BY CHIKA OKEKE, Abuja
The federal government has concluded plans to join forces with the United States government in addressing the challenges instigated by climate change in the country as well as reduction of global carbon emissions.
This is even as the partnership would dovetail into raising funds to tackle climate change and the needed technology to achieve Nigeria's energy transition target.
Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva stated this when he received a delegation from US government led by the Special Presidential Envoy for Climate Change, Sen. John Kerry in Abuja yesterday.
He said that Nigeria needed funding and sound technology to attain the 2060 deadline for net-zero emissions in line with the mandate of global community, noting that the feat would only be achieved with effective partnership.
According to him, "48 countries in Africa contribute to 0.5 per cent of carbon emissions and the easier way to reduce it is for us to provide power by using gas."
“We are not denying the fact that climate change is real, we accept it and we will also like to be on the energy transition train but we have certain realities that the world must take into account."
"This is why we are doing a lot to break down our gas flares. Our gas flare commercialisation programme is at advance stage, which will take out 13 million tonnes of Carbon di oxide (Co2) from the atmosphere,” he added.
The minister stated that since the global community is moving to cleaner fuel that Nigeria envisaged that the best way to align with the ambition is to provide energy and clean cooking fuel for people by utilising gas.
Recounting some of the challenges, he added, "Our reality is that we have large number of people without access to electricity and we don’t have the fund and technology to achieve the transition. We need synergy to create funding to move at the same pace."
Responding, Kerry stated that 80 per cent of the entire global emissions emanated from 20 countries, saying that if the countries fails to address emissions, that the remaining countries would be incapacitated.
He confirmed that 48 sub Saharan African states were responsible for 0.55 per cent of all emissions.
“Mother Nature, whose life has been greatly disturbed by the act of human beings, doesn’t measure whether the emissions are from the Chinese, US or Europe."
“Fifteen million people die yearly from air pollution, which is Greenhouse Gases (GhGs). Five million people die yearly from extreme heat and that is getting worse. We look forward to bringing people together to solve this problem,” he said.
The presidential envoy stated that the challenges posed by climate crisis emanated from emissions when driving vehicles, lighting and cooking with unclean energy sourced from petroleum products.
He said that Nigeria is one of the countries that would suffer from the consequences of climate crisis, advising that Nigeria's decision on the future should have profound impact on the choices of all African countries.
Kerry lauded the federal government for stepping up to reduce gas flaring and venting, harping on the need for Nigeria to explore the possibility of exporting gas to Europe, given their high demand for the product.
He stated that he had initiated an emergency programme called the President’s emergency programme for adaptation and resilience, adding that the project would cost $12 billion to assist other countries.
Comments
Post a Comment