ICEED

Nigeria stakeholder consultation and country action platform workshop: moving toward a common vision of sector and Nigeria market needs

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 08:59 +0100

The Nigerian Alliance for Clean Cookstoves is a public-private partnership that seeks to introduce 10 million clean cookstoves to Nigerian homes and institutions by 2020. It supports the reform of clean cooking energy policies at federal and state levels, promotes innovative financial solutions, quality assurance and access to clean cooking energy information in Nigeria. Nigerian Alliance partners include four federal government agencies, donors, financial institutions, the private sector and NGOs.

The Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves is an innovative public-private partnership comprised of more than 650 partners working together to save lives, improve livelihoods, empower women, and protect the environment by creating a thriving global market for clean cooking solutions. The Global Alliance’s partners include national governments, the private sector, UN agencies, foundations, non-governmental organizations, and academic institutions. With the ambitious goal of enabling 100 million households to adopt clean cooking solutions by 2020, the Global Alliance is working to identify and implement solutions to overcome the many market barriers that currently impede the production, deployment, and use of clean cookstoves and fuels at scale.

The Abuja stakeholder consultation and country action platform workshop, is an important step in a broader process currently undertaken by the Global Alliance Secretariat to convene partners and other key stakeholders in order to:

• Share the Global Alliance’s strategic business plan and important updates with partners and other key stakeholders; • Provide an overview of current Nigerian efforts to expand access to clean cooking energy; • Discuss the Nigerian Country Action Platform and solicit feedback; • Identify national initiatives and priorities that improved cookstoves could be incorporated into as a means for achieving national goals; • Understand the potential unique role the Global Alliance can play as a coordinated, cohesive global network of partners working under the same strategic vision; and • Network with other players in the cookstoves sector and related sectors.

Additional information, including an invitation, meeting program, and information about the event location will follow in the coming weeks.

April 30, 2013 Transcorp Hilton Abuja, Nigeria

Contacts:

Ewah Eleri, Nigerian Alliance for Clean Cookstoves (ewah@iceednigeria.org)

Corinne Hart, Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves (chart@cleancookstoves.org)

Firewood smoke is third largest killer of women, children in Nigeria- WHO

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 11:50 +0100

Smoke emanating from firewood used for cooking is the third greatest killer of women and children in Nigeria, statistics from the World Health Organisation, WHO, has revealed.

The organization said that 93, 300 deaths occur in Nigeria as a result of smoke from traditional biomass stoves. “After malaria and HIV/AIDS, smoke is the biggest killer of mostly women and children.

“In addition to this health problem, traditional biomass stoves burn 90 per cent more wood than is necessary. This has cost poor families and institutions money that could be put to better use on education, health, and nutrition,” the global health body said.

Also, an estimated 72 per cent of Nigeria’s population depend solely on firewood for cooking, a non-governmental organisation, the International Centre for Energy and Environmental Development, ICEED, also said.

The Executive Director of the Centre, Ewah Eleri, said this in an interview in Abuja on Tuesday. Mr. Eleri said that access to sustainable modern, affordable and reliable energy services was a fundamental prerequisite for poverty reduction and sustainable human development. He said that energy services had impacted on all aspects of people’s lives and livelihoods, adding that the lack of access to it constrained people to a life of poverty.

The director also noted that 20 per cent of the global population lacked access to electricity while 40 per cent relied on traditional use of biomass for cooking.

“The UN estimates that if nothing is done by 2030, 900 million people would not have access to electricity, and three billion will still cook with traditional fuels.

“Thirty million people would have died due to smoke-related diseases; just many hundreds of millions will be confined to poverty due to the lack of access to energy.

“Countries like China have connected 500 million people to electricity in rural areas since 1990, while Vietnam has increased coverage from five per cent to 98 per cent in 35 years.”

Mr. Eleri also observed that Cambodia, Mali and Madagascar had made significant progress by providing support to the private sector from their rural electrification funds.

He said more Nigerians are, however, reverting to other energy forms. “Contrary to the expectations of the National Energy Policy of 2003, deepening poverty has forced a reversal in the transition to modern and efficient energy forms.

“Today, more Nigerians are climbing down the energy ladder, moving from electricity, gas and kerosene to fuel-wood and other traditional biomass energy forms.”

Mr. Eleri noted that women and children in rural areas had spent several hours fetching firewood, adding that such time could have been spent in activities that could empower them.

“Moreover, millions of open fires in Nigerian homes contribute to the build-up of greenhouse gases that cause climate change,” he said. He said that pro-poor energy access, a project aimed at expanding electricity access to rural areas, was another method of changing the situation.

“It has the quantity and quality of energy services that are accessible, affordable and sustainable, and it also empowers both men and women, especially the poor,” he said.

The director, however, said the project would focus on measures to scale up low carbon electricity services and cooking energy. (NAN)

72% Nigerians depend solely on fuel wood for cooking. BY BONAVENTURE MELAH

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 11:47 +0100

An estimated 72 per cent of Nigeria’s population depend solely on firewood for cooking, says the International Centre for Energy and Environmental Development (ICEED), an NGO.

The Executive Director of the centre, Mr Ewah Eleri, said this in Abuja on Tuesday. Eleri said that access to sustainable modern, affordable and reliable energy services was a fundamental prerequisite for poverty reduction and sustainable human development.

He said that energy services had impacted on all aspects of people’s lives and livelihoods, adding that the lack of access to it constrained people to a life of poverty, noting that 20 per cent of the global population lacked access to electricity while 40 per cent relied on traditional use of biomass for cooking.

``The UN estimates that if nothing is done by 2030, 900 million people would not have access to electricity, and three billion will still cook with traditional fuels.

`Thirty million people would have died due to smoke-related diseases just many hundreds of millions will be confined to poverty due to the lack of access to energy.

``Countries like China have connected 500 million people to electricity in rural areas since 1990, while Vietnam has increased coverage from five per cent to 98 per cent in 35 years,’’ the body.

Combating Desertification Through Clean Cooking Stoves. BY EVELYN OKORUWA

Mon, 11 Mar 2013 11:21 +0100

Lack of adequate cooking energy in Nigeria especially in the rural areas saw the locals seeking for alternative source of energy, resulting in the felling of trees. Apparently, felling of our trees has resulted in desertification apart from that smoke from these burn woods which is said to be harmful to our health and the ecosystem. Evelyn Okoruwa looks at this issue.

The rate of desertification in Nigeria especially in the north is quite alarming. While the desert is moving towards us at the rate of 600 metres per annum, we are losing our forest through felling of trees at the rate of three per cent annually.

In addition to that the rate at which households depend on wood and charcoal for fuel is also quite high. Experts have stated that if the trend continues we will be in serious problem as a country. They noted that Nigeria who is a major exporter of cooking energy consumes only 150,000 tonnes out of 3 million tonnes it produces.

If we continue to consume less of this product families and small businesses will continue to depend on wood for fuel and thus the business of selling firewood will continue to be a thriving one. But on the long run it will have adverse effect on our environment. Experts had warned.

Even though wood is used as raw materials by many industrial companies and for cooking by some families and small businesses, the negative impact of having our tress felled cannot be over-emphasised. According to Mr Shehu Ali an environmentalist, “Deforestation leads to the depletion of nutrients in the soil, over time the soil will lose its fertility.

Also, the removal of trees adds to the high levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, as trees are needed to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas and when there is too much of it, global warming results,” he explained, while stressing that the over reliance on wood as cooking fuel should be minimal.

Statistics haves shown that 90 per cent of trees felled are used for cooking. While cutting of trees results in desertification, cooking with fire wood has been said to kill according to a World Health Organisation report.

Environmental experts have also stated that though Nigeria experience abundance of energy resources there is still widespread energy poverty. Only about 40 per cent of the population has access to the country’s electricity grid. About 72 per cent of the population depends on traditional fuel wood for cooking.

Despite this, government financing for energy services that benefit the majority of Nigeria’s population has been grossly inadequate. The growing energy poverty in Nigeria is strongly linked to the broader increase in the population of the poor in the country. Even though Nigeria has embarked on an ambitious power sector reform, ensuring that electricity reaches the poorest of the poor has over the years taken a back seat.

Not only is investment in rural electrification in decline, Experts have said Nigeria has no history of providing annual budget for cooking energy programmes and strongly advised that Nigeria learn from South Africa. According to Executive Director of the International Center for Energy Environment and Development (ICEED), Mr Ewah Eleri “Even though South Africa had over 40,000 megawatts installed by 1994, only 34 per cent of the population had access to the grid.

It took a bold and ambitious programme to expand power to more than 80 per cent South Africans within a decade. If Nigeria’s power sector reforms fail to integrate rural electrification expansion of access will be elusive”.

He warned that if this trend continued, by the year 2030 instead of the 15. 3 million Nigerians who live without connection to the grid, the figure will almost double to 28 million households who will live without access to electricity and 189 million Nigerians will be dependent on cooking with wood.

Mr Eleri then said for the program to be successful there ought to be a number of action plans for expanding access to energy service that will benefit the poor. He called on the federal government to launch an ambitious national rural and electrification programme and establish a national cooking energy programme.

In the ICEED report which was done in collaborating with Christian Aid, it also urged the central bank of Nigeria to set aside 10 per cent of the existing power intervention fund for the pro-poor energy financing and for the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), to establish a clear framework for the utilisation of the consumer assistance fund.

It also recommended the use of a proportion of the ecological fund to finance cooking energy, establishment of a donor’s platform on pro-poor energy and the mobilisation of civil society in providing community level service. However, before these action plans are met, he opined that there was the need to provide cleaner cooking energy to prevent the women and children from dying as a result of cooking with wood.

Explaining more on the number of deaths caused by cooking with wood, Mr Eleri stated that though cooking is not supposed to kill, it is killing women and children as the World Health Organisation brought out a report that shows 95,300 Nigerian women die from smoke from the traditional biomass stove. So, after HIV/AIDs, cooking with stove is the next killer of women and children, he said

Eleri sternly warned that if nothing is done about cooking energy, women and children will continue to languish and the problem of deforestation would definitely not be solved with the high usage of firewood since statistics had already shown that most of the trees felled are used for domestic purposes especially in the North. He opined that it was better not to use wood at all since we have natural gas which is far cleaner and safer than wood in many ways.

He, however, admitted that natural gas wasn’t so available and when available the cost is prohibitive especially for those staying in the rural areas. He noted that in that case, energy efficiency would be the second option. According to him since gas supply do not get to every locality, when they come the prices are prohibitive, lack of information also tells some people that it is dangerous and can blow up their houses, so most families and small businesses remain stuck with wood,

For those who are stuck with the wood, Mr Eleri advised that they have to use such wood and charcoal efficiently by using the clean cooking stove even as he said that the Nigerian alliance that was founded last year has already set a goal of 10 million cook stoves by 2020. He said many have criticised them that the goal was not ambitious enough.

He, however, insisted that if the goal is able to be met by 2020, then the number of Nigerian households who depend on firewood would have been reduced by half. “So if we manage to achieve that in partnership with key stakeholders in the private sector, I bet we would have made a serious impact,” he added.

The country director SIFE Nigeria, Mrs. Adesuwa Ifedi, explaining more on desertification noted that the northern states are more prone to desertification as 90 per cent of the trees cut are used for cooking. In order words, the major cause of desertification in the north is the domestic uses of wood.

In addressing these issues, she revealed that SIFE Nigeria launched the ever green project which is intended to address the issue of desertification in the north through planting of trees and also through the introduction of the save80 stove. She explained that the save80 stove will help minimise the use of firewood by 80 per cent. SIFE Nigeria also introduced the use of briquette. She explained that briquette is made from agro waste and it is intended to eliminate the use of firewood completely.

She said, “We are working to make a better life for everybody. It will impact the woman, the youths and the communities and bring additional opportunities for them. It also impacts the country because through the planting of the trees, we will create a greener Nigeria which is a better Nigeria for everybody.

“The idea of the save80 stove is that right now, whether they embrace briquettes or not, the communities can start to reduce the amount of firewood they use in order to address desertification. Briquettes is an alternative for firewood using micro waste and that will completely eliminate the use of fire wood.”

Apart from introducing these stoves to the communities, there is also am empowerment process put in place by SIFE Nigeria since the best way to sustain the environmental friendly campaign is to add economic empowerment to it. SIFE Nigeria country director revealed that people are also being trained on how to make briquette so as to generate revenue for themselves. They will in turn train other people on how to make briquettes.

According to her, “The community where the impact wants to be made is selected. SIFE then designs empowerment project targeting 200 disadvantaged people in the economy who will be empowered with skills to create wealth. This group could be women, unemployed youths or farmers. Machines and equipment are there for the people trained to establish businesses after training.

“The second stage is introducing the training-the-trainer process so that the community can spread it to other communities and then we can move to new areas. It is going to be an income generating source since the best way to sustain environmental sustainability campaign is to add economic empowerment to it,” she informed.

SIFE Nigeria is also encouraging the youths by getting them the opportunity to showcase their talent especially in the area of environmental project. In that vein the paper briquettes project was implemented by teams from Kaduna polytechnic, Bayero University, Kano and Federal University of Technology, Owerri to discourage the felling of trees in a bid to control desertification.

She also said. “The Ecobag project was implemented by the team from Federal University of Technology, Owerri which not only contributed towards saving the environment from the hazard of polyethylene (pure water sachet) but created economic opportunity for them. So also is the waste to wealth project which employed the waste to wealth concept. The team from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria in 2007 created the economic opportunities for others through the project save the environment.

The biogas project by the University of Ado-Ekiti in 2009 utilised the use of organic waste materials in the production of biogas. The locals were empowered with a hands-on training that will enable them access a source of livelihood in waste materials.”

ICEED releases new report on low carbon energy access

Sat, 09 Feb 2013 02:10 +0100

Nigeria has an abundance of energy resources and widespread energy poverty, a shift to a low-carbon economy can help increase energy access and reduce energy poverty. This is the key message of a new report “Low Carbon Energy Development in Nigeria: Challenges and Opportunities” prepared by the International Centre for Energy, Environment and Development (ICEED) and published by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) for the SUNGAS Project.

The SUNGAS project aims to catalyse development of Nigeria’s natural gas and renewable energy markets through innovation, demonstration, policy dialogue and advocacy.

The report provides a broad overview of the state of low-carbon development in Nigeria and offers insights into how the low-carbon development agenda can help to promote access to energy for poor and isolated communities in Nigeria. It identifies key elements of climate-compatible development, enabling policies, emerging investments, local-level implementation efforts, and the role of international partnerships.

This report highlights the scope of the challenge of energy poverty - 60% of Nigerians are living without access to electricity and 72% of households depend on the traditional “three stone fire” for cooking. Though Nigeria produces large amounts of gas in the Niger Delta, very few households use it. Gas flaring and other energy-related emissions represent a quarter of Nigeria’s total emissions. The government has over the years set many deadlines for ending gas flaring but none has been kept.

The report finds that a low-carbon agenda alone will not transform Nigeria’s energy sector for climate adaptation and mitigation, or support pro-poor development. It further finds that getting champions to promote the low-carbon development agenda is a major challenge as influential institutions that are vital to reforming policy are disconnected from the climate change policy space. Actors that dominate the climate change policy space have no great influence in the sectors most relevant to shifting to low-carbon development. As a result, little progress is being made on gas investment policies and implementation of transportation, agriculture and power sector reforms.

The report recommends an eight-point agenda for action. The need to establish a national energy access programme that will set an achievable electrification target; build a coalition to ensure the successful implementation of already agreed national policies; set electricity tariffs right, deepen the voice of civil society groups to demand government accountability and the need for a clean energy finance initiative among others.

For more information visit http://www.sungas-nigeria.org/resources-and-links

Canadian Company Provides Clean Natural Gas Fuelling Stations in Nigeria

Thu, 31 Jan 2013 15:15 +0100

January 29, 2013 - Lagos - The Honourable Ed Fast, Minister of International Trade and Minister for the Asia-Pacific Gateway, today visited the Dangote Group of Companies in Lagos, Nigeria, to see how IMW Industries of Chilliwack, British Columbia, is providing fuelling station solutions to displace traditional liquid transport fuels with compressed natural gas (CNG), which is both cleaner for the environment and more economical.

IMW Industries will manufacture the fuelling equipment for a nationwide network of CNG stations that will service more than 5,000 Dangote delivery trucks, as well as other Nigerian company fleets looking to reduce fuel costs. The first CNG station is to be installed in the first quarter of 2013, with others to follow throughout Nigeria. IMW’s natural gas fuelling stations are also being used to provide bulk delivery of CNG to Nigerian factories and industries located away from natural gas pipelines.

IMW Industries currently employs 220 at its headquarters in Chilliwack and 500 around the world. IMW is an example of a best-in-class company creating jobs and economic value both at home and abroad.

Minister Fast is on a six-day trade mission to Nigeria and Ghana to advance the interests of Canadian businesses in sub-Saharan Africa. Increased trade will in turn create jobs and increased prosperity for all Canadians. Minister Fast is accompanied on the trade mission by representatives of nearly 30 Canadian organizations, most of them operating in the extractive industries and infrastructure sectors.

This first trade mission of 2013, which is being organized by the Canadian Trade Commissioner Service, is one of several strategically focused, sector-specific missions to fast-growing regions around the world that Minister Fast has led since becoming international trade minister.

The Canadian Trade Commissioner Service, a part of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada, is located in more than 150 cities worldwide and in regional offices across Canada, and is Canada's most extensive network of international business professionals. The Trade Commissioner Service helps companies that are looking to export, invest abroad, attract investment or develop innovation and R & D partnerships.

Source: http://www.international.gc.ca

The Nigeria Alliance for Clean Cookstoves Thanks Clinton

Fri, 18 Jan 2013 15:15 +0100

The US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is retiring from the Obama Administration this January. She has made the promotion of access to clean cookstoves the cornerstone of her work in the State Department. In a message, Ewah Eleri, the coordinator of the Nigerian Alliance for Clean Cookstoves thanked Secretary Clinton for her support to the global effort to save lives and empower women.

According to Eleri, "smoke from the kitchen takes the lives of nearly one hundred thousand Nigerians, mostly women and children. It is Nigeria's silent killer. Through the support of Secretary Clinton, we have been able to place this important issue on the political agenda in Nigeria". The Nigerian Alliance has set a target of ten million clean cookstoves to be delivered to Nigerian homes by 2020. It was launched in March 2012. During the launch, Secretary Clinton was represented by US Ambassador to Nigeria, Terence McCulley. To view the video, please highlight the web-link and right click, you would be given an option, click on go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dM4Jneu-CM0

Nigeria: Christian Aids Reports Decline in Rural Electrification. By BENNETT OGHIFO

Tue, 08 Jan 2013 11:08 +0100

A report just released by the International Centre for Energy, Environment & Development (ICEED) in collaboration with Christian Aid finds a significant decline in political interest for expanding electricity services to rural areas.

The report: 'Expanding Access to Pro-Poor Energy Services in Nigeria' says "even though Nigeria has embarked on ambitious power sector reforms, ensuring that electricity reaches the poorest has over the years taken a back seat. Not only is investments in rural electrification in decline, Nigeria has no history of providing annual budgets for cooking energy programmes." The report says, "95,300 Nigerians, mostly women and children die annually from smoke coming from the use of fire wood."

