Oil & Gas Investments Won’t Make Africa Largest Contributor To Global Emission- Verheijen

The federal government has said that it is making efforts to create enabling environment for hydrocarbon investments to bridge energy poverty, adding that the continent is not a net contributor to global emission.

The Special Adviser to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Olu Verheijen said this on Tuesday during a session at the CERAweek by S&P Global.

The session was with the theme, “Policy and People: Pathways to a just transition.’

The session was chaired by Head of Market Report & Trading Solutions, S&P Global, Vera Blei.

It also featured speakers including the Chief Executive Officer of Tinker Energy Association, Scott Tinker and the DG, Centre for Science and Environment, Sunita Narain.

Nigeria and other African and Middle income countries are seeking a just energy transition amidst intense push for net zero emissions.

The Nigerian government adopted gas as its transition fuel under the theme, ‘the Decade of Gas.’

Veheijen said Africa and low income countries contribute a small fraction of global greenhouse gas emissions, typically around 3-4 per cent.

China and the United States accounts for about 30 per cent and 13 per cent of global carbon dioxide emissions.

Both countries account for about 40 per cent of global emissions.

She said, “In Nigeria, we are making sure that we create an enabling environment for investments and on climate change we consider the perception of risk to our markets and that is clear transparent policies that stands the test of time and can allow to deploy capital.

“We need to do more on integration to fill the bigger market that attracts capital.

“If you take a few African countries, you need to make sure that you are pulling more resources and integrating markets and leveraging collaboration across the continent and regional blocks.”

She said there is need for better data from Africa for better informed decisions and policies.

She said, “On the African continent, even if we grew exponentially to the level that we aspire to that allow us to power income growth to middle income level, we will still not be the one who are impacting emissions.

“More of the savings and improvements will come from the developing countries and they will need to diversify their energy sources and also invest heavily on carbon removal and reduction technologies and that is how you marry both.

“You make sure that the developing economies can use all the resources they have to power prosperity and that prosperity empowers Africa and all developing economies to adopt to climate solutions- more adopt ability solutions.”

Oil & Gas Investments Won’t Make Africa Largest Contributor To Global Emission- Verheijen is first published on The Whistler Newspaper