By Awyetu Asabe Hope
Stakeholders in Nigeria’s extractive sector have called for stronger enforcement, monitoring and accountability measures to address methane emissions and gas flaring in the Niger Delta, warning that the country’s gas expansion ambitions could worsen environmental and health challenges if not properly managed.
The call was made on Tuesday during a webinar
titled “Leveraging Media Storytelling to Strengthen Accountability and Enforcement on Methane Emissions,” organised as part of an advocacy campaign for Flaring Lives, a documentary highlighting the impact of gas flaring on oil-producing communities.
Speaking at the event, Tengi George-Ikoli said Nigeria faces the challenge of balancing its gas development agenda with commitments to reduce methane emissions and end routine gas flaring.
She stressed the need for stronger regulatory enforcement, credible emissions measurement systems, improved monitoring and verification mechanisms, and accelerated implementation of the Nigerian Gas Flare Commercialisation Programme.
Also speaking, Tijah Bolton-Akpan said communities in the Niger Delta have borne the environmental and health consequences of gas flaring for decades, urging journalists to intensify reporting on methane emissions and hold regulators and operators accountable.
The stakeholders maintained that reducing methane emissions should not only be measured by environmental targets but also by improvements in the wellbeing of affected communities.