According to the Executive Director of ICEED, Ewah Eleri, "Nigeria must learn from South Africa. Even though South Africa had over 40,000MW installed capacity by 1994, only 34 per cent of the population had access to the grid. It took a bold and ambitious programme to expand power to more than 80 per cent of South Africans within a decade. If Nigeria's power sector reforms fail to integrate rural electrification, expansion of access will be elusive."Eleri said the report is being launched at a time the United Nations declared 2012 as the year of Sustainable Energy for All. It seeks to support a new momentum to launch energy access on the national policy agenda. The report presents new evidence of the growing energy poverty in Nigeria. It analyses the level of government, private sector and donor funding for energy services that benefit poor people and reviews international best practices in expanding access to energy services.

The report recommends a number of action points for expanding access to energy services that would benefit the poor.

It calls on the Federal Government to launch an ambitious national rural electrification programme and that government should establish a national cooking energy programme.

The report urges the Central Bank of Nigeria to set aside 10 per cent of the existing power intervention fund for pro-poor energy financing; and that the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission should establish a clear framework for the utilisation of the Consumer Assistance Fund.

Other recommendations in the report are that the government should use a proportion of the Ecological Fund to finance cooking energy; establishment of a donor's platform on pro-poor energy; and the mobilisation of civil society in providing community-level energy services. The Country Manager of Christian Aid Nigeria, Jane East, stated her organisation's commitment to tackling the causes of poverty.

According to Ms. East, "access to energy is critical to addressing poverty and ensuring that poor people become part of the solution to the climate crisis.

The provision of clean cooking solutions are particularly important for women, in reducing respiratory health problems, and the physical and time demands on them in fetching firewood," she said.

Source: AllAfrica

Nigeria: Christian Aids Reports Decline in Rural Electrification. By BENNETT OGHIFO

Tue, 08 Jan 2013 11:08 +0100

The report recommends a number of action points for expanding access to energy services that would benefit the poor.

It calls on the Federal Government to launch an ambitious national rural electrification programme and that government should establish a national cooking energy programme.

According to Ms. East, "access to energy is critical to addressing poverty and ensuring that poor people become part of the solution to the climate crisis.

The provision of clean cooking solutions are particularly important for women, in reducing respiratory health problems, and the physical and time demands on them in fetching firewood," she said.

Source: AllAfrica

ICEED-FOSTERING EXPANSION ACCESS TO PRO-POOR ENERGY SERVICES IN NIGERIA

Wed, 19 Dec 2012 13:32 +0100

Nigeria has been facing widespread energy poverty despite having abundant energy resources, according to a report released by the International Center for Energy, Environment and Development (ICEED).

According to a report released to the press by ICEED executive director, Ewah Eleri, at the premises, 15 million households have no access to electricity grid while 72% of the population depends on traditional firewood for cooking. The report comes at a time after the identification of the needs, opportunities, problems and solutions of the majority of poor people. This gave way and Christian Aid Nigeria the impetus to lead a campaign for an ambitious plan of action to solve the energy problems of Nigeria’s poor.

The new report noted that rural electrification has fallen outside the policy radar. In the past, Nigeria embarked on an ambitious rural electrification programme started in 1981. The goal at the time was to connect all local government headquarters to the national electricity grid. Today, the government gives very little priority to the role of rural electrification in lifting people out of poverty.

The report decried the lack of political will ensuring that energy reaches the majority rural poor. “There is lack of energy access for the poor people to generate wealth, be healthy and build their livelihoods”, Eleri said.

He warned that access to energy services is declining in Nigeria. “Should this trend continue, 28 million Nigerians will by 2030 be without grid electricity, and 189 million will be dependent of fire wood for cooking. This will be disastrous for human development and will pose a threat to our environment”, Eleri said.

Asked by the press how the death of women is linked to cooking with firewood, Eleri referred to the World Health Organization report which showed many Nigerians dying of smoke. Nigeria is ranked number three in the world and number one in Africa with smoke related deaths, especially diseases like red eyes, heart and respiratory complications.

“This is scandalous that a country with a large and fast growing economy has the poorest number of people in Africa”, he said. He insisted that Nigeria can do something about the energy problem. Eleri compared Nigeria to South Africa. After apartheid, only 34% of South Africans have access to the grid despite having 40,000MW installed capacity. It took the ANC government ten years to bring this figure to over 80%.

The report further cites weak agencies that have not showed clear leadership towards universal access to both power and clean cooking energy, non implementation of agreed polices, weak legal and regulatory frameworks, and no clear service delivery model for expending energy access.

ICEED Launches Report on Expanding Access to Pro-Poor Energy Services in Nigeria

Thu, 13 Dec 2012 15:40 +0100

About 15.3 million households have no access to grid electricity. Seventy-two percent of the population depends on traditional fuelwood for cooking. Contrary to the Federal Government's National Energy Policy and Vision 2020, deepening poverty has forced a reversal in the transition to modern and efficient energy forms. Today, more Nigerians are climbing down the energy ladder – moving from electricity, gas and kerosene to fuel wood and other traditional biomass energy forms. If this trend continues, 28 million households will be without electricity in 2030 and 189 million Nigerians will be dependent on wood use for cooking.

The International Centre for Energy, Environment & Development (ICEED) in collaboration with Christian Aid has published a new report: "Expanding Access to Pro-Poor Energy Services in Nigeria". The report finds a significant decline in political interest for expanding electricity services to rural areas. Even though Nigeria has embarked on ambitious power sector reforms, ensuring that electricity reaches the poorest has over the years taken a back seat. Not only is investments in rural electrification in decline, Nigeria has no history of providing annual budgets for cooking energy programmes. Today, 95,300 Nigerians, mostly women and children die annually from smoke coming from the use of fire wood.

According to Ewah Eleri, Executive Director of ICEED, "Nigeria must learn from South Africa. Even though South Africa had over 40,000MW installed capacity by 1994, only 34% of the population had access to the grid. It took a bold and ambitious programme to expand power to more than 80% of South Africans within a decade. If Nigeria's power sector reforms fails to integrate rural electrification, expansion of access will be elusive", says Eleri.

The report recommends a number of action points for expanding access to energy services that benefit the poor. It calls on the Federal Government to launch an ambitious national rural electrification programme; and establish a national cooking energy programme. The report urges the Central Bank of Nigeria to set aside 10% of the existing power intervention fund for pro-poor energy financing; and the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission to establish a clear framework for the utilization of the Consumer Assistance Fund. Other recommendations of the report include the use of a proportion of the Ecological Fund to finance cooking energy; establishment of a donor’s platform on pro-poor energy; and the mobilization of civil society in providing community-level energy services.

The Country Manager of Christian Aid Nigeria, Jane East, stated her organisation's commitment to tackling the root causes of poverty. According to Ms East, "access to energy is critical to addressing poverty and ensuring that poor people become part of the solution to the climate crisis. The provision of clean cooking solutions are particularly important for women, in reducing respiratory health problems, and the physical and time demands on them in fetching firewood", she emphasised.

The report is being launched at a time the United Nations declared 2012 as the year of Sustainable Energy for All. It seeks to support a new momentum to launch energy access on the national policy agenda. The report presents new evidence of the growing energy poverty in Nigeria. It analyses the level of government, private sector and donor funding for energy services that benefit poor people and reviews international best practices in expanding access to energy services.

ICEED Releases Report on Expanding Access to Pro-Poor Energy Services in Nigeria

Wed, 12 Dec 2012 14:09 +0100

Nigeria experiences a remarkable paradox – the abundance of energy resources and widespread energy poverty. About 15.3 million households have no access to grid electricity. Seventy-two percent of the population depends on traditional fuelwood for cooking.

Contrary to the expectations of the National Energy Policy and Vision 2020, deepening poverty has forced a reversal in the transition to modern and efficient energy forms. Today, more Nigerians are climbing down the energy ladder – moving from electricity, gas and kerosene to fuel wood and other traditional biomass energy forms. The Nigerian government’s response to this challenge has been inadequate, and funding pro-poor energy access is in decline.

Follow link to download the report - http://www.iceednigeria.org/workspace/uploads/final-pro-poor-energy-access-paper-26-nov.pdf

Oando’s LPG initiative to create 36,000 jobs

Tue, 20 Nov 2012 07:26 +0100

The introduction of Oando OGAS 3kg cooking stove targeted at low income households has the potential to create a minimum36,000 job. The stove which is an integrated plug and play device that comes with burner, cylinder and gas was introduced by Oando Marketing PLC to alleviate the suffering associated with using unwholesome fuels such as firewood, charcoal etc. for cooking.

This was disclosed during the Oando/ACCESS AFRICA (Agriculture, Climate Change and Entrepreneurship Support Services) summit held in Abuja on November 13, 2012 with the theme “’LPG as a climate control tool in Africa: The Sustainability Agenda’’. The summit which brought together many stakeholders was aimed mobilizing commitment towards the adoption of LPG as the preferred cooking fuel was attended by Ministers, law makers, representatives of DFID, USAID, Christian Aid, Africare, World LPG Association, Nigerian Labour Congress, Shell Nigeria, Renewable Energy Commission, Nigerian Alliance for Clean Cook stoves, NLNG, Alitheia, LAPO, Wellbeing Foundation amongst others was chaired by Her Excellency, Justice Fati Abubakar, former First Lady and Founder Women’s Right Advancement and Protection Alternative, (WRAPA).

Declaring the Summit open, Justice Abubakar said” I am encouraged by the composition of the stakeholders on these matters and optimistic that the interest exhibited by all presented who have taken time out of their busy schedule to attend this dialogue is an indication that we on the right track to finding solutions to the reality of environmental degradation and its attendant consequences on our economy, wellbeing of our citizenry.

Speaking on the relevance of the summit and the switch initiative, the President of the Nigeria Labour Conference said “It is something that has been long overdue for Nigerians to have something like this. So I want to thank and congratulate Access Nigeria and Oando Marketing PLC for partnering with you to ensure that Nigerians will be able to get something in terms of facilitating cooking that is going to be very easy simple, and above all safe. We in the Labour movement, we wholeheartedly welcome this idea. We are ready to partner with ACCESS, Oando and every other stakeholder to ensure the success of this project”.

Source: BusinessDay

90 Million Nigerians Have Smoke-Related Health Problems — Shell

Fri, 02 Nov 2012 09:11 +0100

Oil giant, Shell says about 90 million Nigerians suffer from health problems resulting from their exposure to large concentration of toxins emitted from burning of fuels occasioned by the use of smoke-emitting cooking stoves.

Country Chairman of Shell Companies in Nigeria (SCIN), Mr. Mutiu Sumonu, disclosed this yesterday while speaking at the Clean Cookstove Exhibition Day, organised by SCIN and the Nigerian Alliance for Clean Cookstoves (Am initiative led by ICEED) in Port Harcourt.

Sumonu said 70 per cent of those suffering from the health problems are in the rural areas, pointing out that Nigeria experiences the highest number of smoke-related deaths in Africa, after malaria and HIV/AIDS.

He stated that other serious health problems associated with exposure to large concentration of toxins from smoke-emitting cooking stoves include; pre-mature babies, babies weighing less than 2.5 kilogramme, mental damage, lung diseases and birth defects.

Sumonu who was represented by the Manager, Geo-Solutions of Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), Mr. Gabriel Nedo Osayande, said the multi-national oil firm launched the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves in 2010 in collaboration with Shell Foundation and numerous United States government agencies and non-governmental organisations.

Source: Osun Defender

Traditional stoves kill 100, 000 yearly - 90 million Nigerians use traditional stoves despite its health risks

Mon, 24 Sep 2012 09:11 +0100

More than 100, 000 people die from complications arising from inhaling fumes from traditional smokes, a situation that experts say may place it among the country's number one cause of death after malaria and AIDS.

The sad fact, however, is millions of people from Lagos, the commercial nerve of Nigeria, to Sokoto, a suburb in the northern part of the country, are not aware that the wood smoke emits toxins which cause eye problems, lung and heart diseases and an increase in the risk of strokes.

Experts say, even when aware of the dangers, the "silent energy crisis” may be a deterrent to the use of kerosene, gas or energy-efficient wood stoves.

Hamzat Lawal, an official with the International Centre for Energy, Environment and Development in Nigeria, says electrical stoves are not currently on the agenda because most people in Nigeria don’t have access to electricity.

He explains that those that have power, have it sporadically - sometimes only a few hours a day, adding it has been difficult to get kerosene, gas or energy-efficient wood stoves in the hands of the people - most of whom cook on traditional wood stoves.

The International Centre for Energy, Environment and Development (ICEED) is one of several organizations in Nigeria lobbying for new policies that increase the supply- and demand- for safer stoves. In a statement on its website, www.iceednigeria.org, it noted that about 90 million Nigerians still use traditional stoves despite its health risks.

“Traditional cooking methods are a health risk, they cause deforestation and climate change, and they are unnecessarily expensive to some of the world’s poorest people,” the statement reads in part. “90 million Nigerians, and almost all public institutions, cook with wood on the traditional “three-stone fire.

“Clean cookstoves save lives, money and our forests. So why doesn’t everyone have one?

“Despite the many benefits of clean cookstoves the market to supply them is undeveloped. This stems from both policy and market failures: a lack of education about the benefits of clean cookstoves, weak government policies, poor stove quality and insufficient access to finance.”

In a recent study, the ICEED warns of a deepening North and South divide in access to energy services. According to the report, “Northern Nigeria is consistently lagging behind in the proportion of households connected to the grid.

Ewah Eleri, Executive Director of ICEED, paints a glooming picture of the challenges ahead.

“Not only has rural electrification fallen out of the policy radar of the Federal Government, Nigeria has no history of tackling the crucial issue of cooking energy,” he said. “About 95, 300 Nigerians die every year from smoke coming from firewood use. At 0.4kg/person, Nigeria has one of Africa’s lowest per capita use of LPG or cooking gas – a paradox for an LPG exporting country”.

And Lawal, it’s not just the men and women who cook who are in danger.

"Our mothers carry our younger ones on their backs. And that smoke also affects them. So, over time we get to lose some of these children from the effects of the smoke," he said.

BY OLUSOLA BABARINSA, WITH AGENCY REPORTS - Daily Times NG.

Experts take renewable energy to front burner

Tue, 18 Sep 2012 10:35 +0100

The search for sustainable energy development took a centre stage at a workshop organised by Environmental right Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) in Benin, as industry experts canvassed for renewable sources of energy. CHARLES OKONJI, who was there, reports.

The need for renewable energy for the country is now being placed at the front burner, as experts, at the Community Energy Access Training Workshop, which was organised by Environmental Right Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN), posited that there is no other better way to tackle Nigeria’s energy crisis.

This emerged as Nigerian Alliance for Clean Cookstoves (NACC), which consisted of Federal Ministry of Women Affairs, Federal Ministry of Environment, Federal Ministry of Health, Energy Commission of Nigeria, US Agency for International Development (USAID), GIZ of Germany, Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), Oando Plc, First City Monument Bank, Bank of Industry and ICEED, has also taken the initiative to distribute 10 million clean cookstoves between now and 2020

The nation’s electricity demand, one of the experts from International Centre for Energy, Environment and Development (ICEED) revealed, at present stood at over 12,000 megawatts, but the current supply was just a little above 4,000 megawatts, while about 72 per cent of Nigerian households still had no access to modern cooking energy, as they relied on traditional biomass.

ICEED’s Project Officer on Renewable Energy, Mr. Okey Ugwu, disclosed that Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) and electricity penetration in household cooking energy mix was less than two per cent, which, he said, was due to the fact that energy efficiency application in the use of firewood for cooking had gained much momentum.

Ugwu said: “About 60 million Nigerians provide their own power using diesel and petrol generating sets. It is estimated more than 20,000 of these generators come on at the same time each emitting harmful greenhouse gases (GHGs).

“In addition millions of traditional household and institutional cooking fires add to the build up of GHGs. Renewable energy especially Solar PV, clean cookstoves and small hydropower can bridge the gap between energy demand and supply in the country,” he added.

The Director of ERA/FoEN, Dr Godwin Uyi Ojo, had noted that lack of access to electricity and clean cooking stoves to rural people had affected their living standard, demanding total shift from traditional methods of energy production and consumption, which had been less efficient, to cleaner and more efficient methods.

Ojo said: “There is the need to reduce carbon emissions and deforestation that is growing at an alarming rate of about 14 per cent in Nigeria that is also contributing to climate change. The cutting down of trees for cooking and building without replenishing them is undermining the earths resilience and carrying capacity that experts say are nearing tipping over point.

“Fuel wood and other traditional indoor cooking methods can lead to serious health hazards, illness and blindness due to the carbon they emit. There is therefore the need for the promotion of clean and renewable energy sources such as solar panels, wind turbines, geothermal plants and small scale-hydro power stations.

“These energy models do not require energy monopoly companies to dominate the industry. Community energy model do not require gigantic infrastructures and complicated feeder stations. Local energy models should rely on local knowledge and skills in the production, supply, as well as maintenance, a process driven by the communities themselves,” he stressed.

Project Officer, Forest and Biodiversity of ERA/FoEN, Mrs. Rita Iyke Uwaka, while collaboration with her boss’ assertion, equally noted that that most reports, especially from various regions of the world including Nigeria, unfortunate though, indicated that forest resource was depleting at a very fast rate.

According to her, the implications of the loss of the forests were harmful and damaging, which could pose great challenges to the local economy and the global environment.

The Managing Director of Sosai Renewable Energies, Mrs. Habiba Ali, who expressed a strong conviction that Nigeria should harness its renewable sources of energy, stated that hundreds of millions in Africa relied on candlelight or kerosene lamps, but these lighting sources had been quite expensive, inefficient and degraded the environment

According to IEA, about 1.6 billion people worldwide lacked access to electricity and 589 million people live in non-electrified areas. By 2030, 1.3 billion people would lack access to electricity and 700 million people would live in non-electrified areas. These followed the trends in the Asian continent

Africans, Ali said, spent an estimated $10.5 billion on kerosene or other forms of fuel for lighting annually, which represented about 50 per cent of energy expenditure and 30 per cent of household income.

Nigeria, it was also gathered, had, overtime, produced a number of policy documents to promote renewable energy. Among the initiative was the amendment of the Energy Commission of Nigeria (ECN) Act to include promotion and expansion of renewable and alternative energy sources.

The ECN, it was further revealed, had gone ahead to produce the National Energy Policy of 2003, Renewable Energy Master Plan of 2005 and National Energy Master Plan of 2006. The National Energy Policy laid out a roadmap for developing the nation’s energy sector including solar, small hydropower, biomass and other renewable energy sources.

The National Energy Master Plan had provided the framework for implementing the contents of the National Energy Policy. The Renewable Energy Master Plan, it was noted, had overriding objective of increasing the share of renewable in the nation’s overall energy supply mix. It stated that by 2025, renewables would contribute at least 10 per cent of the total energy consumed in the country

In 2001, government adopted the National Electric Power Policy, which, among others, sought to increase the share of renewables in the overall electricity supply mix. This led to the development and adoption of the Electric Power Sector Reforms Act of 2005. This Act established the Rural Electrification Agency and Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission. These two institutions were among others charged with developing the nation’s renewable electricity industry

In 2006, the Federal Ministry of Power produced the National Policy Guidelines on Renewable Electricity. This policy stipulated that the Federal Government would expand the market for renewable electricity to at least five per cent of total electricity generation and a minimum of 5TWh of electric power production by 2016.

The Renewable Electricity Action Programme was produced in the same year and sets out a roadmap for implementing this policy.

Ugwu, a renewable expert with ICEED, said that the Bureau for Public Enterprise (BPE), in 2004, proposed a National Oil and Gas Policy, which stated that the Federal Government should, among other things, invest in the use of non-fossil based energy sources such as solar, hydro and biomass including the requisite research and development to complement oil and gas.

