Nigeria’s 2060 Carbon Neutrality Plan, milestone to evade Responsibility – HOMEF Insists
Photo: Executive Director of HOMEF, Nnimmo Bassey.
…Calls for Healing of Oil Communities
By Ekemini Simon
Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF) has described Nigeria’s plan to achieve net-zero emissions by 2060 as mere milestones designed to evade responsibility and immediate climate actions.
Nigeria in 2021 at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 26) had committed to move from conventional fossil fuels to renewable energy sources.
However, at the 2-Day School of Ecology organised by Health of Mother Earth Foundation in Uyo, the organisation said the Nigeria’s Energy Transition Plan of 2060 and the global energy transition plan of 2050 are not really targets that will bring about reasonable solutions to climate change, rather they are strategies for politicians to buy time.
Speaking at the sidelines of the event to journalists, the Executive Director of HOMEF, Nnimmo Bassey said Nigeria to wait for 2060 is simply an attempt to postpone the evil day.
He noted ” You can’t buy time on climate change. There is a climate emergency already and action is needed now.
When youths see these political leaders, they should ask them: how old will you be in 2050 or 2060? When they tell you the age, you tell them whether they care about your own future.
“The 2060 project is a no-brainer. I don’t subscribe to it at all. We need action now. And the action is to stop depending on fossil fuel.”
Bassey who holds a national honour of Member of Order of Federal Republic for Environmental Activism said if an argument on who should shut down the oil well first arise, he will recommend the industrialised countries like the United States, among countries in the European Union, Australia and Japan who he described as the big polluters to immediately leave oil in the ground.
He said countries like Nigeria among other struggling countries may be allowed another 10 years before complete transition.
The Executive Director explained that the reason for his call stems from the fact that science has shown that the world continues to extract and burn all known reserves of fossil fuel, the Paris agreement targets on climate change will be exceeded implying that the present climate conditions and the future will further be jeopardized.
Earlier, in the welcome remarks by Mfoniso Chris, the Lead Ikike Desk, the learning organ of HOMEF said owing to the heightened impact of fossil fuel pollution across the Niger Delta, it was time for all hands to be on deck for the healing of these communities.
Photo: Participants at the School of Ecology.
She said the 2024 theme of the School of Ecology ” Weaning from Fossil Addiction and Healing Territories” is structured to broaden impacted communities’ understanding of the root causes of climate change, promote means of holding polluters accountable, popularise the rights of Mother Earth using cultural tools to enhance individual/collective wellbeing and wellness.
Chris said the school is also designed to examine depression, irritability, and other manifestations of trauma traceable to ecological despoliation and climate change with the hope to use culture to help pave way for the healing of the polluted communities and its people.