Climate action: Nigeria, APPO want petroleum decarbonization
Sopuruchi Onwuka
Global funding for cleaner energy should be used in developing technology for decarbonization of available, affordable and abundantly accessible energy forms instead of driving demand migration to newer, costlier and scarce greener options.
The Oracle Today reports that the African Petroleum Producers Organization (APPO) which represents the position of developing African countries on climate action is vehemently opposed to energy transition as the main solution climate change.
Nigeria which leads Africa’s petroleum industry is also inclined towards just energy transition which prioritizes energy security for speedy economic development of rising African population.
Both the Secretary General of APPO, Dr Omar Farouk Ibrahim, and the Nigerian Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, thus demand that climate action should refocus from energy transition to energy decarbonization.
Lokpobiri who spoke at the last Africa Energy Week (AEW) in Cape Town, South Africa, and also at the Practical Nigerian Content (PNC) Forum in Yenegoa, Bayelsa State, demanded cmilate activists to modify their demands to a new mantra that would capture the urgent energy need of developing countries.
In pointing at the acute energy deficits in Africa and other developing countries of the world, Senator Lokpobiri reminded conference delegates of the need for nations to deploy available energy in pursuit of their peculiar goals for economic development and civilization.
He noted that petroleum remains critical in the global energy mix, arguing that the prevailing pressure for demand migration from fossil energy would inadvertently create global energy crisis and stall development in poor countries. He said energy transition shoumd be a function of market forces.
He described the funds mapped by developed economies for developing nations under the United Nations Convention on Climate Change (UNCCC) as peanuts and grossly inadequate to plug energy gaps that would result from potential ban on fossil fuel.
In stead, he proposed, advanced Western nations should divert the proposed $100 billion climate palliative to decarbonization of petroleum industry.
He made it clear that Africa is majorly the victim of climate change inflicted on the earth by decades of discovery and exploitation of fossil energy by the developed West, stressing that energy poverty places Africa in no position for imminent demand transition.
Senator Lokpobiri stated that whereas Africa is not resisting energy transition, people of the continent must be allowed to use petroleum resources and associated income to drive both economic development and energy transition. According to him, Africa should be given special status at the Conference of Parties (COP) of the UNCCC to allow it raise capacity for energy transition.
Energy transition is geopolitics, he pointed out, adding that the nascent Trump administration of the United States government would likely push back transition in the country.
In a separate chat with The Oracle Today, Dr Farouk Ibrahim said African Commission, APPO, Presidents, ministers, and players all agree that the continent needs petroleum to power development. He stressed that energy transition must not be foisted on any country, warning that forces of demand and supply should be allowed to have its way.
Dr Ibrahim declared that no economic or market data supports demand transition from petroleum energy, noting that the European Commission now classifies natural gas as clean energy.
He stressed the need for all interests in the COP and UNCCC to pursue common targets in the prevailing climate action.
In justifying the need for African countries to assume responsibility for petroleum industry funding, Dr Farouk declared that Western nations are currently diverting development aids to climate financing. He told delegates at the PNC conference in Yenegoa, Bayelsa State, that Africa needs more funds for development than the developed nations need for climate action, .
He stressed that technology should be focused on making available energy clean by taking out harmful emissions, supporting the assertion that the world could still achieve cleaner energy without anihilating the petroleum industry.
There is no basis to believe that suppressing petroleum is the only climate action, he pointed out, arguing that emphasis should fall on energy efficiency.
The APPO CEO noted that focusing on technologies for energy efficiency would help in decarbonization of petroleum fuel.
In stressing that unfair emphasis is placed on African petroleum industry by climate financiers, Dr Farouk declared that Africa has decided to take it’s future in it’s hands.
The decision, he said, forms the basis for establishment of the African Energy Bank which is scheduled to take off in Abuja this year.