In 2009, the Federal Government, he stated, adopted the Vision 2020, which sought, among others, to diversify the nation’s energy supply mix by introducing renewables in order to make the energy sector the major engine of the nation’s sustainable social, economic and industrial growth, delivering affordable and constant energy supply efficiently to other sectors of the economy by 2020.

According to him, the Federal Government in 2007 enacted the National Bio-fuels Policy, which was aimed at firmly establishing a thriving bio-fuel industry utilising agricultural products as a means of improving the quality of automotive fossil-based fuels in Nigeria. He added that the policy stipulated a blending of up to 10 per cent of fuel ethanol with gasoline to achieve a blend to be known as E-10, and 20 per cent of biodiesel with conventional diesel by 2020.

In 2010, the Federal Ministry of Environment, he also revealed, developed the National Policy and Guidelines on Renewable Energy, which also had an overriding objective of expanding the market for renewable energy to at least five per cent of total energy availability and utilisation by 2020.

Ugwu said: “Despite the lofty ideas of these policies, implementation has been a major problem. Some of these policies are decorating the shelves of government institutions. Today, there is no clear institutional champion for developing renewable energy in the country.

“The way forward is to appoint a clearly defined institutional champion for renewable energy. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and Bank of Industry (BoI) should set aside 10 per cent of the power and aviation intervention fund specifically for renewable electricity.

“The Federal Government should develop and launch a new national decentralised rural electrification strategy from renewable, establish a national clean cooking energy programme, use a proportion of the Ecological Fund to renewable energy projects, develop clear policy incentives to support private sector investment in renewable energy services and mobilize Non-governmental Organisations (NGOs) to provide community-level renewable energy services.

“If the current trends continue, 189 million Nigerians will be dependent on traditional fuel wood use by 2030, about 170 million Nigerians will be off-grid by 2030 and about 28 million households will be without electricity,” he added.

Nigerian Alliance for Clean Cookstoves (NACC) had identified serious problems with firewood, stating that about 95,300 died annually in Nigeria due to smoke from firewood, while Nigeria lost three per cent of its forest annually as a result of cutting of trees and the economic costs to the poor was estimated at about N100 daily.

To tackle these challenges, NACC said it would distribute 10 million clean cookstoves, which are fuel efficient wood, charcoal and LPG stoves, by 2020, noting that the drive was to support clean cookstoves market and quality certification to ensure high quality stoves in the Nigerian market.

Other NACC’s initiatives include innovative financing with investment finance, micro finance, carbon market and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) finance and public education to communicate the value of clean household energy.

The participants at the workshop, who came Okokhuo, Iguoriakhi, Makilolo, Aifesoba, Gele Gele, Ora, Inikorogha, Obozogbe, Ibada Elume, Iwhrekan, Ubeji, Amukpe communities in Edo, Delta and Ekiti states, admitted that the Federal Government had not much to address their energy need.

They therefore, called on the Federal Government put in place mechanisms to replace kerosene lamps and other inefficient energy sources used in households, asking that new oil should be left in the soil to put an end to oil-dependency and diversify the nation’s economy.

The participants, who said there was “need to make energy accessible to rural communities and the communities have a role to play by developing their mini energy plans,” said the Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) should be mobilised to provide community level renewable energy services.

In the communiqué, which they issued at the end of the workshop, they advised the Federal Government to partner with communities to provide affordable, reliable and efficient renewable energy products.

According to them, the government should not neglect rural communities in their energy plans but to encourage them through interest free loans and grants to enable them develop their own energy action plan.

They said: “The government should develop and launch a new national program on renewable energy and promote non-grind energy production and distribution by the communities themselves. Use a portion of the nation’s ecological fund on renewable energy projects to address climate change and energy poverty.

“The government should make available social marketing scheme involving credits, grants and subsidies in our communities to provide affordable renewable energy products. The government should encourage investments in the area of clean stoves production in our communities.

“The government support and encourage financial institutions in the country to provide interest free loans for community investment on solar powered energy generators for household and small scale business. The government should emulate countries like Germany, which supports local household with financial assistance for engaging in the production of energy through renewable energy sources.

“The government should stop gas flaring which is an enormous waste of economic resources that could be harnessed for local use rather then to satisfy foreign markets.

The government should intensify efforts towards rural community electrification projects by linking communities to the national grid,” they stressed.

Source: Compass Newspaper

Nigeria adopts climate change policy document

Mon, 17 Sep 2012 16:29 +0100

The Nigerian Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved the adoption of National Policy on Climate Change and Response Strategy (NPCC-RS), as a National Document for implementing climate activities in the country.

According to the FEC, the nation’s highest decision making body, the approval is to provide the government with a framework for tackling environmental challenges occasioned by global changes in the climate, the effect of which, according to the body, has manifested in increased flooding and rise in sea level.

Minister of Environment, Hadiza Mailafia, who made the disclosure in Abuja on Wednesday, said the policy framework would guide economic and social response of Nigerians to the global trend of climate change.

Being a signatory to Kyoto Protocol, Nigeria’s adoption of the policy will enhance her obligation towards reduction of emission of obnoxious substances in the environment even as it emerged that gas flaring in the country has been reduced to 8% and will improve further as more gas is sent to generate electricity in upcoming power stations, she disclosed.

The council argued that, as party to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and its Kyoto Protocol, Nigeria has the obligation to ensure the reduction of human induced atmospheric carbon emission to a level that will prevent dangerous interface with the climate system.

Nigeria also needs to undertake numerous activities in the areas of adaptation and awareness creation to ensure the implementation of the UNFCCC policies. This obligation requires a coherent policy on climate change that will holistically view climate change from its multi-sectoral perspective.

The policy will explicitly itemise the comprehensive national goals, objective and strategies towards mitigating the consequences of climate change.

UNIDO Calls for Consistency in Nigeria’s Energy Policy

Mon, 27 Aug 2012 13:34 +0100

The United Nation Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) said Nigeria requires a great deal of consistency in her national policy on energy to swiftly move up to the platform of top 20 industrialised economies, which she aspires to attain in 2020.

According to the Director-General of UNIDO, Dr. Kandeh Yumkella, who spoke to journalists at the launch of the United Nations’ Sustainable Energy for All (SE4All) in Abuja, a considerable expansion of access to modern, affordable and sustainable energy services as well as a substantial improvement in the quality and quantity of Nigeria’s energy infrastructure was required for the country to fulfill her vision to become one of the top 20 economies in the world by 2020.

Yumkella noted that national and regional target setting was a critical means to prioritise and embed sustainable energy policy into government policy making, acknowledging that certain national policy of the country on energy already outlines such goals and priorities, with a view to creating energy security and a robust energy supply mix.

He said: “In 25 years, your population will be 300 million. You need real jobs, not disguised unemployment and you need reliable, cheap affordable energy without it nobody will invest in manufacturing.

“Your energy strategy, we are very impressed given the numbers I have seen, your government wants to do this and you will reach these goals ahead of the rest of the world. You have everything Brazil has; oil, gas, water, agribusiness to do bio energy, hydropower and so you have a distributed energy system plus your gas to make energy cheap here but you need some level of consistency in your energy policy.”

“However, the scale of policy challenges in energy infrastructure renders the current efforts insufficient in scale and scope. What is now required is a sustained political focus. Energy access must move up the political and development agendas to become a central priority. This raises a fundamental question: What is to be done to establish an energy system that will deliver reliable, affordable and sustainable energy for all and support sustainable development in Nigeria?

The answer is policy consistency; the biggest hurdle is policy consistency because no one government can achieve these goals by itself it will take a generation of 20, 30 years, that is the evidence on energy everywhere.

He added: “These are not visions of one government; these are the vision of the Nigerian people. It is what happened in Ghana which has had changes in government but today they have about almost 70 per cent electrification because in spite of a change of government from Jerry Rawlings to Attah-Mills, every government pushed electrification and parliament backed them,” Accordingly, a 2011 report by the International Centre for Energy, Environment and Development (ICEED) estimates that about $200 billion will be required to improve Nigeria’s infrastructure for power, transport and water.

The ICEED report further states that about $32 billion will be required to meet the cost of power generation from hydro-power and gas alone in the next ten years; Yumkella noted that this is significant, but feasible, if the appropriate incentives framework is established to turn the attention of the private sector to clean energy investments.

By Chineme Okafor, This Day.

Eleri: Govt funding of pro-poor energy access on the decline

Mon, 13 Aug 2012 11:07 +0100

According to Ewah Eleri, Executive Director, International Centre for Energy, Environment & Development (ICEED), the Financing Pro-poor Energy Access project that his organisation is involved in seeks to reverse the declining Federal Government funding of pro-poor energy access by campaigning for the expansion of the scale of government, private sector and donor funding for pro-poor and gender-sensitive sustainable energy options. He spoke with Michael Simire and Tina Armstrong-Ogbonna. Excerpts:

What is the Financing Pro-poor Energy Access campaign all about? Over the years, government spending on rural electrification has declined. There is no incentive that has been established to encourage the new distribution companies to be able to extend power to communities and households that have not been connected before. So, there is a need to re-launch Nigeria’s rural electrification strategies designed in such a way that is consistent with the power sector reform which has more private sector participation.

Secondly, we know that grid connection alone cannot be able to be either technically or financially feasible for most communities that are in the remote areas and that we have the opportunity to be able to meet their needs through upgraded renewable energy sources. It is not really a matter of choice for us, it is something that we have to do if we are going to extend electricity to these remote areas and most of them are in the North.

Our campaign focuses on the salient energy crises that we have, that crises is the crises of household, the crisis they face in having access to safe and affordable cooking energy. It brought the focus on rural electrification but also cooking energy for poor household because we have a situation where government has no plans and programmes and no pro-poor policy on cooking energy. The result being that Nigeria is number one on the list of countries that has the largest number of deaths coming from cooking with wood that 95,300 Nigerians should die every year is totally unacceptable.

Our campaign focuses on both rural electrification and cooking energy. There is no better way that the government can show its commitment to these areas than through appropriation, providing adequate budget lines to expand rural electrification under a privatised scenario and providing significant resources so different agencies of government can implement policies that allow poor families to have access to clean cook stove especially cooking gas and efficient wood stove. So that is what the campaign is all about.

What is the linkage between this campaign and the concept of renewable energy? We know that ideally we should connect the grid to all household, to all businesses in the country. The reality is that, quite technically, that may not be feasible, some communities are very far away from the grid making it expensive to reach them, and some community are even impossible to reach, especially solar radiation and small hydro-power and the prices for solar systems have been dropping rapidly over the years, making it much more attractive than it was before. So this is a new situation that we find ourselves, where we need to re-design and re-launch a national rural electrification strategy and back it up with appropriate budgetary funding.

Are you proposing that there should be more grids?
We think that we should pursue rural electrification with the diverse tools that we have. We need to aggressively extend the national grid but even more so we need to pursue low-cost but high impact renewable energy electricity and the opportunities in the solar area are enormous, so also are other renewable energy sources. We should pursue it from all angles, both grid and off-grid. That is the way we can make progress in reaching the target set by the Vision 20:20 target, and the Vision expects us to have at least 75 percent coverage in our country.

Today, even though in the past we have up to 50 percent coverage of electrification, but it has declined to under 50 percent essentially because our population has grown faster than our ability to connect communities. So, instead of a growing proportion of Nigerians having access to electricity, it has been in decline and this has happened at a time when people who are already connected have less reliability on power. The fact remains that there is no way we can make progress on the transformation agenda, on the vision 20:20, on the Millennium Development Goals, if we do not provide people and small businesses with electricity that enable them generate income and provide social services and address the poverty that they face.

Unfortunately, the issue of energy for poor people has fallen off the policy ladder of this government and the government seems to miss the link between access to energy, growth and poverty reduction. So we are working in partnership with other organisations to ensure that these linkages are re-established and there will be need to expand energy access. Don’t forget that this is also the Year of Sustainable Access Energy For All declared by the United Nations. So we must have to demonstrate that we are committed to the welfare of the Nigerian people by ensuring that we post adequate budget lines for them by 2013.

Is it that we don’t have enough cooking gas or what is the issue here? In many ways, we suffer much energy poverty than any country in Africa. For instance, as regards the issue of cooking gas, Nigeria on a per-capita base on the average uses 0.4kg of cooking gas (or the so called LPG gas) per annum. This is one of the lowest in Africa; lower than in Ghana and Senegal. We are one of Africa’s largest exporters of cooking gas. We export more cooking gas than we use annually in Nigeria. The Nigeria LNG and other companies are producing and exporting cooking gas. But we don’t use them at home. So this is an issue the government needs to tackle by enhancing public awareness, by strengthening regulations so people are confident that the use of gas is safe, and also by doing something about prices of cylinders.

Other countries that have made progress including India and Senegal have a subsidy scheme for cylinders. The Lagos State Government has started a project on subsidy for cylinders because one of the reasons why people don’t use cooking gas is because of the cost of buying cylinder which is expensive. The upfront cost is high. It varies according to the sizes of cylinder. Some cylinders are sold at N6,000. Just the ability to pay that upfront cost is a stumbling block and a major barrier to acquiring it. If there was a subsidy scheme or even if there is not a subsidy scheme. If it is a financing scheme that allows people to pay in installment that is one aspect. The other aspect is been able to have lower weight cylinders.

How do you mean? Kindly shed some light on this. These are cylinders that are like 3kg, 4kg in weight because it allows families to be able to buy gas in quantities they can afford. In some parts of Nigeria now, even if you bring 12.5kg and weigh it, so you know the weight and say I want N1,000 worth of gas, I want 1kg or 2kg. So you don’t have to fill the entire cylinder or as it is being done with phone cards. You can buy N100 or N200, N400. Think of how access to mobile phone cards would have been if all of us can buy N1,000 credits. So it is the same kind of thinking for cooking gas.

Abroad, we have cases where you don’t have to buy cylinders to have access to gas. Can we explore that process? Lagos State is developing a new law to make it mandatory for estates of some certain sizes not to use cylinders but to have a gas network within their estate where they can only have one central tank and it is metered at the point of use. You pay as you use. In many ways, Lagos State is leading and we think the Federal Government needs to learn from Lagos State and develop a national programme for this and more states also need to follow suit and help develop programmes to address the energy poverty that our people face.

Is gas really cheaper to use and environmentally friendly? It is cheaper and environmentally friendly than cooking with wood, but it is also cheaper than wood. The cost of the energy is cheaper than the cost of wood and the cost of kerosene, especially liberalised kerosene because only few people have access to the subsidised kerosene which is N50 per litre. But if you are going to buy kerosene like most people in Nigeria buy at N100 and above, then cooking gas is by far cheaper than kerosene and don’t forget we are already flaring a lot of this gas. The quicker we can put the gas to use and assist the poor make progress in their families and businesses the better for us.

How about using electricity? It’s a better alternative, isn’t it? Today we don’t have enough electricity in our grid, perhaps in the future when the supply of power begins to meet the demand. Then for those poor households that are connected to electricity they can then make their assessment if electricity is cheaper than gas. But today there is no real alternative; people are stuck with using wood including in urban areas. Over 50 percent of all urban dwellers in Nigeria use wood to cook. That is very serious. It is even more so in the North.

For instance, it is not up to one percent of household in the North especially in the North-East that uses cooking gas. It is poverty. It is not only about poverty but more so about the distribution chain of this gas. You don’t want to buy a cylinder when you are not sure the gas would be available or maybe you are so uneducated over handling of gas and thus so afraid of using it because of fear that it may blow up.

A lot of people have this apathy towards using cooking gas. That appears to be a setback to this campaign. It is the responsibility of the Federal Government and regulatory agencies to promote the awareness about cooking gas. But in promoting the awareness that cooking gas is a safe and cheaper energy alternative, we also need to ensure that we have stronger regulation for cylinders and their nozzles, ensuring that we have good safety standards that we can enforce.

Who are you partnering with? We have several partners and we are working with the Nigeria Alliance for Energy Cook Stoves which has the Energy Commission of Nigeria, Federal Ministry of Environment, Federal Ministry of Health, and Federal Ministry of Women Affairs. We have donors like USAID, the German Government GIZ and banks like the Bank of Industry. On rural electrification, we are working with partners like the Rural Electrification Agency to ensure that there are adequate resources. By the way, we are working with Christian Aid on this, to ensure that we have adequate budget provision in the next budget in 2013 to be able to develop this ambitious programme.

How can this campaign for pro-poor energy access help in achieving the millennium development goals (MDGs) as regard poverty alleviation, for example?

Access to energy strengthens our ability to expand education and health services. The linkage is very strong and if we begin to reduce public investment in this area, we undermine our ability to be able to meet those critical health and education services or even to address the environmental problems that we have pledged in the MDGs. So somehow access to those pro-poor energy services are critically linked to delivering those services without which we would be undermining it.

Source: http://www.environewsnigeria.com - By Michael Simire & Tina Armstrong-Ogbonna

Why more Nigerians are climbing down the energy ladder

Wed, 08 Aug 2012 09:15 +0100

Despite Nigeria’s large oil reserves, energy poverty appears to be one of the most striking characteristics of the citizenry, with the formal power sector consistently failing to deliver.

With per capita electricity consumption falling below 150kwh, the situation looks dire. Rural communities, however, seem to suffer the most deprivation – even as a national programme to expand power to the poor is non-existing.

Indeed, more Nigerians are reportedly climbing down the energy ladder – moving from electricity, gas and kerosene to fuel wood and other traditional biomass energy forms. About 112 million people depend solely on wood as a source of fuel for cooking, according to scientists.

Besides burning 90 percent more wood than necessary and thus contributing to the buildup of greenhouse gases (GHGs) that cause climate change, traditional biomass stoves via the smoke they emit cause 95,300 deaths yearly, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Government funding for rural electrification and cooking energy for poor people has declined over the years, warns a new study by the International Centre for Energy, Environment and Development (ICEED).

In a recent report, the think-tank on energy and climate change warns that, without a new national programme on rural electrification and clean cookstoves, the number of poor people in Nigeria will grow exponentially.

ICEED, which has taken up a campaign to expand access to available, accessible, affordable, sustainable energy services that empowers both men and women – especially the poor, discloses in the study that the Federal Government budgets for rural electrification have consistently declined over the past decade. The campaign is titled: “Financing pro-poor energy access in Nigeria.”

As Nigeria’s population grows, the proportion with access to electricity is declining, says the study, adding that ongoing power sector reforms will deepen this trend should new national rural electrification programmes be launched.

The study warns of a deepening North and South divide in access to energy services. “Northern Nigeria is consistently lagging behind in the proportion of households connected to the grid. For instance, while almost all households in Lagos have access to grid electricity, over one million households in Kano are not connected to the grid. Families in the North are more likely to be dependent on firewood use than Southern families. The trend is the same for access to kerosene and cooking gas,” submits Ewah Eleri, who heads ICEED.

According to him, not only has rural electrification fallen out of the policy radar of the Federal Government, Nigeria has no history of tackling the crucial issue of cooking energy.

“About 95,300 Nigerians die every year from smoke coming from firewood use. At 0.4kg/person, Nigeria has one of Africa’s lowest per capita use of LPG or cooking gas – a paradox for an LPG exporting country,” he says.

The study calls for the launching of a new National Rural Electrification Programme under the Power Sector Reform programme. It recommends that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Bank of Industry (BOI) set aside a proportion of the power sector intervention fund for off-grid power projects using renewable energy. It also calls on the Federal Government to establish a National Cooking Energy Programme.

Besides the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission establishing a framework for the utilisation of the Consumer Assistance Fund, he likewise wants the authorities: to develop and launch a new National Rural Electrification Strategy; use a proportion of the Ecological Fund to finance cooking energy; develop clear policy incentives to support private sector investment in energy services for the poor; mobilise non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to provide community-level energy services; and establish a donor’s platform on pro poor energy.

