As Nigeria commits to the National Energy Transition Plan and the quest for cleaner energy resources, civil society organisations, as well as stakeholders in the Niger Delta area, have urged the Federal Government to uphold justice by ensuring that the needs and interests of the Niger Delta communities, who have been negatively impacted by the extraction of fossil fuels, are considered.
They also urged the FG to close the affordability gap in acquiring cleaner energy technologies, such as solar power, so that people in rural communities and small-scale business owners can have unfettered access.
This was part of the resolutions taken at the end of a stakeholders workshop tagged, “Shaping an Inclusive Energy Future in the Niger Delta,” held in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State capital, which was organized by the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Foundation in conjunction with the Africa Policy Research Institute and the Health of Mother Earth Foundation.
Speaking, Mr. Amara Nwankpa, Director of Partnership Development at the Yar’Adua Foundation, said the Niger Delta could be adversely affected in the energy transition if the planners fail to put the remediation of their environmental and ecological plights into consideration and the right steps are taken.
He said the only way such fairness and justice shall be achieved is when the concerned body engages the Niger Delta communities to know their demands, regretting inadequate consultations and poor stakeholders’ input on the current Energy Transition Plan in the country, especially with the impacted communities.
His words: “It is important that in planning for an energy transition, whether it is a global or national energy transition, the needs and interests of the Niger Delta are considered because the Niger Delta is an impacted community.
“We are pushing at the federal level as a foundation. We are asking energy transition planners to come and listen to the people in the Niger Delta. We are telling them to make sure that the energy transition should be what communities care about. They should close the affordability gap so that people can enjoy the benefits of modern energy in this place that has supplied energy to most of the world in the last 60 years.”
Also, an Environmental Expert and founder of the Health of Mother Earth Foundation, Nnimmo Bassey, said in the attempt to have renewable energy, there is a need to have a renewable mindset where illegal mining of critical minerals for the energy transition is addressed and accountability mechanisms upheld.
Bassey also called on governments to support the people to have energy sources that are clean, healthier, affordable, and can be democratized, such that the private sector, such as banks, can come in to support the people.
“The solar energy installation, which is the easiest form of renewable energy, is very expensive because the government is yet to support it. We talk of petrol subsidy; why can’t the government and banks support the people to have this energy at a subsidized rate?” he queried.
Tjah Bolton-Akpan, the Executive Director of Policy Alert, said the views of marginalized groups, especially indigenous people of the Niger Delta and women, should be recognized within the national energy transition framework.
He also harped on the need to use transition finance to address the pains in the Niger Delta, even as he called on the international community, particularly developed countries, in line with their obligations under the Paris Agreement, to provide climate finance, technology transfer, or capacity building, as well as compensation for communities facing losses due to climate-related events.
“The issue of energy transition is a matter of justice. How can we use transition finance to address the pains and issues in the Niger Delta? How about the inclusion of these voices from the communities? We have an energy transition plan in the country, but that plan negated the voices and inputs of the people,” Akpan added.