“THE” Stop Fossil Fuel Financing” campaign recently held in Abuja, Nigeria, sponsored by the People’s AGM, and convened by ANEEJ, was a perfect way of speaking defiantly, to the conscience of Nigerian government ( a signatory to the Paris Agreement on Climate Change),that is still hell bent on engaging in fresh drilling activities, in the Northeastern part of Nigeria, even as the Niger Delta region of the country, reeks mercilessly of chronic environmental pollution, degradation and extreme human misery, as a result of decades of oil drilling.”
A very strong “Stop Fossil Fuel Financing” message, was sent to Nigerian government, oil multi- nationals and investors, recently, in Abuja, Nigeria, when Innocent Edemhanria, the programme Manager of Africa Network for Environment and Economic Justice (ANEEJ), led a peaceful protest march to the entrance of the Abuja International Conference Centre.
By targeting the 6th Nigeria International Energy Summit, held in Abuja from the 17th to 20th of April, 2023, the Africa Network for Environment and Economic Justice, is only adding the much needed gasoline to the burning fire of one of its dearest projects.
The 6th Nigeria International Energy Summit, just like previous editions, was a platform that brought leaders, investors, buyers and entrepreneurs in the oil industry together, to brainstorm about the latest advances in the offshore sector.
The Summit was actually a large international participation that provided excellent opportunities for global sharing of technology, expertise, products and best practices in the offshore business.
Looking at the Summit critically, one would conclude that, it was a very clear way by the Muhammadu Buhari’s civilian administration telling the whole world that it does not reckon positively with the ‘Paris Agreement on Climate Change’.
What is the Paris Agreement?
The Paris Agreement sets out a global framework to avoid dangerous climate change by limiting global warming to well below 2°C and pursuing efforts to limit it to 1.5°C.lt also aims to strengthen countries’ ability to deal with the impacts of climate change and support them in their efforts.
The uniqueness of the Paris Agreement includes the following: limit temperature rise ‘well below’ 2C; first universal climate agreement; helping poorer nations; publishing greenhouse gas reduction targets, and carbon neutral by 2050.
Nigeria as a country signed the Paris Agreement in September 2016, and ratified it in March 2017; and thus committed to reducing it GHH emissions.
It is ironical indeed that a country like Nigeria, a signatory to the Paris Agreement, that has failed woefully to utilize the trillions of dollars it has made from decades of oil exploration in the Niger Delta of the country, for the positive and progressive benefits of the country, and the people specifically living in the oil producing communities, is still forging ahead with the new drilling activities in the Northeastern axis of the nation.
The Africa Network for Environment and Economic Justice, ANEEJ and the People’s AGM platform working with climate Justice in Nigeria and around the world, have been actually condemning further investments in oil and gas projects, demanding increased investment to support a fair and just transition to renewable energy in Nigeria. A statement by the ANEEJ’s Executive Director, Rev. David Ugolor, shortly before the 6th Nigeria International Energy Summit, gave a graphic insight into the event. According to the environmental rights activist”
“The 6th Nigeria International Energy Summit where about five thousand participants from 45 countries, comprising government leaders, ministers, investors, multinational oil companies and energy industries will be meeting.This is a global forum taking place from 16th to 20th April, endorsed by the highest level of the Federal Executive Council to stimulate discussions, interactions and signing of high-level deals that will reshape the energy landscape.The Africa Network for Environment and Economic Justice, ANEEJ and the people’s AGM platform are working with Climate Justice activists in Nigeria and around the world to carry out actions at the entrance of the event.The goal is to send a strong message to the Nigerian government, oil multinationals and investors condemning further investment in oil and gas projects and to demand increased investment to support a fair and just transition to renewable energy. We are committed to limiting global warming to 1.5°C in line with the Paris Climate Agreement.”
It is worrisome to note that President Muhammadu Buhari flagged off the first oil drilling project in the Northern region in November 2022, after the authorities had announced that crude oil had been discovered in commercial quantities in Bauchi and Gombe States. The out- going Nigerian President, had given unprecedented support to the project then. According to him:
“This is indeed significant considering that efforts to find commercial oil and gas outside the established Niger Delta Basin were attempted for many years without the desired outcomes, this discovery had emanated from our charge to the NNPC to re-strategize and expand its oil and gas exploration footprints to the frontier basins of Anambra, Dahomey, Sokoto, Benue through, Chad and Bida Basins. Similar activities across the other basins are currently actively ongoing.We are pleased with the current discovery of over 1 billion barrels of oil reserves and 500 billion cubic feet of gas within the Kolmani area and the huge potential for more deposits as we intensify exploration efforts.It is therefore to the credits of this administration that at a time when there is near zero appetite for investment in fossil energy with the location challenges, we are able to attract investment of over USD 3 billion to this project”.
It is really seething to see the kind of gigantic attention the present Nigerian government is giving to offshore extraction, instead of adhering to the Paris Agreement; even with the on going orchestration of indiscribeable cruelty against the host communities in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria.
It will interest readers to know too that the fossil fuels financing from the world’s 60 largest banks reached USD $4.6 trillion, in the six years since the adoption of the Paris Agreement; with $742 billion in fossil fuels financing in 2021 alone (according to Rain Forest Action Network, ( a group that protects the climate and preserves the forests).What of Royal Bank of Canada which supplanted JP Morgan Chase in 2022, as the world’s highest financier of fossil fuels companies?
The “Stop Fossil Fuel Financing” campaign recently held in Abuja, Nigeria, sponsored by the People’s AGM, and convened by ANEEJ, was a perfect way of speaking defiantly, to the conscience of Nigerian government ( a signatory to the Paris Agreement on Climate Change),that is still hell bent on engaging in fresh drilling activities, in the Northeastern part of Nigeria, even as the Niger Delta region of the country, reeks mercilessly of chronic environmental pollution, degradation and extreme human misery, as a result of decades of oil drilling.
As millions of helpless and hapless people are dying of poverty and pollution in the oil producing areas in the country, this is calling on all well meaning highly placed Nigerians, and other civil society organisations, working on oil and gas extraction, to join the Africa Network for Environment and Economic Justice ( ANEEJ), in stridently calling on the Federal Government of Nigeria cum oil multi- national organizations, not only to clean up affected areas such as the Ogoni lands, but to stop funding fossil fuels, which is a major cause of climate change, and for them to step up massive investment in renewable energy.
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