According to Eleri, “energy is a crucial element in efforts to grow incomes and escape poverty. Without an expansion of government programmes and private sector investments in providing energy for Nigeria’s poor, the transformation agenda will fail”.

He laments that government response to the pro-poor energy challenge has been inadequate, and funding to address the trend is in decline. His group’s campaign, he notes, seeks to reverse the situation by agitating for the expansion of the scale of government, private sector and donor funding for pro-poor and gender-sensitive sustainable energy options.

Some donor energy interventions in the country are: $200 million Nigeria Electricity and Gas Improvement Project by the World Bank; $5 milion GEF Nigeria Energy Efficiency Project (data gathering for energy performance standards, set up testing centres, focused behavioural change awareness, and pilot projects) by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP); $2 million of UNDP/Bank of Industry access to renewable energy scale up initiative; $2.73m Small Scale Associated Gas Utilisation project. (Funded by the GEF, the project started in 2011 and is being implemented by IBRD); N2 billion solar project in Katsina State being funded by JICA; $10 million – $32 million Partial Risk Guarantees for renewable energy and energy efficiency by USAID; and $1.3m for ongoing Energy Efficient Woodstoves project in Lagos and Cross River states by USAID.

By Michael Simire, Daily Independent.

Over 95, 000 Nigerians die yearly from firewood smoke – ICEED

Tue, 31 Jul 2012 14:46 +0100

A non-governmental organisation working on the environment, Messrs International Centre for Energy, Environment and Development, ICEED, has called on the Federal Government to establish a National Cooking Energy Programme. The call was necessitated by the fact that about 95, 300 Nigerians die every year from smoke coming from firewood use.

The NGO which warned of the consequences of government’s poor funding of rural electrification, lamented that Government funding for rural electrification and cooking energy for poor people has declined over the years. These facts were contained in a recent study carried out by group.

The report warned that without a new national programme on rural electrification and clean cookstoves, the number of poor people in Nigeria will grow exponentially.

The study found that Federal Government budgets for rural electrification have consistently declined over the past decade. As Nigeria’s population grows, the proportion with access to electricity is declining. The study stated that the ongoing power sector reforms will deepen this trend should new national rural electrification programmes be launched.

The study warns of a deepening North and South divide in access to energy services. According to the report, “Northern Nigeria is consistently lagging behind in the proportion of households connected to the grid.

For instance, while almost all households in Lagos have access to grid electricity, over one million households in Kano are not connected to the grid. Families in the North are more likely to be dependent on firewood use than Southern families. The trend is the same for access to kerosene and cooking gas, Mr Ewah Eleri, Executive Director of ICEED said.

Continuing, he said: “Not only has rural electrification fallen out of the policy radar of the Federal Government, Nigeria has no history of tackling the crucial issue of cooking energy. About 95, 300 Nigerians die every year from smoke coming from firewood use. At 0.4kg/person, Nigeria has one of Africa’s lowest per capita use of LPG or cooking gas – a paradox for an LPG exporting country”.

The study called for the launching of a new National Rural Electrification Programme under the Power Sector Reform programme. It further called on the CBN and the Bank of Industry to set aside a proportion of the power sector intervention fund for off-grid power projects using renewable energy.

By Jude Njoku - VANGUARD

Centre endorse new wood stove that reduces carbon emission

Mon, 16 Jul 2012 13:34 +0100

The International Centre for Energy and Environmental Development (ICEED) said it endorsed the recently manufactured wood stove that could reduce carbon emission by between 50 per cent and 80 per cent.

The Executive Director of the centre, Mr Ewah Eleri, said on Friday in Abuja that the stove brands were manufactured both locally and internationally.

He said that the stoves would soon be available in the market, adding, ``the wood stove is a clean, efficient, durable safe and affordable stove''.

Eleri said, ``They go along with clean fuels, central to most solutions to the health, environmental, and other risks inherent in cooking with traditional open fire.''

Eleri said that unlike the situation in many African countries, stoves that used wood or charcoal had become business with development of stove models that reduced the use of wood and enhanced efficiency.

``This means that for a 50 per cent efficient stove, if you have a family that consumes N100 worth of wood for cooking per day, then the expenditure could be reduced to N50 wood every day.

``When you sum up this per month it means a lot of savings for poor families,'' Eleri, who is also the Coordinator, Nigerian Alliance for Clean Cook Stoves said.

He said that most families did not necessarily have to switch to the new stoves for wood and charcoal due to health reasons alone, but because it also kept money in the pocket of the family and saved the environment.

Eleri said that the centre would also work with the Federal Government to ensure that there would be a policy framework and a national programme to sensitise people on the efficiency of the wood stoves.

He said that the centre would work to sensitise communities on the use of the stove, and promote its distribution.

On the use of cooking gas, Eleri said, ``The reason why people do not buy cooking gas is not necessarily because gas is more expensive per unit of energy.

``It is essentially because you have to save a lot of money to buy the cylinder; but of course cylinders come in bigger sizes and many families cannot afford them.''

Eleri said that the centre would work with a group of companies that were interested in introducing small cylinders of three kilogrammes.

He said that the centre was also working to ensure that cylinders are metered in order to improve the confidence of poor people in having them.

The executive director said that it was preferable for Nigerians to move electricity, solar, and cooking gas, adding that availability and affordability was the issue.

Eleri said that in the absence of gas, wood use would exist for a very long time, adding that many households were used to cooking with charcoal and wood.

He said that the centre would ensure that those families had access to the new wood stoves, and that this would enable us conserve our forest cover to prevent deforestation and desertification.

Source: BUSINESSDAY

Rio+20: OPEC’s $1b lifeline to combat energy poverty

Mon, 02 Jul 2012 09:40 +0100

Succour may just be around the corner for developing nations facing critical energy challenges – especially those in sub-Sahara Africa – if a landmark pronouncement made last week in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, venue of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20), is anything to go by.

In the quest to meet the ever-increasing energy needs of industries in the developed and emerging economies, Africa has consistently carried the burden of massive extraction of raw materials and its impact on the environment, health and livelihoods, according to observers.

Faced with a dearth of funding, the countries have likewise been unable to divert from a fossil fuel economy and embrace a change to clean alternatives.

But the OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID) has said that it is committing $1 billion to alleviate energy poverty globally. OFID Director-General, Suleiman J. Al-Herbish, made the disclosure to the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon during a meeting of the UN Secretary-General’s High Level Group on Sustainable Energy for All during activities at Rio+20.

The OFID is a multilateral development finance institution established in 1976 by the member countries of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

Elaborating in the content of the Ministerial Declaration, Al-Herbish added that the institution stood ready to scale up this commitment if warranted by demand. He added that while OFID has always responded to its partner countries’ priorities and strategies, the institution was of the opinion that universal eradication of energy poverty required sustained international effort and that access to modern energy services is vital to support all aspects of development.

Since 2007, he revealed, OFID has increased the share of energy projects in total operations. In 2011, this share amounted to 25 percent, added Al-Herbish, a Saudi.

The Ministerial Declaration welcomes the “International Year of Sustainable Energy for All” and recognises that universal access to modern energy services is an objective that the international community aspires to achieve by 2030.

The Declaration concurs with the universal access to modern energy services component of the Secretary-General’s “Sustainable Energy for All Initiative.” Ministers also recalled the 2007 Solemn Declaration of the Conference of Sovereigns and Heads of States of OPEC Member Countries, the Riyadh Declaration, which emphasised that eradicating poverty should be the first and overriding global priority guiding local, regional and international efforts. Ministers also referred to the “Energy for the Poor Initiative” launched in Jeddah, in June 2008, during a meeting of energy producers and consumers, which called on OFID to consider a programme of $1 billion for alleviating energy poverty.

The Ministers declared that efforts to eradicate energy poverty must be technology-neutral. While renewable solutions are appropriate where economics permit, fossil fuels will continue to be an important contributor to energy supply. Poor countries cannot be deprived of energy for development during the transition to a more diversified energy mix, the Ministers suggested.

They called upon the Rio+20 Summit to adopt universal access to modern energy services by 2030 as a goal for sustainable development. According to their Declaration, strong political will and long-term governmental commitment will be prerequisites to energy poverty eradication. The investment needed to ensure universal access is substantial, and all available types and sources of funding will need to be mobilised.

The OFID objective is to reinforce financial cooperation between OPEC Member Countries and other developing countries, by providing financial support to the latter for their socio-economic development. The resources of OFID are also used to provide grants for food aid, technical assistance, research and similar intellectual activities. One of the institution’s central aims is to advance South-South solidarity. OFID has been headquartered in Vienna, Austria since 1976.

Observers have severally expressed concern over the fact that current energy policies in Africa reflected in high tariff have largely unleashed poverty on local communities, especially on rural women who can hardly afford the cost. Also, local communities that are barely visible in the media are said to suffer daily untold hardship in the quest for extraction of resources for energy.

Source, Daily Independent.

Echoes from Rio+20

Mon, 02 Jul 2012 09:29 +0100

Ida Auken, Environment Minister, Denmark: “Brown economy has hit the wall and failed… Inclusive green economy is not only a way to go, it is the only way to go. Green economy is not about limiting growth – it is about enabling growth.”

Achim Steiner, Executive Director, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP): “If you look at the official negotiations now you get an image of a world that is at a loss for what to do. The summit is like the vortex at the eye of a storm. To come here 20 years after the first Rio summit and see the depressing picture of what’s happened since should shake us out of our complacency. It’s an indictment of those of us who work on these issues: we elect politicians, shape markets, and choose leaders who get away with the kinds of policies we then lament. The summit should be a moment of introspection for the sustainable development community.”

René Castro, Minister of Environment and Energy in Costa Rica: “Initially we protected national parks and wildlife regions, with a ‘don’t take, don’t touch’ approach, but this was unsustainable. And so we shifted from full protection to promoting multiple uses — protection of forest cover is now combined with agroforestry to provide farmers with an extra income to incentivise having more trees.”

Paula Cabellero, Director of Economic, Social and Environmental Affairs, Government of Colombia: “We now have to make very difficult decisions that transcend business-as-usual scenarios. These will be hard. These will be expensive.”

Estebancio Castro Diaz, head of the International Alliance of Indigenous and Tribal Peoples of the Tropical Forests: “Change needs to come from the grassroots, not UN tables.”

Shrashtant Patara, Vice President, Development Alternatives, India: “Social enterprises combine the strengths of business with the objectives of government to address social problems.”

Falguni Guaray, Coordinator, Servicio de Información Mesoamericano Sobre Agricultura Sostenible (SIMAS), Nicaragua: “Informality is not a lack of formality. It’s a strategy on its own.”

Bihunirwa Medius, Head of the Farmer Enterprise Development Unit, Kabarole Research and Resource Centre, Uganda: “The most successful partnerships are made through local leaders who understand the social values of farmers. This process is based on informality. There are no contracts, but there is understanding of local values.”

Pavan Sukhdev, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Green Initiatives for a Smart Tomorrow (GIST) Advisory: “The economy won’t change unless corporations behave differently. And if the economy doesn’t change then we can’t have sustainable development.”

Steve Bass, Group Head, Sustainable Markets Group, International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED): “Markets are a social construct and not a law of physics so we need mechanisms that shape the market to deliver what society wants”

Steven Stone, Chief of Economics and Trade Branch, UNEP: “Markets are what we make them — let us concentrate on fixing them.”

Sekai Catherine Chiremba of the Zimbabwe Homeless People’s Federation’s Leadership Council: “A dollar a month saved for a family means nothing; but a dollar a month per family in a whole community suddenly becomes more meaningful.”

Maria Sonia Vicenta Fadrigo, Western Visayas Regional Coordinator, Homeless Peoples Federation, The Philippines: “We should not under estimate the power of communities — communities in informal settlements will not make the economy green if they are excluded.”

Tim Jackson, Professor of Sustainable Development, University of Surrey, UK: “Can we really grow forever on a finite planet? This is an appeal, at the end of the day, to human ingenuity: are we clever enough to figure it out?”

Julia Marton-LeFèvre, head of IUCN: “Knowledge is the greatest tool for human progress but it won’t suffice — we also need leadership and determination to work together.”

Lidia Brito, Director of Science Policy and Capacity Building, Natural Sciences, UNESCO, Mozambique: “If you have knowledge, you are empowered to choose your options; the wiser we are, the better we can cope with difficult decisions.”

Michael Simire, Daily Independent

Climate commission

Thu, 07 Jun 2012 14:42 +0100

House of Representatives in Abuja on Tuesday passed a bill for the establishment of the National Climate Change Commission.

The bill seeks to give the commission the responsibility to regulate and coordinate policies and actions on climate change in Nigeria.

The bill, sponsored by the Leader of the House, Mrs. Mulikat Akande Adeola, was passed when put to vote by the Speaker, Mr. Aminu Tambuwal.

Source: Page 50, The Punch.

Rio+20: Nigeria explores ‘green deal’

Mon, 21 May 2012 07:49 +0100

By Michael Simire Deputy Editor, Sunday

What does Nigeria’s future look like when the oil runs out? How can Nigeria transition from fossil fuel to clean energy? Where would green jobs be created? What will happen if the country does not squarely deal with the ravages of climate change?

These are among a number of puzzles that participants at a daylong forum last week in Abuja sought to unravel. They had gathered on Wednesday at the instance of the Heinrich Böll Foundation, which officially unveiled its study titled “Green Deal Nigeria” at an interactive workshop. The study was launched as the country prepares for the 20th anniversary of the Earth Summit (United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, Rio+20) next month.

According to observers, Nigeria’s ambition to become one of the world’s top 20 economies by the year 2020 means that the country must grow its economy, create jobs and promote social cohesion without destroying its natural resources and thus harming the well-being of future generations.

However the “Green Deal Nigeria” study provides an overview and practical examples of how to green Nigeria before 2020 and explains the long-term measures that Nigeria needs to take today to make the economy grow beyond oil, which experts predict will finish for all practical purposes in 15 to 20 years’ time.

The study explains how climate change should be regarded as an underlying factor for some of the intensifying conflicts in Nigeria, and how a clean energy economy that provides growth for ordinary Nigerians, can help to reduce tension.

“Nigeria is in an unusual position compared to other sub-Saharan African countries as it contributes to global warming through massive gas flaring and bush burning, whilst enduring desertification, sea level rise and extreme weather events that contribute to land degradation and intensify conflict,” said Christine K, who heads the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Nigeria.

According to her, the dialogue engaged government decision-makers ahead of the global summit in the bid to challenge and inspire key ministries and departments with developing strategic programmes targeted at job creation, resource governance and climate change adaptation strategies, especially for youth and women.

The Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) voiced their visions of where they would like Nigeria to be, even as they formulated steps towards achieving such visions after the global summit.

As world leaders, private sector players, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), CSOs and several others gather in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil to chart a path towards reducing world poverty, advancing social equity and ensuring environmental protection, two main themes will be central to the discussion: a green economy in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication; and the institutional framework of sustainable development.

Participants at the Abuja event insisted that Nigeria, now more than ever, needs to envision a more vibrant future that is diversified and evolved beyond the limits of a one-resource oil economy. The issue of sustainable development, they noted, permeates every aspect of the Nigerian economic development as questions of food security, high youth unemployment and incessant threats to national security continue to dominate the public sphere.

“Ethno-religious tensions in the North, terrorism and on-going militancy in the Niger Delta are indicative of the extremism bred from long-standing public exclusion in national affairs,” noted Christine, adding that the January 2012 fuel subsidy strike served as a wakeup call to government proving that although fractured, Nigeria’s civil society would not stand by idle where policy decisions continue to marginalise vulnerable groups in the society.

Lead author of “Green Deal Nigeria,” Hans Verlome, said: “In our view, business-as-usual in not an option, a Green Deal Nigeria is not a luxury, but rather a necessity! Those who benefit from the current system might say let’s look at the problem in 10 years when Nigeria is richer, but will it be?

“The aspiration of the government to lift Nigeria up economically and be a member of the G20 in 2020 might be ambitious, but will be unmanageable without a transformation of social and environmental problems in 2020. Finally, it is clear values matter, so what are Nigeria’s values?”

The study also contains topics such as “The transformation from fossil fuel to green energy” (written by Lois Laraba Machunga and Zumunta Machunga-Disu), “Energy Access for all: The role of clean energy in alleviating energy poverty,” “Climate change and conflict – Green economy to promote human security” (Huzi Mshelia), and “Nigeria’s agriculture and food security challenges (Chinedum Nwajiuba).

Source: Daily Independent

Document management system for sustainable future

Mon, 21 May 2012 07:47 +0100

Maureen Chinweokwu of Young & Bailey Nigeria Limited and Hamzat Bala Lawal of the International Centre for Energy, Environment & Development (ICEED) stress in this piece that every business should strive to have a positive impact on the environment and its community by adopting and implementing sustainable policies that improve the quality of life for its customers and employees

Everywhere, on the news; the internet; adverts; politics; social movements; entertainment and even in technology, environmental friendliness is being promoted. So we engage ourselves by using energy saving bulbs, planting trees and flowers, eating less of processed foods and recycling.

We now see the need to go green and develop environmental friendly habits at work, home, schools, while having fun and in every area of our life because, it has become increasingly clear to us that our lifestyle and that of others including plants, animals and the whole ecosystems affect the wellbeing of the planet.

Protection of plants and trees often come up as a major step to environmental protection. The retention of the flora and fauna of the ecosystem goes a long way in maintaining the balance that is much sort after. It is therefore necessary to also reduce, if not eliminate the use of products generated from plants and trees. Often times, hardcopy documents is an overlooked item of a company’s “green strategy”. It should not be so. The costs to the environment of using paper, ink, toner as well as machines like photocopiers, printers, faxes which consume energy are considerable.

As you know, paper is produced by pressing together moist fibers, typically cellulose pulp derived from wood or grasses, and processing them into flexible sheets – Paper. Therefore, we can easily derive that using so much paper in our day to day activities at work encourages the destruction of trees in our forests used to produce paper which in turn affects the eco system.

Organisations by choosing to become less dependent on hard copy documents with the implementation of a document management system will not only save the ecosystem but will save cost, increase profit and operate much more efficiently and cost effectively than they had ever done.

Every business should strive to have a positive impact on the environment and its community. It should go beyond scholarships, development programs or regulatory compliance to demonstrate a commitment to the community housing it. Rather, it should adopt and implement sustainable policies that improve the quality of life for its customers, employees and the whole planet while at the same time greatly improving its bottom line.

Document Management solutions electronically capture, store, and manage documents much more efficiently than any paper system. In addition to increasing business efficiencies, going paperless gives an organization a competitive edge by enhancing document access and sharing with customers, staff and partners.

The word out there is ‘Going Green’ for Sustainable Development.

Let’s go green and make a difference in our environments by preserving energy usage; saving our ecosystem; protecting our forests; creating innovative opportunities which leads to job creation and promoting sustainable development for all.

Source: Daily Independent

Nigeria gets $85m funding for renewable energy projects – AfDB

Mon, 14 May 2012 09:52 +0100

The Climate Investment Funds (CIF) committee has allocated $85 million to Nigeria to fund renewable projects, says the African Development Bank (AfDB)

The Climate Investment Funds provides a unique financing instrument designed to support low-emissions and climate-resilient development through scaled-up financing channeled through the African Development Bank, Asian Development Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Inter-American Development Bank, and the World Bank Group.

