Nigeria should cut its carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by ending gas flaring, developing a coherent transportation policy that incorporates gas and increased public transportation, reduce the use of generators and invest more in renewable energy.
A 2014 European Commission data stated that Nigeria contributed 94,000 metric tonnes of global 35.6 million metric tonnes in CO2 2014, it needs to cut it by half in keeping with the terms of the Paris Agreement President Muhammadu Buhari signed on September 22 in New York and get enhanced funding for climate change impacts.
Off all the greenhouse gases (gases that trap heat in the atmosphere) including methane, nitrous oxide and fluorinated gases, CO2 contributes the largest in polluting the earth.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) latest monthly operations report showed that oil and gas companies flared 244.72billion standard cubic feet (scf) of gas between August and July 2015 indicating a year 2020 Federal Government deadline for abolishing the practice seem unrealistic.
“Gas flaring remains a major travesty against human and environmental rights, besides being wasteful economically,” said Nnimmo Bassey, founder of Health of Mother Earth Foundation.
Absence of a well articulated road policy, see over 14million cars ply Nigerian roads daily according to a 2015 PwC study. 74 per cent of these are used cars imported into the country, many have passed their shelf life and all run on fossil fuels. Public transportation is also largely unregulated and Nigeria has no plan to incorporate gas in its road transport policy.
“90 percent of our energy source comes from burning carbon fuel,” Desmond Majekodunmi, chairman of Lagos State Urban Forest and Animal Shelter Initiative (LUFASI) told BusinessDay.
“Most of electric generating systems are wired to run on gas turbines, a huge proportion of our generators are running on diesel and petrol, we need to cut back on our using carbon fuels why it is a wonderful initiative but I doubt we can meet it,” he said.
Data from Genset Import/Export trade from the United Nations Statistics division show Nigerians spent N10billion importing 75-375 KVA diesel generating sets in 2015 and spend an estimated N3.5trillion fuelling them. Nigeria is yet to mainstream renewable energy adoption.
“The cost of generator proliferation is an exceptionally high level of CO2 emissions,” explains Todd Moss energy researcher at Center for Global Development. He said it is even worse than coal.
“While a coal power plant, usually considered the worst energy option for the environment, might produce 1,000 gCO2/kWh, an individually-owned 5kW diesel generator emits twice as much,” said Moss.
195 countries that signed the Paris agreement committed to six critical actions to reduce climate change impact – reduce emissions, be transparent and track progress and strengthen society’s ability to deal with climate change.
They also agreed to curb losses and damage by improving response and preparedness to environmental emergencies, scale up actions by non-state and private sector initiatives and support climate change reduction efforts.
The Paris Agreement is the first-ever universal legally binding global climate deal. So far 55 countries with 55 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions have ratified the agreement including Nigeria.
It sets out a global action plan to put the world on track to avoid dangerous climate change by limiting global warming to well below 2°C, pre-industrial level. It came into force November 4.
However, experts worry about the countries’ ability to meet the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) which they voluntarily make in support of the programme. Nigeria said it would execute 20% of the NDCs unconditionally and about 45% on condition that she has technological and financial support from the global community.
“My concern is that the NDCs are not obligatory or legally binding, I think that is the sad thing about the Paris Agreement,” said Bassey.
