Africa’s 40% of global alternative energy resources enough to end fossil fuel exploration

‘Africa’s 40% of global alternative energy resources enough to end fossil fuel exploration

·         Continent least contributor to climate change but suffers most impacts

·         Why delegates should focus on responsibility, and accountability in the next COP

By Edu Abade

Rather than continue to prospect for the exploration of fossil fuels, Nigeria and African governments should leverage the abundant alternative energy resources, which are estimated at over 40 per cent of global alternative energy sources, particularly solar, hydro, wind and thermal to end fossil fuel extraction and mitigate the impacts of climate change on the continent.

This was the position of environmental activists, who attended the just concluded 27th  edition of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of the Parties (COP27), held at Sharm-el Sheikh in Egypt between November 6, 2022, and November 18, 2022.

Speaking at a media debrief session in Lagos on the outcomes of the COP27, which they said achieved below 30 per cent of progress, Executive Director, Home of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), Reverend Nnimmo Bassey, lamented that representatives of the fossil fuel industry, who are the major polluters and highest contributors to climate change challenge filled the COP27 and they succeeded.

Bassey, who expressed reservations and serious concerns about the outcomes of the COP27, maintained that there was no sense of acceptability, responsibility and accountability on the part of African delegates and that they must focus on the core areas of responsibility and accountability in the next COP.

He pointed out that there was no sense of acceptability and accountability over the loss and damage provision at the COP27, insisting that if liability would not be a basis for loss and damage for most impacted countries by climate change, then it means mere charity on the part of countries of the Global North, which constitute the major contributors to climate change.

He also noted that although African delegates managed to elicit commitments from other participating countries on loss and damage, there was still a call for concern, especially in the appropriation of the proposed $100 billion climate finance fund with regard to the countries that would get what, when and how.

Also speaking to the issues, Executive Director, of Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA), Akinbode Oluwafemi, explained that African countries had not achieved progress in their quest for payment of reparations for climate finance in spite of being at the receiving end, but most minor contributors to climate change.

“Even though the organisers of the COP27 dubbed it an African COP, it was not by any means an African COP, but participants from the continent just brought African issues to the COP.  However, we are more concerned about cutting emissions at source. We demand zero emissions and not net zero that the big polluters are canvassing. In all, Africa needs a comprehensive agenda for climate change debates.

“Our demands are focused more on the frontline communities and people suffering the most harmful effects of climate change. Sadly, while some nations of the world have started setting up mechanisms for mitigating climate change impacts, Nigeria is still fixated on fossil fuel exploration with the setting up of the Dangote Refinery and most recently, the Nigerian government’s celebration of the first oil drilling in the North,” he stated.

He specifically lamented that while some European countries have begun installing huge panels in Africa’s Sahara desert to tap the abundant solar energy resources, African countries were still paying lip service to climate change and renewable energy sources, just as they continue to swallow the baits of Europe’s gas expansion projects on the continent.

Olufemi also maintained that before leaders of the continent wake up from their inertia, Europe and its counterparts from the Global North would have conquered the alternative energy space, which he said, would see the continent defer to the developed nations for their renewable energy needs in the near future.

On his part, Director of Programmes at CAPPA, Philip Jakpor, who briefed journalists on the Global Witness Report at the COP27, noted that there were more fossil fuel lobbyists at what stakeholders described as ‘Egypt’s oppressive regime,’ during the deliberations than any COP in recent history.

“We witnessed the highest number of fossil fuel industry lobbyists at the COP27, as no fewer than 637 of them were in Egypt as against about 520  in Glasgow the previous year ostensibly to derail, distract and ensure that the real goals of cutting down on emissions were not realised. And so, we concluded that the COP is not making progress due to the overbearing influence of fossil fuel industry lobbyists, who are bent on sustaining their crude oil and gas exploration activities on the African continent,” he said.

Also in her response to the possibility of any hope in future COPs, the Policy and Research Officer at CAPPA, Zikora Ibeh, submitted that besides the unmet commitments at the COP27, there was the need for compensation to be paid to communities and the people who have been most impacted by climate change.

“From my experience at the COP27 (which is my first), it is not yet freedom for climate change justice, especially for African countries in spite of the loss and damage provision as agreed at the conference. This is because until the $100 billion climate change finance facility becomes operational, there will still be grey areas, as the language in which the loss and damage document was couched did not spell out any specific commitments from the big polluters, especially for developing countries, most of which are in Africa.

“Apart from the fact that there was no reference to the principle of common responsibility in the UNFCCC document on loss and damage, there is also no strong commitment to the possibility of phasing out fossil fuel exploration in the shortest possible time. As such, the provision for loss and damage for climate change finance is yet a complete win,” she stated.

Speaking on the need for strategic litigation among African countries to ensure accountability for climate justice and failure to achieve substantial progress in reducing global greenhouse gas emissions, Executive Director of the Environmental Rights Action, Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN), Barrister Chima Williams, maintained that the corporate capture posture of multinational oil corporations at the conference of parties in Egypt called for serious concern.

In his words: “Our reliance on the outcomes of the COPs for adaptation, mitigation and remediation is not being discussed, and so I think the loss and damage provision is, by and large, a distraction. We need to look back and begin to organise how to hold corporate fossil fuel entities accountable and so, strategic litigation at the home country or combined continental levels should be considered.

“We should look beyond the narratives that come out of the COP27, but I also think that the loss and damage provision is an ingredient we can hold on to and amplify strategic litigation. I, therefore, urged civil society organisations, frontline communities and the media to think out of the box and begin to do things differently in our quest to achieve climate justice. This is because from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil till now, we have not achieved 30 per cent of all the resolutions so far reached at the various COPs,” he said.