The fund allocated to Nigeria is part of the $250 million endorsed in its investment plan under the Clean Technology Fund (CTF), said AfDB in a statement on Tuesday. “It aims to promote private and public sector-led renewable energy and energy efficiency projects and mass-transit urban transport investments.

The AfDB expects to channel at least half of the CTF financing and contribute technical support and $200 million of its own co-financing to two projects specified in Nigeria’s plan: namely a bus-based mass transport systems and financial intermediation for clean energy and energy efficiency.

“Ethiopia’s efforts to increase energy efficiency and diversify its hydro-dependent energy mix through renewable energy got a USD 50 million boost from the Climate Investment Funds (CIF) committee meetings last week when Ethiopia’s investment plan under the Scaling Up Renewable Energy Program for Low Income Countries (SREP) was endorsed in full by CIF committee members.

The decision came during the week-long CIF committee meetings in Washington, D.C. from 30 April to 4 May. As implementing agency of the CIF, the African Development Bank (AfDB) was there to bring African interests to the table.

Ethiopia’s plan calls for AfDB technical support and investment to implement the Assela wind farm project and Phase II of the Aluto Langano geothermal project. The Bank expects to channel USD 23 million of total SREP financing to Ethiopia.

“The plan will help unlock Ethiopia’s renewable energy potential and share some of the risks. Funds will be applied to technology transfer to reduce the cost of wind energy and to initial drilling and exploration activities of geothermal,” stated Gosaye Mengistie Abayneh, Director of Energy Study and Development in the Ethiopian Ministry of Energy.

“Ghana presented updates on its investment plan under the Forest Investment Plan (FIP), which will be finalized for submission later in the year. FIP financing, estimated between USD 30 to 50 million, will help Ghana protect natural forests and woodlands, enhance carbon stocks and provide climate-smart agriculture and watershed protection.

“The meetings also heard the call for additional instruments and tools to strengthen direct private sector engagement, including proposals for fund allocation and guideline reforms, equity and local currency lending, and new dedicated funds.

Such new measures could benefit all CIF countries, including those in Africa where private sector engagement in the CIF has been quite limited. Committee members will reconvene on the issue at the CIF Governing Bodies Meetings and Partnership Forum in November 2012.

Vanguard

Lessons from the streets of Beijing

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 19:40 +0100

Today, I took a stroll out to the street of Beijing. Both work and jetlag had me tucked inside since my arrival in the early hours of yesterday. This is my first time in China. And I am excited. I have heard and read much about this new world power.

And here I am attending a forum organised by the Chinese Alliance for Clean Cookstoves. Only last month, Nigeria launched its own Alliance to tackle our entrenched energy poverty. Who would believe that in one of the world’s largest producers of oil and gas, nearly 80% of the population use wood fuel on primitive three-stone fires? So I came to China hoping we can find companies willing to invest in expanding access to modern cooking fuels and technologies for Nigeria’s poor.

Here on the streets of Beijing, I kept thinking how this country has been transformed. I still have vivid pictures of street scenes from TV footages of China in the 1980s. Everywhere you could see people with poverty written boldly on their faces – almost all wearing Chairman Mao’s uniform. There were very few cars. Unhappy men and women in bicycles crowded the streets. I often wondered if the Communist Party prohibited car ownership then. Mind you, this was at a time when the traffic chaos in Lagos was so bad the authorities introduce odd and even number days for car owners.

Just looking at these streets, you get dazed by the sheer size of ten-lane motorways and just the number of cars. China has done well. According to the World Bank, the country accounts for much of the halving in global poverty since 1980. In China alone, poverty declined from 80% in 1980 to 18% in 2005. According to our own National Bureau of Statistics, poverty among Nigerians has spread from 27% of the population in 1980 to 69% in 2010. From 17 million in 1980, over 112 million Nigerians in 2010 lived in poverty.

Today, China is the second largest economy in the world. And depending on who you ask, the country will overtake the USA as the world’s richest country in less than 20 years. There must be a lesson for Nigeria.

China is not only destined to be the world’s richest country, it has also become the world’s biggest polluter. Over the past few years, China overtook the United States as the highest emitter of the harmful gases that cause global warming. The role of China, India, Brazil and several of the emerging economies in reducing these harmful gases have often stalled international negotiations to address global warming.

But everywhere I look in this beautiful city, the streets are impeccably clean with recycle garbage bins all over the place. The underground train network takes much of the human movement. Even though the number of cars on these motorways is incredible, you will also find unending lines of long clean buses. China has pledged to reduce the carbon intensity of its energy system by 45% by 2020. By 2015 it plans to be the largest producer of electric vehicles. It has the world’s fastest growing wind and solar energy markets.

The breakneck speed of Chinese growth could harm both its own and the world’s environment. But there is more to it. It is increasingly likely China and the emerging economies will provide more of the answers to tomorrow’s environmental challenges. New technologies, a very liquid fiscal position, good leadership and youthful demographics – all are elements that can shape a cleaner and more prosperous Chinese future.

So I walked back to my hotel feeling a bit low – thinking about my country. And how the world is leaving us behind.

10m clean cooking stoves will reduce use of wood – ICEED Boss

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 16:05 +0100

Executive Director, International Centre for Energy, Environment and Development, ICEED.Mr. Ewah Otu Eleri, says the introduction of ten million clean cooking stoves would reduce the amount of wood that is used for cooking both in the rural and urban parts of the country.

Mr. Eleri who spoke to Vanguard Homes & Property said: “We want improvement on the amount of wood that is used; both rural and urban families want to be able to save wood, because in rural areas, girls and women spend a lot of time collecting wood.

“They will like to spend that time on education and other areas. In the urban areas, wood is increasingly getting expensive, and poor families are spending money that they don’t have or money they could have used for other purposes especially in buying food”.

Continuing, the ICEED boss said: “Today, the challenge is simple, there are no stoves in the market that can solve this problem. Although we have LBD stoves and cooking gas, for some people, it is still expensive because it is cheaper to use other sources.

“The gas cylinders that we have in the market are too big and costly for poor people to buy; we don t have gas cylinders that are smaller for poor people to buy just the way people buy recharge card for N100, N200 and refill them next time. So we want cylinders for gas like 2.5kg, 3kg so that people would be able to afford them.”

He said the project will save millions of carbon and the nation will benefit million of dollars from the carbon market. That ICEED boss said his NGO is working towards ensuring that the prices of the cooking stoves are reduced.

Executive Director, Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, Ms. Radha Muthiah, said there are different manufacturers and producers using different fuels.

”In terms of the affordability, there are a few areas that Nigerian Alliance is working with the Global Alliance; one is to ensure that we have consumer level financing, whether it is micro finance institutions or we have credit schemes where people might take the stove and pay for a period of six to 12 months. We are looking for ways to make it affordable to to the end users. So, producers are selling their stoves at subsidized rates. The third way is to produce at the scale that the cost will go down.”

Coordinator for Renewable Energy, Federal Ministry of Environment. Mrs Bahijat Abubakar regretted that over 95,000 deaths occur due to indoor house pollution as a result of cooking with firewood.

“The fact that the world outlook energy in 2010 says that by 2030, death from in-house pollution is going to be much more than malaria, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS is enough to get us to action.

The target of Nigerian Alliance is 10 million clean cook stoves in 2020. However, we are more ambitious by saying we want to do 20 million in five years. The Federal government of Nigeria is committed to providing clean energy. We must lead Africa; we cannot say we are developing a green economy but still cooking with primitive method that endangers the lives of women and children. So, if for any reason Nigeria wants to stand up and be counted in this international year of sustainable energy we need to commit to making sure that clean energy is a reality,” she said.

By Laide Akinboade & Caleb Ayansina - VANGUARD

Prospects of clean cookstoves, by stakeholders

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 14:06 +0100

FG eying 20m stoves in five years –Abubakar

The fact that the World Health Organisation (WHO) says that over 95,000 deaths occur due to indoor house pollution as a result of cooking with firewood is enough to alarm us. The fact that the world energy outlook in 2010 says that, by 2030, deaths from in-house pollution is going to be much more than malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS is enough to get us to action. The Global Alliance for Clean Cookstove was launched in 2010 in the United States as said earlier and it was anchored by the Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton.

We believe that if Nigeria wants to be counted as one of the 20 best economies by 2020, we cannot carry the burden of 95,000 deaths every year due to indoor air pollution from smoke from cook stove. So we need to clean up our act so that our economy grows without the burden of the guilt of 95,000 people dying annually.

The target is to provide 10 million clean cook stoves in 2020; however, we are more ambitious by saying we want to do 20 million in five years. The Federal Government of Nigeria is committed to providing clean energy. We cannot lead Africa; we cannot say we are developing a green economy by still cooking with primitive methods that endanger the lives of women and children. So, if for any reason Nigeria wants to stand up and be counted in this International Year of Sustainable Energy, we need to commit to making sure that clean energy is a reality.

What we have done through the Presidential Initiative is go to the modern villages for clean cookstoves where 10 households in every village act as pilot case. In 2012, the Ministry of Environment is taking the driver’s seat in ensuring that the clean cookstove in Nigeria is a reality.

The desert is sacking the people from the north, the erosion is sacking people from the South East, and the flood is sacking people from the South West. Everybody is moving towards the centre, there is going to be crisis, so I need every Nigerian to embrace this as a matter of life and death because our lives and our livelihood are being threatened.

However, we cannot tell people to stop using fuel wood because we have not provided alternatives.

• Bahijjatu Abubakar is Coordinator, Renewable Energy Programme,Federal Ministry of Environment

Alliance making stoves affordable – Muthiah

We have a variety of stoves and manufacturers, using different fuels; you might have ethanol and other fuels. Here today we have different kind of stoves, so there is not just only one problem to address there are many solutions.

In terms of the affordability, the Nigerian alliance is working with the global alliance in several areas. One is to ensure that we have consumer level financing, whether it is micro-finance institution or we have a credit scheme where people might take the stove and pay up within six to 12 months. Those are the way we are looking for it to be affordable to the end users. So, producers are selling their stoves at a subsidised rate. The third way is to produce at the scale the cost we go down.

In terms of availability, the plan in Nigeria is for both urban and rural areas; we are working though civil society organisations, community-based organisations, who are already operating in many of these villages, working with women cooperative societies. People who already have a network that reach these villages are going to be working with them. We don’t necessary need to create additional distribution channels for cookstoves, so the Nigerian alliance is interested in tapping to these networks to get clean cookstoves to the poor people.

We are trying to prioritise about 10 countries that we will be working with and Nigeria is one of them, we are very committed to support the Nigerians Alliance, this is not a situation where we don’t know where the solution is, the solution is very much here, the Nigerian Alliance has brought together a tremendous number of stakeholders; the government, private sector players and NGOs, and we are very proud to be a partner to have 10 million cookstoves by 2020.

• Radha Muthiah is Executive Director, Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves

We aim to reduce fuel wood consumption – Eleri

We want an improvement in the reduction of the amount of wood that is used by both rural and urban families. Girls and women spend a lot of time collecting wood, but they will like to spend that time on education and other areas. In urban area, wood is increasingly getting expensive, and poor families are spending money that they don’t have or money they could have used for other purposes especially in buying food.

Today, the challenge is quiet simple. There are no stoves in the market that could be able to solve this problem even though we have LBD stove, cooking gas, for some people it is still quite expensive because it is cheaper to use other sources, but because the gas cylinders that we have in the market are too big and costly for poor people to buy, because we don t have gas cylinders that are smaller for poor people to buy just the way people buy recharge card for N100, N200 and refill them next time. So we want cylinder for gas like 2.5kg, 3kg so that people can be able to afford them.

Through this project we will save million of carbon and if we do it right our country will benefit from millions of dollars from the carbon market, this will benefit primarily families. Today, some of the stoves are still expensive but we are able to put carbon credit on them, and we can reduce their prices more than half; this is what we are working towards.

The primary objective for clean cookstove is to help Nigeria solve Nigerians’ problem. So whatever that we can achieve in terms of contribution from international community comes as a bonus to us. Our primary objective is to ensure that our government and private sector put adequate money in this area of energy sector because, to say the truth, this is the most important energy crisis in our country. Often we focus on electricity and petroleum, but today we know that lack of access to cooking alternatives in home actually kills, so it very important that we address this as an emergency that it is.

• Ewah Otu Eleri is Executive Director, International Centre for Energy, Environment and Development (ICEED)

IN WEST AFRICA, WE WERE WELCOMED

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 15:22 +0100

From the conference rooms of Abuja to the communities in and around Accra, I consistently heard the phrase ‘you are welcome’ during my recent trip to Nigeria and Ghana. I thought it was just a formal acknowledgment to my ‘thank you’, but as I later heard Radha Muthiah, Executive Director, Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, explain, West Africans are often known not just for their statements of welcome, but for their actions of welcome as well. Indeed, we were welcomed to both countries with kindness, hospitality, and collegiality.

In Abuja, Radha and I had the pleasure of participating in the launch of the Nigerian Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, an affiliate of the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves with a goal of 10 million households adopting clean cooking solutions by 2020. That’s 10 percent of the Global Alliance’s 100 by ‘20 goal! With more than 92 million Nigerians reliant on solid fuels for cooking their daily meal, they have their work cut out for them. However, just as we at the Global Alliance like to say, it’s an ambitious but achievable goal.

With about one dozen public, private and nongovernmental partners, the Nigerian Alliance is looking to strengthen its membership in order to scale up and address and arrest this silent killer that is prevalent in the homes of 67 percent of the population – claiming the lives of 95,000 Nigerians annually. Radha believes the Global Alliance will be able to support their efforts in a few strategic ways, such as government advocacy to reduce tariffs and non-financial trade barriers, capacity building through the creation of a testing center, and introducing the Nigerian Alliance to potential new partners and donors.

As an added bonus to our time in Abuja, I even had the chance to catch up with our old UN Foundation colleague, Innocent Onah, who is now working for a Nigerian senator in the capital!

Ghana was an opportunity to meet with our Ghanaian partners and the broader stakeholders within that country’s cookstove sector, as well as visit the factories and facilities of some of our implementing partners who are building improved cookstoves. Radha and I caught up with our colleague Amy Sticklor for these activities, who was also checking up on the progress of our Ghanaian market assessment currently being conducted by Accenture Development Partnerships. The market assessment will help the Global Alliance paint a broad picture of the country’s cookstove sector, and subsequently prioritize which activities and interventions will have the most benefit to the people of Ghana and our 100 by ’20 goal.

The Ghanaian cookstove market is dominated by the gyapa (“good fire”) stove, which looks like two cones sitting on top of one another. In fact, gyapa has become a word in the Ghanaian vernacular similar to the way we use ‘Kleenex’ or ‘Band-Aid’ in the United States – it is formally a branded stove but became so popular that the word transcended the one company that started making them. Our team had the chance to visit multiple steps in the production process, from scrap metal collection to cementing to firing.

What we learned in Ghana was that though the gyapa stoves have made significant progress in reducing the amount of fuel the users consume, thereby saving them money, they currently are not making enough progress in benefiting the user’s health. So they are improved, but not necessarily clean, largely because the fuel that powers the gyapa is charcoal – a fuel approximately 35 percent of the population is reliant upon. Through the robust value chains they are tapped into, the relationships they have with their end users, and their commitments to the Global Alliance’s goal for adoption of clean cooking technologies, our Ghanaian partners are committed to taking their customers up the fuel ladder toward more efficient and cleaner stoves and fuel sources.

I’d like to thank Ewah Otu Eleri, Suraj Wahab, and MacKenzie Dove and their teams at ICEED, Toyola, and Relief International, respectively, for helping ensure that the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves was welcomed in West Africa. We look forward to returning shortly!

BY SEAN BARTLETT, Communications Officer, Strategic Initiatives, United Nations Foundation.

U.S. Government Supports Clean Cook-stoves to Save Lives (March 22, 2012)

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 09:49 +0100

Abuja – Nigeria: "Promoting use of clean cook-stoves represents a diplomatic and development priority for the U.S. Government," says Ambassador Terence P. McCulley at the official launch of the Nigerian Alliance for Clean Cook-stoves in Abuja on Tuesday, March 20, 2012.

The project targets 10 million Nigerian homes adopting the use of clean cook-stoves by the year 2020. The Global Alliance goal is to impact 100 million users of clean cook-stoves by the target year 2020.

Ambassador McCulley praised the Nigerian group for becoming part of the Global Alliance for Clean Cook-stoves spearheaded by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2010, to create a thriving global market for clean and efficient household solutions.

He said as part of the Global Alliance, the U.S. government has committed up to $105 million dollars over the next five years towards public diplomacy, applied research, capacity building, stove testing, field implementation, and evaluation.

The U.S. government’s assistance program also intends to support the deployment of energy efficient cook-stoves to school and public health facilities, a commitment, which Ambassador McCulley hopes, will serve as a model for scale-up and replication in support of the Nigerian government’s policy to transition from fire wood and kerosene to cooking gas.

Mr. Ewah Otu Eleri, Director, International Centre for Energy, Environment & Development and Coordinator of the Nigerian Alliance for Clean Cook-stoves, said they will be raising awareness about the impact of traditional cooking practices on health, environment, livelihoods, and women’s empowerment.

He said Nigeria has the highest number of deaths resulting from smoke fuels - 95,000 Nigerians die annually from problems arising from toxic smoke from rudimentary cook-stoves, one of the developing world's worst public health threats.

"Cooking is supposed to bring pleasure, bring health, bring well-being into families – cooking should not kill," Mr. Eleri intoned.

Global Alliance for Clean Cook-stoves is a UN Foundation-led initiative seeking to reverse this trend.

She said about three billion people globally are dependent on solid fuels for cooking, such as burning wood or charcoal indoors, a practice that also depletes forests, which scientists say can contribute to climate change.

The Global Alliance for Clean Cook-stoves is a public-private initiative to save lives, improve livelihoods, empower women, and combat climate change by creating a thriving global market for clean and efficient household cooking solutions.

Current partners include The Global Alliance for Clean Cook-stoves, Federal Ministry of Health, Federal Ministry of Environment, Federal Ministry of Women Affairs, Energy Commission of Nigeria, Shell Petroleum Development Company, Oando Plc, USAID, GIZ-Nigeria, Heinrich Boll Foundation, First City Monument Bank, Bank of Industry and International Centre for Energy, Environment & Development.

Source: http://nigeria.usembassy.gov

Ten million clean cookstoves achievable

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 15:35 +0100

The Nigerian Alliance for Clean Cookstoves was launched in Abuja on Tuesday March 20, 2012. The Alliance made up of four federal government agencies, major oil and gas companies such as Shell and Oando as well as donors plan to introduce 10 million clean cookstoves by the year 2020.

The Nigerian Alliance promotes the transition from the use of raw, unprocessed solid fuels such as fire wood in traditional three-stone stoves to higher levels of efficiency and clean energy sources such as LPG and electricity. In her remarks, the Executive Director of the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, Radha Muthiah noted her delight as Nigeria became the first African country to launch a national partnership to confront the health and environmental dangers of the traditional use of fire wood. According to Ms Muthiah, “Nigeria has shown tremendous capacity to provide leadership in addressing this silent national health crisis, the country can lead the rest of Africa in solving this problem”, she says.

As one of the members of the Alliance, Oando Plc pledged to sell affordable gas stoves to six million poor families in three years. “With other companies joining the Alliance, the goal of 10 million clean cookstoves is already in sight. However the Nigerian Alliance will rather under-promise and over-deliver”, according to Ewah Eleri, Executive Director of International Centre for Energy, Environment and Development.

