By Abdullah lukman
Oilwatch International, a civil society organisation (CSO), has called on the Federal Government to implement sustainable strategies to tackle the growing impacts of climate change in the Niger Delta and across Nigeria.
The group’s coordinator, Mr. Kentebe Ebiaridor, made the appeal during Oilwatch International’s Annual General Meeting held in Port Harcourt last Saturday.
Ebiaridor said decades of environmental degradation and health challenges resulting from oil exploration and production had made it urgent for the government to take decisive action.
He identified a transition to renewable energy sources as a key step towards mitigating climate change impacts in the region.
The coordinator also urged the enforcement of strict emission controls, particularly in the oil and gas sector, to curb air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.
He called for the adoption of energy-efficient technologies in buildings, industries, and transportation systems to reduce overall energy consumption.
Ebiaridor further recommended that government develop and implement climate adaptation and resilience plans to help communities cope with challenges such as sea-level rise, droughts, and floods.
He stressed the need to support vulnerable communities with climate-resilient infrastructure, climate-smart agriculture, and disaster risk reduction measures.
Expressing concern over the current environmental situation and lack of transparency in the oil and gas industry, he urged the government, multinational oil firms, and manufacturing companies to end gas flaring and utilise its by-products as industrial raw materials.
Also speaking at the event, the Coordinator of Oilwatch in Nigeria, Dr. Emem Okon, emphasised the need for climate mitigation finance to be directed toward rural women.
Okon, who also serves as the Executive Director of the Kebetkatche Women Development and Resource Centre, said women were disproportionately affected by climate change, particularly through flooding and loss of livelihoods.
She noted that women in the Niger Delta were already taking proactive measures to cope with the health and economic impacts of climate change.
Okon called on the government to provide vocational training and startup funds to empower community women and help them recover from climate-related disasters.
“We are calling for implementable strategies to promote climate justice and sustainable development in the Niger Delta,” she said.
In his remarks, the Executive Director of We the People, another CSO, Mr. Ken Henshaw, stressed the need to protect the environment through legal frameworks, which he described as key to achieving environmental justice.
Henshaw accused oil companies of abandoning their operational sites in the Niger Delta without carrying out proper environmental remediation. He alleged that some firms “disinform and manipulate public opinion to avoid accountability.”
The activist therefore called for a review of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) to remove provisions considered unfair to oil-producing communities and advocated for the creation of a global court to prosecute environmental crimes, including ecocide.
He pointed out that the push for environmental justice was not just a moral obligation but a necessary step to hold polluters accountable. END
