Climate Change: Osinbajo Urges Financial Institutions Not To Stop Gas Projects Funding

The Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, has said that Nigeria will fail in its plan to transition to cleaner energy if the funding of gas projects is discouraged by world leaders.

Last year at the UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, President Muhammadu Buhari made a commitment to net zero emissions by 2060.

Osinbajo on Friday at the 2022 World Economic Forum virtual session appealed for support in the adoption of renewables for countries that wholly depend on oil.

He described the call for funding of fossil fuels including gas projects by international financial institutions as threatening oil reliant economies like Nigeria.

Last year, oil dependent Nigeria launched a decade of gas as a transition fuel.

Nigeria’s VP said, “Really, what it is, is that for many African countries, especially the gas rich African countries, one of the biggest shocks is the notion that fossil fuels including gas should be defunded, especially by international financial institutions.

“We think that gas as a transition fuel is crucial, not just for effective transition, but also for our economy. I think that we are faced with two challenges. The climate change challenge, of course economic development.”

“And so for us, gas as a transition fuel is completely without doubt the only pathway. So, this is why for us, it’s important that we are able to continue to attract gas investments and we demand that we use gas for purposes of being able to transit from some of the more hazardous fuels such as coal, some of the heavy fuel, heavy oil, and all of that.

“We think that unless we assist in ensuring that this is done, of course, we may suffer not just from climate change, not just from a deficit in our promises for climate change but more importantly in economic development.”

Royal Dutch Shell, which has struggled with oil spills, started discussions with the federal government about selling its stake in the onshore fields.

Osinbajo said, “On our part, there is a commitment to ensuring net zero emissions by 2060. But we also think that that should be matched to an equal commitment to ensure that the economies of countries like ours do not suffer on account of the transition to net zero.

“So, for us renewable energy, of course, is absolutely important. And we have several major schemes and programs around renewable energy. As a matter of fact, one of the major parts of our Economic Sustainability Plan is the connection of 5 million homes to solar power, which of course we have rolled out in the past 12 months.

“And we intend to achieve those targets, which means of course that we will require more investments especially for renewable energy. I think that the World Economic Forum and our partners can be helpful in attracting renewable energy investments in Nigeria, especially the manufacturer, for instance of solar panels and components of several of the solar equipment.

“We think that there’s a unique opportunity now with the program that we’re implementing, which is the solar connection for 5 million homes which is in the first phase.”