Nigeria suffers over 95,000 deaths annually from smoke from fire wood. The United States Ambassador to Nigeria, Terrence MacCulley pledged the support of the US government to Nigeria’s efforts to solve the problem of smoke from fire wood. According to the ambassador, the US government has concluded plans to provide Nigerian secondary schools with large clean cookstoves.

Ingrid Fiskaa, Norway’s minister of state for international development pledged on behalf of her government to support Nigeria in her efforts to end this health and environmental problem. According to Fiskaa, “it is unacceptable that over two million lives are lost globally to the problem of unsafe cooking methods. Most of these deaths are women and children. Norway stands ready to support Nigeria in ending this unnecessary loss of lives”, she concluded.

Current members of the Nigerian Alliance for Clean Cookstoves include the Bank of Industry, USAID, ICEED, Heinrich Boell Foundation, the German-GIZ, Shell, Oando, Energy Commission of Nigeria and the Federal Ministries of Environment, Women Affairs and Health.

Efforts to save lives in Nigeria with clean cookstoves

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 15:35 +0100

A UN-linked body launched a campaign in Nigeria on Tuesday aimed at preventing deaths due to toxic smoke from rudimentary cookstoves, one of the developing world's worst public health threats.

Some two million people die annually from diseases caused by toxic cookstove smoke, according to the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, a UN Foundation-led initiative seeking to reverse the trend.

In Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation, an estimated 95,000 people die each year due to such toxic smoke, the highest number of deaths on the continent.

Radha Muthiah, executive director of the Global Alliance, said the risk posed by rudimentary forms of cooking should be accorded similar attention as diseases such as malaria, HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis. "We feel the time is right and the time is indeed now with the launch of the Nigerian Alliance as well to arrest this silent killer in homes of half of the world population," she said at Tuesday's launch.

Muthiah said some three billion people globally are dependent on solid fuels for cooking, such as burning wood or charcoal indoors, a practice that also depletes forests, which scientists say can contribute to climate change.

US Ambassador to Nigeria Terence McCulley said his government has committed up to $105 million over the next five years for the project, which aims to create markets for cleaner burning stoves.

The Coordinator of the Nigerian Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, Ewah Eleri, said the target is to see Nigeria equipped with 10 million clean cookstoves by 2020, beginning with half a million within the next 12 months.

Source: YAHOO! NEWS / AFP

Cooking fuel – hope rises for the poor

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 13:39 +0100

Relief is on the way for millions of Nigeria’s families struggling to have access to affordable cooking fuels. An influential partnership of key federal government agencies, the private sector and donors have laid out plans to phase out the tradition use of fuel wood in Nigerian homes.

The Nigerian Alliance for Clean Cookstoves – a public-private partnership to reach 10 million Nigerian families with clean cook stoves will be launched Tuesday March 20 in Abuja. According to the Executive Director of International Centre for Energy, Environment & Development (ICEED), Ewah Eleri “cooking smoke causes over 95,000 deaths in Nigeria annually. The use of clean cookstoves will save lives, money, forests and empowers women”.

The launch of the Alliance will bring together the ministers of Women Affairs and her counterparts in Health and Environment. It will be observed by foreign dignitaries such as the US Ambassador to Nigeria, Terrence Macaulay and Norwegian Minister of State for International Development, Ingrid Fiskaa. Other dignitaries include the Managing Director of Shell, Mutiu Sunmonu and the Chief Executive of Oando Plc, Mr Wale Tinubu.

The partnership will work with the government and companies to ensure access to cooking gas for poor families. It will also work to promote new and efficient wood stoves that saves time and money for families.

According to Engr Bahijjatu Abubakar, Head of the Renewable Energy Programme of the Federal Ministry of Environment “the Government is committed to affordable access to clean cookstoves for all Nigerian families. In the next few years, we will roll out millions of these stoves to both urban and rural households. This is important in saving our environment and empowering our women” she says.

Radha Muthiah visits Nigeria

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 13:35 +0100

Radha Muthiah, the Executive Director of the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves will visit Nigeria March 19 – 20. Muthiah will be the keynote speaker at the official launch of the Nigerian Alliance for Clean Cookstoves on Tuesday March 20 at the Transcorp Hilton, Abuja.

The Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves is a public-private partnership to save lives, improve livelihoods, empower women, and combat climate change by creating a thriving market for clean and efficient household cooking solutions.

Ms Muthiah will participate in the launching of the Nigerian Alliance for Clean Cookstoves. According to Ewah Eleri, Director of the International Centre for Energy, Environment & Development, “Nigeria will be the first African country to launch a public-private-partnership to address the health, poverty and environmental problems caused by the traditional use of wood fuel. This visit by Ms Muthiah will strengthen the partnership between the Global Alliance and Nigerian partners”

Smoke from wood fuel causes over 95,000 deaths in Nigeria annually. The country experiences the highest number of smoke-related deaths in Africa; after Malaria and HIV/AIDS, it is the biggest killer of mostly women and children. For the 112 million Nigerians living in poverty, traditional cooking method is expensive, and costs poor families money that could be put to better use on education, health and nutrition. Traditional cooking with millions of open fire and resulting deforestation also contribute to emission of harmful greenhouse gases that cause climate change.

The Nigerian Alliance for Clean Cookstoves will launch a national campaign to introduce 10 million fuel-efficient stoves to Nigerian homes and institutions by 2020. The Alliance supports policy change, better technical standards and innovative financing in the development of a national clean cookstove industry. It works with public, private, and non-profit partners to scale up access to clean cookstoves in Nigeria.

Nigerian Government Agency Launches Microdistillery and Stoves to Provide Sustainable Ethanol Fuel for Household Cooking, Lighting and Small-Scale Power Generation

Thu, 01 Mar 2012 10:57 +0100

The National Biotechnology Development Agency (NABDA), a parastatal under the Nigerian Federal Ministry of Science and Technology, has commissioned the installation of an efficient microdistillery (EMD) with a capacity to produce 1,000 liters of ethanol per day from local crops and crop wastes. The EMD will be located in NABDA’s Ogbomosho Bioresource Center. The Center is located on a prime cassava and cashew belt in Ogbomosho Community, Oyo State, Nigeria.

The project will pilot the production of advanced bioethanol from waste and non-food-grade crops for use as cooking fuel in rural households in the surrounding communities of Ogbomosho. Bioethanol fuel for cooking has been shown to mitigate the effects of indoor air pollution caused by the use of firewood and kerosene. Reliance on dirty and poorly combusting fuels creates a major risk for women and children in Nigeria and sub-Saharan Africa.

NABDA is working in collaboration with private sector organizations Premium Ranch Farm Limited and Primera Agricultura Limited. It is being assisted by Project Gaia, a non-profit organization long active in Nigeria, dedicated to promoting the use of alcohol fuels. The project is the first of its kind in Nigeria and one of the first in Africa. It is designed to support the Federal Government of Nigeria Transformation Agenda, which aims at socio-economic development of the rural areas. Small-scale fuel ethanol production will provide new and stable markets to Nigeria’s eight million cassava farmers who produce annually some 38 million tons of cassava, more than any other nation.

The EMD is provided by Green Social Bioethanol (GREEN), a Brazilian family-owned company specializing in small-scale bioethanol technologies for social projects. GREEN distilleries produce between 500 and 3,000 liters of ethanol per day; they may be operated in continuous or batch mode and use a unihydrolyzing process with cool-temperature enzymes. The NABDA distillery will rely on non-food grade cassava and cassava pieces, as well as the cashew apple, which is discarded when cashew nuts are harvested. Both cassava and cashew apples have a short life after harvest and must be processed quickly. The EMD will be located adjacent to the cassava fields and cashew tree plantations.

The NABDA project brings the distillery together with an initial 1,000 CleanCook ethanol stoves, a safe, efficient stove developed by the Dometic Group and selected by Project Gaia for use in Africa. These stoves create a reliable market for ethanol fuel, while ethanol from the EMD satisfies the need of nearby communities for modern cooking fuel.

The CleanCook stove is used in rural and urban Ethiopian households and has been widely pilot tested in several countries, including Nigeria, Madagascar, Malawi, Kenya and Brazil. The CleanCook has proved popular with consumers and has achieved an exemplary safety record. Studies conducted by Project Gaia in Delta State, Nigeria, in 2006 and 2007 showed that households preferred cooking with alcohol and the CleanCook stove over LPG, kerosene and firewood. It is the aim of NABDA to provide a cheaper fuel alternative than imported kerosene. A growing fuel supply crisis and Nigeria’s need to move to a market-based approach for fuel pricing has made this an urgent priority.

The NABDA EMD will serve as a model for small-scale, distributed clean energy production in Nigeria. It will be available for widespread replication. A growing reliance on fuel ethanol will help to stabilize cassava prices. New markets for the by-products of ethanol production will be created. The solids from fermentation and distillation, enhanced by yeast and enzymes, will go to livestock feed, fertilizer and compost. The liquids, which have fertilizer value, will be used for irrigation.

NABDA believes that developing Nigeria’s capacity to produce ethanol from waste and non-food-grade crops will achieve energy security as well as social and economic development through the strengthening or creation of rural livelihoods. NABDA is charting a strategy for Nigeria to reduce its dependency on foreign refined petroleum fuels while diversifying its energy supply with the capacity to produce bioethanol fuel on a small scale.

#

Contacts:

Mr. Joe Obueh – Director, Project Gaia Nigeria

Jobueh@projectgaia.com +234 (803) 6974 200

Ms. Gulce Askin – Project Coordinator, Project Gaia, Inc.

Gulce.askin@projectgaia.com +1 (717)-334-5594

Kudos to CBN, German Embassy and ICEED

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 11:23 +0100

The Central Bank of Nigeria, German Embassy in Nigeria and one of the leading non-governmental organization devoted to Environmental advocacy, the International Centre for Energy, Environment & Development (ICEED) kick-started a program in Abuja yesterday which may go a long way in reducing the dangers Nigerians could face as the threats of climate change loom on the country.

In a notable collaborative manner, the three bodies commenced a workshop that would lead to the development of climate protection mechanism for Nigeria’s farmers through the provision of insurance services. The objective is to expand the coverage of agricultural insurance to Nigeria’s farmers.

Agriculture accounts for 42% of the Nigerian GDP and employs about 65% of labour. Over 90% of Nigeria’s farms are rain-fed. Today, climate change is one of the greatest threats to the country’s agriculture as unpredictability of the season and intensity of rains is beginning to affect the circles and volumes of cultivation and cropping nation-wide.

Although there has been no formal report from the Federal Ministry of Environment on this negative effect, the First National Communication sent to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change by the Ministry clearly pointed out this looming danger. The Communication was prepared in 2007 while the update is still being awaited to be finalized.

As a result of the threat of climate change to the country’s agriculture, efforts of the Federal and State Governments at reducing poverty, meet the Millennium Development Goals and the national development agenda may just be on the way to the brink unless the initiative of the CBN, German Embassy and ICEED becomes a major national priority.

Early January, the Banking Sector announced its readiness for voluntary Sustainability Principle in Banking facility access, this readiness must be properly encouraged and developed in synergy with the Agricultural Insurance Scheme that will recognise climate impacts on agriculture as a major factor that must taken into consideration by the Banking and Insurance Industry.

According experts in climate change adaptation and mitigation, there is a compelling need for the Federal and the State Governments to actively encourage agricultural insurance to expand its frontiers to cover loss and damages arising from climate change.

The Central Bank of Nigeria has set up the Nigerian Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL). NIRSAL provides measures for comprehensive reform of agricultural financing, including insurance services. This initiative of the bank should be supported now by the National Assembly in order to give it a legal backing and forestall a situation where the country could be embarrassed in the near future.

One conclusion that every expert on climate change and its impacts on Nigeria has always reached is that there would be extreme negative effect on Nigerian agriculture and agricultural yields. This in turn could lead to social strive and wide-spread communal violence arising from competition for scarce resources to support life.

This thus points to the fact that climate impacts on agriculture in Nigeria should be ranked as a major national security issue and be treated as such.

Nigeria cannot afford to wait and allow the danger catch up with the country before a major national attention is given to issue of making Nigerian agriculture resilient to climate change. As a result of the level of education of most Nigerian Farmers especially in respect of issues of climate change, a lot of famers may not be adequately equipped to adapt to the extreme climate events and the losses that will arise.

By Rotimi Ajayi, Vanguard

Communiqué issued at the end of the Stakeholders Workshop on Legal and Regulatory Frameworks for Agricultural Insurance Reform in Nigeria.

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 10:55 +0100

Communiqué issued at the end of the Stakeholders Workshop on Legal and Regulatory Frameworks for Agricultural Insurance Reform in Nigeria – Protecting Nigeria’s Farmers from Climate Change, organised by the Central Bank of Nigeria, in collaboration with the International Centre for Energy, Environment & Development and the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany, February 27, 2012 in Abuja.

Preamble:

Considering the importance of the agricultural sector to food security, employment and economic growth, Concerned about the inadequate access to financial services to the sector, Acknowledging the increasing frequency of natural disasters caused by climate change, Aware of the role of insurance in protecting Nigeria’s farmers from these disasters and improving access to bank lending to the sector, Stakeholders representing the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, the insurance industry, the National Insurance Commission, the Central Bank of Nigeria, Nigerian Meteorological Agency, commercial banks, farmers, international experts, international agencies and NGOs met in Abuja, February 27 2012 and resolved the following:

Nigeria must urgently expand the coverage of agricultural insurance to millions of farmers by creating a competitive and innovative agricultural insurance market.
The National Insurance Commission affirms the right of private insurance companies to participate in the agricultural insurance market, with the exception of primary crop production as protected by the existing legislation.
All stakeholders agree to a total deregulation of the agricultural insurance sector by amending the Nigerian Agricultural Insurance Corporation Act 1993.
The Federal Ministry of Agriculture has already taken steps to establish a broad based stakeholder committee to facilitate the amendment of the Nigerian Agricultural Insurance Corporation Act 1993.
NIRSAL/CBN is committed to working with all insurance stakeholders to improve levels of technical assistance and productive innovation in the market in order to ensure the success of the broader risk guarantees market.
The Nigerian Agricultural Insurance Corporation is committed to expanding the growth of the agricultural sector and protecting Nigeria’s farmers from climatic and other risks. The future of this national company is bright. NAIC expresses its total support for ongoing reforms in the agricultural insurance sector.
The insurance industry represented by several companies and the Nigeria Insurers Association affirms its willingness and capacity to fully participate in the emerging agricultural insurance market.
Stakeholders agree that capacity building and expansion of weather monitoring infrastructure will be a pre-condition for developing the market for agricultural insurance in Nigeria.
Stakeholders are committed to an accelerated implementation of these reforms in an open, inclusive and participatory manner with full consideration for the role of women in the agricultural sector.

Abuja, February 27, 2012

Jude Uzonwanne Ewah Otu Eleri Head, NIRSAL, Central Bank of Nigeria Director, ICEED Tel: 070 3372 0591 Tel: 080 3206 2040

Legal and Regulatory Frameworks for Agricultural Insurance Reform in Nigeria.

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 08:29 +0100

The Central Bank of Nigeria in collaboration with the International Centre for Energy, Environment & Development (ICEED) are working together to provide Nigeria’s farmers with protection against climate change through expansion of insurance services. In collaboration with the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany, these agencies are organising a workshop on legal and regulatory reforms to increase the coverage of agricultural insurance to Nigerian farmers.

Expansion of access to financial services is crucial in modernising agriculture and building resilience among farmers. However, less than 5% of total bank lending to the private sector goes to agriculture. And less than one percent of Nigeria’s farmers have access to insurance services. Scaling up agricultural insurance will assist in de-risking agricultural business and cover loss and damage arising from climate change. The Central Bank of Nigeria has responded to this challenge by setting up the Nigerian Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL). NIRSAL provides measures for comprehensive reform of agricultural financing, including insurance services.

This workshop seeks to strengthen Nigeria’s efforts to develop and implement legal and regulatory reforms of agricultural insurance. It will provide a forum to share international best practices and ensure that reform efforts are based on a solid knowledge base. The workshop brings together representatives of the insurance industry, other financial institutions, the insurance regulator, representatives of agencies of government, international development organisations, agricultural cooperatives and civil society.

Lead Presenters:

Matthew Troniak, Executive Director, Rural Agriculture Working Group, Making Finance Work for Africa, African Development Bank
K. N. Rao, Chief Risk Officer, Agricultural Insurance Company of India Limited
Peter Gross Business Development Manager, MicroEnsure, Ghana

The workshop will be opened by H.E. Mrs Dorothee Janetzke-Wenzel, Ambassador, Federal Republic of Germany.

The Event would be held at Kano Hall, Transcorp Hilton Hotel on February 27, 2012.

For more information, please contact: Ewah Eleri, Executive Director, International Centre for Energy, Environment & Development. Tel: +234 9 783 1151. Email: info@iceednigeria.org

NAICOM disbands monopoly of agric insurance

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 07:59 +0100

National Insurance Commission, NAICOM, has disbanded the monopoly of Nigerian Agricultural Insurance Corporation, NAIC from the exclusivity of agricultural insurance in the country as the commission has open its doors to other underwriters willing to go into the lass of business.

Commissioner for Insurance, Mr Fola Daniel made this known recently at a two training programme organised by the insurance regulatory body for Journalists in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, titled, ‘Development of Micro-Insurance Market in Nigeria.

Daniel explained that NAIC cannot be able to contain the huge opportunities in agricultural insurance in the country hence the need to give other insurance companies the leverage to emplore that business.

“At the moment, it seems NAIC Act has conferred on NAIC the exclusive right to insure all subsidised agricultural risk;” however, opportunities still abound in the areas of commercial unsubsidised agricultural risks”.

“The commission shall give appropriate consideration to underwriters desiring to underwrite agricultural insurance under the relevant provisions of the law. Existing underwriters are well advised to take advantage of the capacity already accumulated by NAIC,” he said.

He equally pointed out that as means of attaining sufficient capacity for large risks, the commission shall actively support pool arrangements, co-insurance and facultative reinsurance placements.

He said that NAICOM was willing to permit other insurance companies that desired to take on the class of insurance that falls under micro-insurance.

According to him, “The development of agricultural insurance is another area the commission is very concerned about. Although, the Nigerian Agricultural Insurance Corporation (NAIC) seems to have the exclusive right to all subsidized agricultural risks in the country by virtue of the Act that established it, huge opportunities still exist in the areas of commercial unsubsidized agricultural risks.”

By Favour Nnabugwu

UNDP partners BoI, others on bankable emissions reduction projects

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 12:06 +0100

SEEKING to reduce energy generation’s contribution to emission of greenhouse gases and climate change, stakeholders in the country have been advised to explore opportunities inherent in bankable emissions reduction projects.

The projects are promoted by United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) under the energy efficiency project, which is aimed at opening up investments in emissions reducing projects such as structuring wind, solar, bio-mass, geothermal and small-scale hydro-power projects.

Last week, a three-day training titled: ‘Renewable Energy Project Finance’ organised by UNDP Nigeria Country Office in collaboration with Bank of Industry and Euromoney Training was held in Lagos for financial institutions on the risk assessment and allocation in renewable transactions, green credits, tax credits, Carbon credits, trading markets, cash flow analysis for renewable deals, debt and equity alternatives for financing renewable energy.

UNDP Deputy Country Director, Mr. JanThomas Hiemstra drew attention to a recently released statistics of the poverty rates in Nigeria that the energy need for the populace that fall within this statistics is paramount. He expressed satisfaction that UNDP through the Implementing agency BOI was implementing the Access to Renewable Energy Project.

