another slush fund source for idle minds loafing around the corridors of power. This is unacceptable and must change! Entrenched bureaucratic interests feeding fat on the status quo are contented with the business as usual approach to responding to matters of national security like climate change ganged up against the coming into being of the NCCC. President Goodluck Jonathan had a rare opportunity to give life and meaning to the NCCC Bill but his choice of absenting his signature and allowing such an innovative enterprise to wallow in coma, sadly ever after, speaks volumes of a dearth of leadership vision. Never again!
Fourthly, President Buhari should practically demonstrate Nigeria’s new status as a “forceful and constructive player” in the global fight against climate change by personally leading Nigeria’s delegation to the 21st Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP21) after ordering an urgent review, update and public communication of Nigeria’s Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs), National Programme of Adaptation Actions (NAPAs) and Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) to ensure they are aligned with Nigeria’s extant economic development realities while adding value to existing initiatives like NEEDS, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Vision 20:20:20. This symbolic gesture of personally attending the COP 21 in Paris this December would elevate Nigeria’s status as leading African voice and force, especially providing another platform to work together to tackle climate change with the Presidents of the G-7 countries who few weeks ago hosted President Buhari in Germany.
Finally, President Buhari should launch the “Nigeria beyond Oil” marshall plan in line with the reality and necessity of weaning Nigeria’s dangerous dependence on hydrocarbon resources which has in itself proved a national security risk. Renewable energy has come to stay and will increasingly take up huge chunks of the energy mix in the years and decades ahead. Nigeria must adjust to this reality and start thinking and working out actionable plan for life without overflowing petro-dollars. Africa’s biggest economy cannot afford to miss out on the fast emerging global low carbon economy. The choice facing Nigeria is simple: adjust and align to ride the crest of this raging storm of climate change or get drowned in its fury!
By Stanley Igwebuike Ijeoma (World Council for Renewable Energy (WCRE) Country Representative for Nigeria and CEO, Schrodinger Limited, Abuja. Email: schrodinger.limited@gmail.com)
