COP27: Civil Society calls on Nigeria, others to stop oil extraction in favour of renewable energy

By Yemi Olakitan

The facilitator of ‘Don’t Gas Africa,’ a civil society organization, Lorraine Chiponda, has urged Nigeria and other African nations to halt oil production and concentrate on alternative energy sources.

Chiponda revealed this to the media at the 27th Conference of Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP27).

The environmental activist said that rather than increasing oil exploration, Africa should concentrate its skills on developing reliable renewable energy infrastructure.

“We are facing a catastrophe that poses a threat to our lives: the climate crisis, which is brought on by global warming and the use of fossil fuels.

So rather than letting Africans continue to perish as a result of climate calamities, we should shut down fossil fuel pipelines.

According to Chiponda, “renewable energy is the way to go, it has gotten more affordable in terms of investment, and it will generate more clean jobs.”

She emphasised the necessity of holding the international oil companies—primarily those from Europe and the United States—responsible for the harm done to the environment in Africa.

The activist insisted that despite going green in their home nations, these oil giants continue to benefit from the exploitation of Africa.

The oil industry must change itself. They must take responsibility for the effects they have had on the climate.

They need to be held accountable and the ecosystem must be repaired, she continued, because they have wreaked havoc on it.

The necessity for affluent countries to address the problem of climate “loss and damage” in Africa was also stressed by Harjeet Singh, head of global political strategy at the Climate Action Network.

According to reports, the COP27 is being attended by more than 30, 000 delegates as well as 198 international leaders and representatives.

The start of COP27 coincides with the end of a year marked by disastrous floods, unheard-of heat waves, severe droughts, and powerful storms—all clear indicators of the growing climate emergency.

As a result of serious geopolitical tensions and conflicts, millions of people around the world are currently dealing with the effects of concomitant energy, food, water, and cost of living crises.

In this unfavourable environment, some nations have started to stall or reverse their climate policy and increased their reliance on fossil fuels.

Additionally, the lack of desire to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is a backdrop to COP27.

In order to achieve the main aim of the Paris Agreement, which is to limit temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius by the end of this century, CO2 emissions must be reduced by 45 percent from 2010 levels by 2030, according to the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

According to the UN, doing this is essential to preventing the worst effects of climate change, such as more frequent and severe heatwaves, droughts, and rainfall.