BOI managing director, represented by the GM Operations, Mr. Austin Jo-Madugu, stated that within the overall framework of increasing access to modern energy services, the strategy for the Access to Renewable Energy Programme is aimed at fostering pro-development energy services by facilitating an expansion of renewable energy services accessible to MSMEs, renewable energy investments by building up capacity within the financial sector, as well as, among users and providers of energy services, promote policies and institutional frameworks for an inclusive renewable energy market development.

“We believe bankers will be able to understand how to structure and access renewable energy projects in Nigeria, this we hope would allow for more financing of such project in Nigeria. He explained that the three days training is one of the activities of the Access to renewable energy project, which is housed by the Bank of Industry.”

Megan Rapp from USAID in her presentation on loan guarantees explained how USAID is willing to partner with financial institutions in Nigeria so that they can access loan guarantee that can be used to reduce the risk of renewable energy projects.

Project Manager BOI/UNDP AtRE, Mr. Segun Adaju gave an update of the BOI/UNDP Access to Renewable Energy project adding that the objectives of the project was to build capacity of MSMEs to incorporate renewable energy options either as a business in and of itself, or as service for business development.

He also gave a rundown of activities that the project management team have embarked on to include the interactive session with financial institution and the Investment forum that provided as interface between project developers and financial institutions. At these forums there was a resounding call for capacity development.

The participants came from Bank of Industry, Access Bank, FCMB, UBA, Zenith Bank, Skye Bank, Sterling bank, Keystone Bank, Unity Bank, Nexim Bank, StanbicIBTC, Nefund, Aterios Capital and MBC Securities.

The Guardian

‘Govt must urgently respond to climate change’

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 12:27 +0100

The Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Climate Change, Eziuche Ubani, wants the government to do more towards adverse climate change in the country. He talked with DAKA TERHEMBA in Abuja. Excerpts:

HOW would you assess the response of the government to the issues of climate change?

We haven’t done our best in terms of proper responses. And that goes back to our lack of understanding of the climate change mitigation in all its ramifications.

This is a new concept of development that challenges carbon driven developments. In the carbon driven development, you have this cold power plants, you have gas being flared when we are trying to extract petroleum from the ground. We have various mining activities without proper care for the environment. Over time it has been found by science that the unbridled injection of carbon into the atmosphere has consequences.

Some of these gases stay up over 100 years before they dissolve. Even those that go to the ground don’t actually dissipate or dissolve, they have a long life and they have consequences. Some contaminate underground water. The ones that go to the atmosphere like carbon have the potential to impact the ozone layer, which is why we have shifts. Impacting the ozone layer means that there is distortion in the balancing, resulting in varying weather patterns.

The impact has become worse over time and exacerbated by the various human activities. The quest for man to live has contributed to these distortions, and combined with the pressure on resources by the increase in population. It is a circle and there are fears that we may approach a tipping point where this balance can no longer be maintained. We recklessly exploit natural resources and then emit more gasses into the atmosphere and then it can no longer hold. There are predictions that s cities very close to the coastline may over time be submerged because of the warming of the sea.

The issue is that some countries have understood this danger and are working out how to respond to it.

We on our own have not done enough. I don’t see evidence of understanding of what the issues are in place, and then the interconnectedness at the highest level of policy and power. I do not see evidence of any effort being made to mainstream efforts to mitigate adverse climatic changes. I do not see that in our budgets, I do not see it in the way we do our physical planning in the urban sphere and in a built up environment. I do not see that in the way we practice agriculture or water management or in the way we carry on our businesses.

How should the country address these issues for example in the area of budgeting?

We have to shorten the learning curve. There has to be some awareness about what this issue is. This is something that is in our immediate experience. The kind of flooding and erosion we have experienced have become very frequent and much more dangerous. We have seen prolonged periods of rainfall in certain areas, and inundation of coastal areas from sea by the sea and all that. What we need to do is to have the awareness that there are changes in the environment and that we need to understand the causes.

We need to understand the actions that we need to take in the policy process to be able to address them at the national, state and council levels. We have to check the way we hand permits for logging in the rural areas for example. This is just one example of the things that require changing. These are the sorts of action as opposed to the understanding of the causes and what we need to do.

There needs to be a policy on climate change. I believe that one is being done now. Then we need to mainstream climate change mitigation in our budgets. We need to bring that into our development process to say that for instance in 2020 or 2050 we would have driven down carbon emission to a particular level. Then we need to create institutions that would govern climate change mitigation. This is the governance architecture that we need to put in place, which we do not have now.

Is the budgetary allocation suitable to address the issues bothering on climate change mitigation in the country?

It is not sufficient. This year for instance, the department of climate change in the Ministry of Environment has a budget that is under N500 million. And then they have a whole country to deal with. But it is not just about the budget set aside for climate change. It is for the line ministries whether in agriculture, transportation, aviation, water resources to make their budget climate change mitigation-compliant. This means embracing programmes that would contribute to the quantum of efforts to bring down Nigeria’s emission of Green House gases or to respond to those changes that we know. Rather than just budgeting, like that to say, they can also say that okay they are planting a number of trees to bring down carbon emission. Those are not quite in place now.

Is there a policy on Climate Change now?

The Ministry of Environment has finished work on that. It is just left for the Minister to take it to Council for adoption. It is when they do that it can be adopted as Nigeria’s climate change policy.

What do we expect when it is adopted?

When it is adopted, perhaps we would have put down one of the major instruments for addressing climate. The efforts to bring down green house gases are encapsulated in the policy and the responsibilities due to those agencies and line ministries are specified there. For instance, the climate change policy takes the view that Nigeria needs to continuously bring down its consumption and dependence on fossil fuel that is petroleum and all of that. This means that there is something that we need to do over the years, to say for instance that by this year we should have brought this down by this quantity based on the efforts that are made by the programmes that are run by the ministries. We can say for instance that in 2030 Nigeria’s clean energy contribution to the overall Nigerian energy mix should be about 30 per cent or 40 per cent, which means that Nigeria will now shift investment from electricity as we know it to investing in solar power, investing in bio-mass, use of bio-diesel and bio fuel and all that.

How can the states be involved or is this just is climate change an issue that can be addressed only at the national level?

The issue of environment is a concurrent issue in the constitution. The Federal Government cannot actually legislate for the states. But the matter is that states are working at their pace. There are states that are doing something. Lagos, Kaduna and to some extent Delta and Cross River states are doing things along the requirements and dictates of climate change mitigation efforts. But everybody cannot be said to be marching at the same pace. The learning curve of the governors is also different, some are deep and some are shallow. So, not all the states are on one page on that issue.

Over grazing has been mentioned as a cause of climate change. What can be done to address the movement from a grassland to another by the nomadic Fulani cattlemen in search of grazing areas for their herd?

The only way to raise cattle is not to continue to move in the bush. There are new and more acceptable ways of doing it. They can be compelled to be in some kind of location where some incentives are provided for the to grow pasture. In some extreme cases like the case of the people in Iceland, over time they had so much sheep and this was threatening their land, and efforts to agriculture in other areas. They budget on what each farmer can produce and said for example that you cannot have more than a number of herds of cattle so that you don’t put too much pressure on land. It was done and the people obeyed.

They Fulani have to embrace mechanised farming or we have to devise other ways for which we can grow pasture much more quickly so that in a very small area they can grow a lot of pasture that would sustain a large number of their livestock. These are ways that are managed through issues like irrigation. If there is irrigation in a place that means that they can have pasture. There are lands for pasture that are always carved out after every budget for the government to rehabilitate so that livestock farmers can graze their cattle there.

This certainly is capital intensive and how can the illiterate nomadic farmer flow with such an idea?

It is feasible if we understand the dangers posed by adverse climate change. If we don’t do things today and decide to leave them for tomorrow, the cost and consequences will be bigger. The choice before us is to say, let everybody continue to produce and graze and then let the desert be coming. Let us be having desertification up to a point we are not able to even grow or raise one herd of livestock.

Author of this article: DAKA TERHEMBA

SAVE THE DATE - OFFICIAL LAUNCH OF THE NIGERIAN ALLIANCE FOR CLEAN COOKSTOVES - MARCH 20, 2012

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 15:48 +0100

The Partners of the Nigerian Alliance for Clean Cookstoves have scheduled a new date for the Official Launch of the Nigerian Alliance.

The new date is Tuesday March 20, 2012. More information will be provided soon.

A funeral for the Kyoto Protocol?

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 14:09 +0100

I met Vijay Iyer yesterday. Vijay is the World Bank’s Director of Energy and Sustainable Development. He told Honourable Eziuche Ubani and me a funny story. Ubani had asked him what his assessment of the negotiations was. “Are we making progress?” he asked. Vijay smiled. He asked if we had noticed how everybody is so nice to each other here at the climate change negotiations. Ubani and I didn’t know why. He told us that it was normal for people to be kind to each other during funerals. “The climate negotiation in Durban is like a funeral for the Kyoto Protocol”, he said.

The only legally binding agreement to reduce the emissions of harmful gases that cause global warming met its slow and painful death here in the beautiful South African city of Durban. First, it was the Americans that rejected this treaty in 1997. And because the treaty excluded developing countries, some of the world’s biggest polluters, China, India and Brazil were also left off the hook. Today, the combative American congress is less likely to accept any binding obligation to reduce their emissions, especially if China and the big developing economies are left out of the deal.

Before the Durban conference, Japan’s position was already very clear. The world’s third largest economy will not be part of any renewal of this deal, if China and the fast growing developing economies are left out. But it was Canada that took the oxygen out of any hope that this treaty will be renewed. The announcement that Canada will not be part of a second commitment period for the Kyoto Protocol unplugged the life support from the only binding agreement to reduce emissions that result in the sort of floods that hit Lagos and Ibadan this year.

For our Nigerian delegates and some NGOs, the Kyoto Protocol has become a strong emotional issue. We have been told that this is the main concern for the African Group and the Group of 77 and China. And since our national delegates have been told that we have no national interests in these negotiations except to support Africa, many loiter around this expansive conference centre with their heads down. In corridors, cafeterias, side events and shopping malls, wherever you find Nigerians, it’s all talk about Kyoto this, Kyoto that.

A new agreement or renewal of the treaty to reduce global emissions in a substantial way would be of benefit to Nigeria. But a new Kyoto treaty that binds only a handful of countries that together make up less than one quarter of global emissions is meaningless to Nigeria. Any agreement that leaves out the two biggest emitters – China and the United States is not in Nigeria’s interest.

For a long time, the big developing economies of China, India and Brazil has been hiding behind our back. Yes, of course, many of them still have poor people in their country. We also accept that rich countries have contributed historically to the build up of these harmful gases. But it will be mindless for us to accept that countries who today pile up the bulk of these dangerous gases should not be obliged to reduce them consistent with their national circumstances. But because our leaders are out of touch with our own interests and realities, we are told to support China and India and sing the songs of African solidarity when our house is on fire.

Perhaps we should talk about some other things. The Nigerian delegation was livid today because our minister, Mrs Hadiza Ibrahim Mailafia made a good speech to the plenary. In her speech, she listed the accomplishments of the government on climate change. Particularly, the minister told the world audience that the National Assembly has passed the Bill to Establish the National Climate Change Commission and that President Goodluck Jonathan will soon sign this bill into law.

The rest of the world cannot understand why the President cannot sign the climate commission bill one year after the national assembly forwarded it to him. That the minister committed the president to signing the bill is a positive sign. The world will hold her to her word.

Ewah Otu Eleri Executive Director, International Centre for Energy, Environment & Development

Green growth on the agenda

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 12:51 +0100

Yesterday, I attended a side event. For most delegates and NGOs, side events at the climate change negotiations are the main events. This is where countries, inter-governmental organisations, companies and research institutes present latest policies, programmes and ideas on solving the climate problem. It is an excellent place to learn, get inspired and network. So today, the Republic of South Korea held a side event on their green growth programme.

South Korea has made green growth the centrepiece of its long-term development programme. The first speaker, Dr. Han Seungsoo, the former prime minister of the Republic of South Korea and chairman of the Global Green Growth Institute defined green growth as the national quest for economic growth that is compatible with low emissions of harmful greenhouse gases. This is a radical thought.

Traditional economic thinking assumes that rapid economic growth and high greenhouse gas emissions are natural bed fellows. In expanding national income and lifting people out of poverty, developing countries will have high energy intensities and will expand their carbon emissions, the argument goes. Green growth strategies combine high economic growth with lower emissions.

The side event had an impressive line up. It had Sir Nicholas Stern, Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics and Lead Author of the influential Stern Review of Economics of Climate Change. According to Nicholas Stern, green growth represents a new industrial revolution comparable to what happened in the 19th century. Investments in clean technologies and processes will drive the economic growth of the future. Economies that fail to modernise its energy technologies and processes will stunt and face atrophy.

Ministers and senior government officials from Brazil, Ethiopia, Korea and UAE took turns to present their national green growth economic programme. Today, Paul Kagame, the president of Rwanda will be here to present his country’s green growth development plan. A Nigerian, Dr Chukwumerije Okereke of the University of Reading led this important work for Rwanda.

As I listened to these leaders speak on their new economic strategies, I couldn’t keep my mind from drifting back home. No country in the world has a stronger case to embark on a green economic strategy than Nigeria. Korea was motivated to make green growth its official development plan because 93% of its energy requirements were imported. The development of clean energy technologies will save energy, create new industries and ensure growth in employment.

In Nigeria, we almost have no price to pay for this economic transition. Green growth in terms of converting the over 15 billion cubic meters of natural gas flared annually into power production is practically our only hope for boosting power supply and revving up a double digit growth. And we can also reposition agriculture as the engine of growth and employment by massive dam infrastructure expansion and proper management of existing ones. Accompanied by new financing programmes put in place by the Central Bank of Nigeria, Nigerian agriculture will be transformed. And we would have protected our farmers from the uncertainties created by the impacts of climate change.

As I listened, one other thing that struck me was how far climate change has left the shadows of the environment. Not long ago – in many countries, action on climate change was the prerogative of environment ministries. Today, in India, China, Rwanda, Kenya – you can go on, the office of prime ministers and presidents have taken over national action on climate change. When the National Assembly began work on the climate change commission, we thought Nigeria was blazing the trail. But we were not. The bill passed by the National Assembly to establish this office under the president is still wasting away on the president’s table.

In times like this, I miss people like Chukwuma Soludo, with all his imperfections - people who can see far into the future and have the courage to summon a government to action.

Ewah Otu Eleri Executive Director, International Centre for Energy, Environment & Development

Climate change conference - designed to fail?

Tue, 06 Dec 2011 15:38 +0100

I finally arrived Durban yesterday – at the beginning of the second week of the United Nations Climate Change Conference. I had spent the last week in Bangalore at an event organised by the International Renewable Energy Agency, the inter-governmental agency for the promotion of renewable energy. IRENA brought together about fifty leaders comprising entrepreneurs and experts to gauge where we are in addressing barriers to the growth of renewable energy.

We got into town early enough to soak in the breathtaking beauty of this Indian Ocean city with its endless beaches and lush landscape. But we arrived too late for registration at the Albert Luthuli International Conference Centre, the venue of the climate change conference.

I joined a shuttle bus to my hotel alongside delegates and some NGOs. Beside me was Antonio. He was from Chile and works for a government agency. This was Antonio’s first COP – the annual Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. He told me he had been here since the beginning of the two-week conference. But the whole event seems too overwhelming and confusing. It feels like hundreds of meetings going on at the same time. Antonio told me he had attended a number of negotiation meetings, but he had come out more confused. Hours upon hours are spent on procedural issues and fine language.

I had followed developments in the Durban negotiations from Bangalore. Strangely, you have a better chance of tracking these negotiations away from the mad rush of fifty-five simultaneous negotiation tracks attended by over 10,000 delegates from 194 countries. With several online publications and newsletters you can feel the pulse of the negotiations thousands of kilometres away.

I asked Antonio and the others on the bus what the mood of the negotiation was like. Are we close to any tangible agreements? I asked. It will be awful if the first COP on the African soil will result in a disaster.

We all knew that an agreement on the reduction of the emission of dangerous gases into the atmosphere is not within reach in Durban. In a way, existing agreements make global response to climate change dependent on mandatory emission reductions from rich countries and similar actions to be taken by developing countries on the basis of financial transfer from rich countries.

The only big hope for Durban was therefore an agreement to launch the Green Climate Fund already established by the Cancun Accord last year. But this hope is now shaky. Several countries are now calling for the opening of negotiations on the report by a Transitional Committee established to work out the details. So there is an atmosphere of despair, especially among NGOs.

The loss of momentum and the whole atmosphere of powerlessness that is increasingly grinding this global effort to a halt seem to be structural. It is as if the climate change talks are designed to fail. With tens of negotiation issues being discussed at the same time, there is apparently no sense of priorities. Over the years, we have not seen a sufficient number of quick-wins that has been agreed upon and successfully implemented. Let’s take for one the issue of energy poverty.

The United Nations Secretary General has dedicated 2012 as the year of Sustainable Energy Access. Nearly 2 billion of the world’s population have no access to electricity and are dependent on wood fuel for their daily cooking. These billions of open fire result in billions of tons of these harmful gases sent to the atmosphere every year. But they also result to millions of deaths from respiratory and other diseases. The cost of modern efficient wood cooking stoves could be between 750 – 1500 Naira or five to 10 US dollars. This means that if these endless negotiations had focused on solving this problem, we could have prevented billions of tons of these gases from being emitted to the atmosphere. At the same time we would have saved millions of lives and built a huge stove industry with millions of jobs. In Nigeria alone this will result to the prevention nearly 100,000 deaths annually. But this is hardly the focus of the negotiations. Or is it?

Ewah Otu Eleri Executive Director, International Centre for Energy, Environment & Development.

Launch of the Nigerian Alliance for Clean Cookstoves postponed

Tue, 04 Oct 2011 12:44 +0100

The Nigerian Alliance for Clean Cookstoves met on November 9, 2011 and deliberated on the new security situation in Abuja.

Considering the importance of the safety of partners and invitees, we regret to inform all our invitees that the Official Launch of the Nigerian Alliance planned for November 17, 2011 has been postponed to a later date.

The partners regret the inconveniences this will cause all of our invitees. A new date will be communicated to all as the security situation around Abuja improves.

A case for youth participation in climate change policy process. By Unico Iregbu Kalu

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 14:50 +0100

Climate change is fast introducing an alternative pathway to both national and global development. Twenty years ago, an average young man would engage on any available practice to eke out a living, without giving a thought to the impacts of his actions on both the environment and the climate. The effects of climate change are already here with us and it is the young people who will bear the greater brunt of the effects. As such, lifestyles and attitudes are gradually moving towards reducing the emission of greenhouse gases. Globally, young people are becoming aware of their roles in the fight against climate change and possible effects of their actions and inactions. Their contributions range from advocacy, public enlightenment, research, to actual demonstration of low carbon path through either engaging in recycling, planting trees or getting involved in the development of solar technologies.

However, it is absolutely sad that in Nigeria, the young people are not involved in the climate change decision process, both locally and internationally. Nigeria has been involved in several global efforts towards climate justice. It has participated in different international negotiations on the different thematic areas but the young people who are supposed to benefit from a safer climate are not part of the country’s official negotiation team. If there are national positions on the different building blocks within the climate negotiations, such positions are not put in the public domain. Nigerian youths are unaware of such national positions and did not have any input in their formulation.

Another round of climate change negotiations, in Durban, South Africa, is fast approaching. However, to date, Nigerian youths, and possibly the general population, are yet to identify what the country will be negotiating for in South Africa. The youths are unaware of how the country intends to ensure that the established ‘adaptation fund’ will benefit them; they do not know what is being discussed in the REDD+ and how that can translate into a more sustainable use of the forests around them; they are not aware of Nigeria’s preference for the established ‘technology mechanism’ which establishes the framework for the transfer of technologies from Annex 1 Parties to non Annex 1 Parties.

