As Nigeria targets 2060 for full energy transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy, the federal government and multi-national oil companies have been urged to remediate the environment.
This call was made during a one-day summit of energy transition in oil rich communities organised by a non-governmental organisation, (NGO), Extractive360, and Spaces for Change.
Speaking during the summit, representative of the executive director of Spaces for Change, Chetachi Louis-Udeh said that while the federal government in 2021 committed to global agreement towards ending fossil fuels as efforts to curb climate change by launching Nigeria’s energy transition plan, it has not carried the people of the Niger Delta region along.
She noted that several decades of oil exploration in the Niger Delta region has made the people to mainly depend on oil business for survival as the exploitation has destroyed their environment and ecosystems of the area.
The executive director of Extractive360, Juliet Ukanwosu represented by the organisation’s senior research officer, Dr Mercy Makpor, told the participants that energy transition is a reality which they must be ready to embrace.
She explained that the best way for the people of oil producing areas to key into the move from fossil fuels to renewable energy is for them to learn skills that would be needed in the green economy such as solar lighting. She warned that the energy transition will cause massive loss of jobs.
Some participants who spoke thanked the NGOs for the awareness promising to take the message to their various communities.
They however called on the federal and Delta State government as well as multi-national oil firms to correct the wrongs done to the Niger Delta region which produces the golden eggs but no substantial development, before the full implementation of the energy transition plan in 2060.
Highlights of the event was the unveiling of a simplified handbook which was designed and produced by Extractive360 based on findings from the research, to help communities to easily understand the global energy transition concept.