As the world comes together again in South Africa to discuss strategic initiatives to solve the climate crisis, young people, especially in Nigeria, expect more pronounced milestones that will ensure the immediate implementation of certain agreements already reached in the course of the negotiations. Young people also expect that more just decisions will be taken to help the countries most vulnerable to climate change. It should not stop at identifying negative effects of climate change, practical solutions should be urgently initiated.

Nigeria being among the most vulnerable countries to climate change needs to initiate requisite domestic policies and/or programs that will ensure it benefits from the many international mechanisms instituted to fight climate change in developing countries. Also, climate change reporting obligations for Nigeria should be given adequate attention, while internal policy reform should be embarked on to promote the fight against climate change through pursuing a low carbon path to growth and development. To achieve these goals, strong political will on the part of the government is required. Civil society groups should step up their advocacy and public awareness campaigns to enlighten the public and put more pressure on the government to take necessary actions. The youths should be involved in climate change policy process. They have the capacity to drive and sustain major national transformations, and the future is theirs.

Unico Iregbu Kalu is Interim Coordinator at the Nigeria Youth Climate Action Network.

Where is the National Climate Change Bill?

Thu, 08 Sep 2011 12:53 +0100

On December 9, 2010, the harmonised version of the National Climate Change Commission Bill was forwarded to President Goodluck Jonathan for assent. It was reportedly received on his behalf by his Special Adviser on National Assembly Matters, Dr. Cairo Ojougboh. It is now more than eight months since the transmission of the bill and there is still no word from the Presidency on the fate of this very important bill. More than thirty of such bills addressing several critical areas of our national life are currently lying on the President’s table gathering dust. This is incontrovertible evidence that we have a President who is either out of touch with the aspirations of the people or is not bothered about anything. It will be recalled that the 6th Nigerian Parliament had to amend their own rules to give the President time beyond the expiration of the parliamentary season to consider bills forwarded to him. Is our President even aware of such amendment?

More than one fifth of Africa’s poor, about 102 million people live in Nigeria. They predominantly depend on rain-fed agriculture as over ninety per cent of them are rain dependent peasant farmers. Lack of irrigation facilities, due to the availability of only a few dams, makes it is difficult to provide the required water needs of most crops, thereby adversely affecting yield. Today, rainfall in Nigeria has become very irregular (intense in some areas and very sparse in others) and the agricultural base of the desperately poor are severely threatened. The situation places more than 42 per cent of Nigeria’s GDP at risk and increases the vulnerability of those in dire need of the dividends of democracy. The drought we used to hear about in distant lands is increasingly spreading closer to the Guinea Savanna towards the Northern and Middle Belt states of Nigeria. There has been intense rainfall variability in the past few months leading to flooding in Lagos, Bauchi and Katsina. It is believed that Lagos State alone lost more N150bn (about $1bn) to flooding recently. In Katsina State, seven people died while more than 120 houses were destroyed. Almost 2000 indigenes of Bauchi State were displaced by the down pour.The Nigerian Meteorological Agency predicted recently that the flooding will spread to other Nigerian cities like Bauchi, Calabar and Ibadan in the near future. Climatologists predict that there may be a one meter sea level rise in the next 50 years which may render two to three million people in Lagos homeless.

Erosion menace is a frightening reality throughout the whole of the South-East. Sadly, there are those within the government who still see climate change with the regrettable not-in-my-backyard lens or consider it as a problem of the future. The time has come for them to rise from their cold conceit, wake up to their responsibility, and repent from their inaction. The absence of an agency for the coordination of informed policy response to the issues of climate change has cost us beyond what can be calculated and has paved the way for ad hoc reactionary approaches that lack depth and are prone to capture by corrupt tendencies. A full-fledged commission that has both the technical competence and regulatory teeth will indicate that we are ready as a nation to ameliorate the adverse effects of climate change (before it catches up with us) while innovatively tapping into the opportunities it offers.

The oil industry (our chief foreign exchange earner) draws intense criticism from development experts due it its huge contribution to greenhouse emissions. We are comfortably lagging behind because our government has always found one reason or the other to continue the mindless gas flaring in the Niger Delta region. One third of the total greenhouse emissions in Nigeria still comes from just one single source- the oil industry. This still remains the most important contributor to greenhouse gases in Africa. It is depressing that there is neither a clear understanding nor courageous leadership on matters of climate change within any governmental institution. Vested interests are having a field day and have found “innovative” ways of sedating our policy makers to keep shifting the goal post to the detriment of the populace that they pretend to be catering for. How can we continue to close our eyes as the gas that will power our economy is turned to flames daily? How do we intend to feed our power plants that will give us the electricity we desire? When will the celebrated gas master plan go beyond media propaganda?

Many countries are building thriving low carbon economies that are creating new “green” jobs for their peoples. Diverse private sector opportunities abound to countries that are able to lay out clear legislative framework and operational modalities. As usual, Nigeria lags behind in this new thinking in global development. Must we wait for a disaster to act? President Jonathan is an indigene of Otueke near Oloibiri where oil was discovered in a commercial quantity for the first time in Nigeria.

He therefore carries the burden of the environmental despoliation and ecological catastrophe in the Niger Delta region in particular and in other parts of Nigeria. He needs to demonstrate that he has the ability, courage, depth and tenacity to meet the demands of this burden. His continuous inaction can easily lead pundits to conclude that he has subtly submitted to the hands of vested interests whose intent is to milk Nigeria’s natural resources dry and leave a polluted environment for generations yet unborn.

Those whose livelihoods are affected daily by the effects of climate change and who voted Jonathan into office in April 2011 deserve a better deal and that is what they are asking for. Luck has offered President Jonathan, an important opportunity to shape the course of Nigeria’s fate. He should embrace the mandate that fate has offered. He should append his signature on the National Climate Change Commission Bill and unto many other bills waiting for his signature.

Igwe wrote from the Africa Programme at Johns Hopkins University Washington DC via ucheigwe@gmail.com

How Nigeria can build climate resilient economy, by Eleri

Mon, 05 Sep 2011 11:38 +0100

It was a particularly wet day in Abuja. The rain was heavy and I was driving with my cousin, David. David is a Lagos banker. He told me we were lucky in Abuja. It rains non-stop in Lagos, and the floods last month have cost him a good chunk of money.

That day in Lagos, David and his driver were returning from the airport. Near the Falomo Bridge, the water was so high that the engine compartment of the four-wheel drive was soaked. At some point, the engine stopped completely. He and the driver pulled up their trousers, and pushed the beast through the pool to the shoulder of the road. A week later, he got a bill of Six Hundred and Fifty Thousand Naira from the mechanic. David told me it was time to talk about climate change.

According to the Red Cross, 102 lives were lost in the recent Ibadan floods. The University of Ibadan alone estimates a loss of 10 billion Naira in infrastructure damage. Estimates of the financial cost of this year’s floods in Lagos vary. According to newspaper reports, perhaps a Hundred Billion Naira may have been lost. Nationwide, this year’s floods may have cost us an equivalent of about 300 billion Naira or nearly two percent of GDP. This does not include the lives that were washed away, or the daily stories of human suffering. But our government doesn’t stop to count the cost – the cost of its inaction.

Actions required to tackle climate change are often in our national economic interest. Take for one, the issue of gas flaring. This is Africa’s most important single source of harmful greenhouse gases that cause global warming. If we had the courage to switch off this evil fire, there will be enough gas for our power plants, and we can expand our economy and create jobs. And we may also have spared the pain we cause the people and environment of the Niger Delta. The benefits of reducing the emission of these harmful gases would only have been a bonus to the fight against global warming.

Another example is the four billion US Dollars we spend on fuel subsidy – an unnecessary donation to the rich who own cars. Had we spent this amount annually on modernisation of railways or innovative urban mass transport systems, the poor will benefit. We will also have cleaner urban air quality and help address global warming. From ending gas flaring, expanding transportation infrastructure such as the BRT in Lagos, scaling up renewable energy supply and encouraging energy efficiency – actions needed to grow our economy are exactly what the doctors ordered for addressing global warming. Since the impacts of climate change are already here, we can also build more climate resilient infrastructure – better roads, bridges, drainages, dams and create insurance schemes for our farmers. But this is not happening.

Making progress against climate change in Nigeria will require a stronger policy and institutional framework. Today, there is no clear political ownership on this issue. The National Climate Change Commission Bill passed by the National Assembly is lost in the Presidency. Nobody knows where the file is. The result is a costly dereliction of responsibility by our government, and a general sense of drift on climate change.

A suite of key issues are important in the government’s future response to climate change. One is finance. Implementation of the Gas Master Plan or what the government now calls the Gas Revolution will cost tens of billions of dollars. So will the expansion of public transport infrastructure and renewable energy supply. Opening up the pipeline of domestic and international sources of finance for these programmes should be left, right and centre of our international climate engagement.

In previous negotiations, we have joined bigger development countries in endless bickering over access to high end climate change technologies. But our women need everyday survival technologies such as clean cookstoves and cheaper solar lanterns. Over 79,000 Nigerians, mostly women die every year of smoke from household cooking with wood. This is Nigeria’s silent killer. But clean cookstoves save lives, money and our forests. These are flesh and blood issues that cry for attention.

Even if our government wakes up to its responsibilities and begin to take the right mitigation and adaptation steps at home, our actions alone will not be enough. Nigeria must step up pressure on richer countries to take more ambitions reductions of emissions. That’s our only hope of reducing the menacing floods of the future, and stopping the Sahara Desert from eating deep into our country. And we must also be courageous enough to encourage our friends among the bigger developing countries like Brazil, China and India to take stronger and perhaps more binding actions. A climate deal without China and the bigger developing countries will be a waste of efforts.

As we prepare for the climate negations in Durban by the end of the year, our domestic needs for finance, technology and capacity building in delivering energy, infrastructure and resilience in agriculture should form the bedrock of our positions. We must also be ready to push rich countries and the bigger developing countries to take on more ambitious emission reduction measures. This will be our only hope of averting the floods of the future, and the costs we all must pay.

Ewah Otu Eleri Executive Director, International Centre for Energy, Environment & Development, Abuja

Stakeholders to Launch Nigerian Alliance for Clean Cookstoves

Tue, 09 Aug 2011 09:51 +0100

Stakeholders have, at a meeting in Abuja, reviewed processes leading to the official launch of Nigerian Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, a body set up to address the health, poverty and climate change challenges that traditional cooking with wood fuel cause in the country. The Nigerian Alliance has set a target to distribute 10 million clean Cookstoves by 2020, adding that “this represents 10 percent of the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves.”

Participants discussed corporate governance issues, conditions for membership, branding issues and the Alliance online presence. Partners agreed to launch the alliance on October 27, this year.

Current members of Nigerian Alliance for Clean Cookstoves are; Federal Ministries of Health, Environment, Women Affairs, Energy Commission of Nigeria, Shell Petroleum Development Company, Oando plc., USAID, GTZ, Heinrich Boll, FCMB and International Centre for Energy Environment and Development (ICEED).

Meanwhile, ahead of the launch, the executive director of ICEED, Mr. Ewah Eleri visited the United Nations Foundation, the secretariat of the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves in Washington DC, United States.

Eleri said an outcome of the meeting was a commitment of the Global Alliance to support the launch of the Nigerian Alliance. “The Global Alliance will ensure that other African countries participate in Nigeria’s event and will also provide an international speaker to the event.”

This Day Newspaper.

Stakeholders set up committee on climate based insurance scheme

Mon, 08 Aug 2011 11:58 +0100

EFFORTS to establish a framework for a national climate-based insurance scheme have been kick-started, with the naming of a nine-member multi-stakeholder group to reform the agricultural insurance sector.

The initiative is expected to introduce measures to leverage on anticipated support from the international community to developing countries like Nigeria, scale up of agricultural insurance, support the expansion of credit to the agricultural sector and help build farmer’s resilience against climatic disasters.

To drive the scheme promoted by the International Centre for Energy, Environment and Development (ICEED), National Insurance Commission (NIACOM), Nigeria Meteorological Agency (NIMET) and the Nigeria Climate Action Network (NigeriaCan), a one day workshop was organized in Abuja recently.

The major highlight was the constitution of an implementation committee comprising the Federal Ministry of Agriculture (FMA), Federal Ministry of Environment (FME), Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Nigeria Agricultural Insurance Commission (NAIC), All Farmers Association (AFA), Nigerian Insurers Association (NIA), NIMET, NIACOM and ICEED .

Statistics have shown that Nigerian agriculture is particularly vulnerable to climate variability. Over 90 per cent of crop production is dependent on rain-fed systems. The agricultural sector contributes 42 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product, and employs about 70 per cent of the total labour force. The limited coverage of irrigation, mechanisation and use of key farm inputs heightens current vulnerability, and will compromise efforts to reduce poverty and grow the wider economy.

United Nation’s models on the future climatic scenario for Nigeria predicts daunting prospects for Nigerian agriculture. In the next two decades, Nigeria will experience shorter rainfall seasons with high intensity of precipitation. A higher average temperature is also predicted, especially for Northern Nigeria. Should the current rain-fed small scale agriculture remain the predominant structure of the sector in the coming decades, Nigerian agricultural economy will face an uncertain future.

Environment Minister, Hadiza Mailafiya, emphasized on the need to raise local farmers’ awareness on the need to access insurance services. Represented by Dr. Samuel Adejuwon, Heads the Special Climate Change Unit (SCCU) in the FME, disclosed that the ministry had constituted a national committee to undertake preparatory activities for Nigeria’s “effective and efficient participation” at the COP 17 scheduled to hold by year’s end in Durban, South Africa.

“The climate change talks envisaged in Durban, I believe, will result in concrete financial transfers to developing countries including Nigeria, I therefore encourage us to embark on domestic reforms to leverage these anticipated support from the international community,” she said.

The NIMET Director-General, Anthony Anuforom, warned that if no adequate climate change adaptation was employed by 2020, between two to 11 percent of Nigeria’s GDP could be lost.

He said: “Statistic shows that average annual losses from weather related events were in the orders of $1 billion in 1990s, $35 billion in 2004 and almost doubled in 2005. In addition, it was recorded that, between 1980 and 2005, nearly 7,500 natural disasters worldwide took lives of over two million people and produced economic losses estimated at over $1.2 trillion.

“Executive Director, ICEED, Mr .Ewah Eleri said that climate change presents an unprecedented challenge for Nigerian agriculture. In the year 2010, the spate of floods in almost all parts of the country destroyed farmlands. “This has resulted in higher food prices, heightened food insecurity, rising demand for imported food and may exacerbate rural poverty. This year’s floods only add to the problems that farmers face. Should this trend continue, Nigeria’s efforts to meet Millennium Development Goals will be jeopardised.

“Nigeria has significant experience in delivering traditional agricultural insurance schemes through cooperatives and government agencies. However, broadening the market for these risk management services are limited by several factors, including high transaction costs, regulation, product design and poor customer perception.”

Chinedum Uwaegbulam - The Guardian

Farmers’ climate-based insurance scheme underway

Mon, 01 Aug 2011 11:00 +0100

An implementation framework for a national climate-based insurance scheme will emerge in a few weeks, 18 months after a multi-stakeholder initiative to reform the agricultural insurance sector commenced. The agenda, which will be fashioned out by a nine-member group, will eventually metamorphose into a bill that will be presented to government for assent into law.

Driven by the International Centre for Energy, Environment & Development (ICEED), National Insurance Commission (NIACOM), Nigeria Meteorological Agency (NIMET) and the Nigeria Climate Action Network (NigeriaCan), the scheme entails the exploration of opportunities and challenges aimed at devising a climate-based agricultural insurance scheme for the country.

At a daylong forum last week in Abuja, participants constituted an implementation committee comprising the Federal Ministry of Agriculture (FMA), Federal Ministry of Environment (FME), Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Nigeria Agricultural Insurance Commission (NAIC), All Farmers Association (AFA), Nigerian Insurers Association (NIA), NIMET, NIACOM and ICEED to formulate and implement a work plan. The framework will detail necessary steps towards delivering the reforms.

Nigeria’s agriculture is presumably vulnerable to climate variability, with over 90 percent of crop production dependent on rain-fed systems; even as the sector contributes some 42 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) and employs 70 percent of the total labour force.

According to the United Nations, Nigeria will in the next two decades experience shorter rainfall seasons with high intensity of precipitation. A higher average temperature is likewise predicted, especially for the dry North. Indeed, ongoing UN talks are negotiating a climate-based insurance mechanism to address the threat to agriculture and related sector.

The CBN recently launched an incentive-based risk sharing system for agricultural lending, which looks to scale up agricultural insurance and support the expansion of credit to the agricultural sector and help build farmers’ resilience against climate disasters.

At the Abuja session, Environment Minister, Hadiza Mailafiya, underlined the need to raise local farmers’ awareness on the need to access insurance services scheme to benefit from available lending facilities. She said, “Nigeria has significant experience in delivering traditional agricultural insurance schemes through cooperatives and government agencies. However, broadening the market for these risk management services are limited by factors like high transaction costs, regulation, product design and poor customer perception.”

Mailafiya, represented by Samuel Adejuwon, who heads the Special Climate Change Unit (SCCU) in the FME, disclosed that the ministry had constituted a national committee to undertake preparatory activities for Nigeria’s “effective and efficient participation” at the COP 17 scheduled to hold by year’s end in Durban, South Africa. “The climate change talks envisaged in Durban, I believe, will result in concrete financial transfers to developing countries including Nigeria, I therefore encourage us to embark on domestic reforms to leverage these anticipated support from the international community,” the minister emphasised.

The AFA President, Abdullahi Adamu, explained, “There is an urgent need for a risk management mechanism to mitigate climate change challenges and protect Nigerian farmers from huge losses in crops and resources. We encourage the government at all levels to explore the design and performance of particular policy instruments, informed policy developmental activities, and the design of policy systems to cope with complex challenges.”

Clerk, House of Representatives Committee on Agriculture at the National Assembly, Oscar Okoro, attempted to distinguish between protection insurance and promotion or development insurance. He stressed, “Protection insurance which is designed to help poor people protect their livelihood and assets has to be subsidised and rquires special delivery channels that should be aligned with relief rather than developmental interventions. “Promotion insurance which is designed to help households with viable farm businesses manage their risks can be channelled through private intermediaries, but is unlikely to sell unless it is subsidised or promotes farmers’ access to new productivity enhancing technologies or high value markets that can raise their incomes significantly.”

The CBN’s Director, Development Finance Department, Paul Eluhaiwe, lamented that the NAIC, though the sole insurer of primary agricultural production nationwide, is ill-equipped to meet the demands as only about 500,000 farmers have insurance cover in the country. “There is therefore an urgent need to review the act that established NAIC with a view to deregulating the sub-sector. More private sector players should also be allowed in insurance market in order to deepen the product offering, improve efficiency and spur healthy competition,” he declared.

NAICOM official, Babajide Oniwinde, stated that the firm’s objective is to deepen the market through financial inclusion, rural insurance including agriculture and micro insurance. “We give approval to insurance policy covering crops, livestock and including any climate-based product that will come into the market to make sure that the language of the policy is clear, fair and not misleading to the innocent farmers taking the policy,” he said.

The NIMET Director-General and Chief Executive Officer, Anthony Anuforom, warned that if no adequate climate change adaptation was employed by 2020, between two to 11 percent of Nigeria’s GDP could be lost. His words: “Statistic shows that average annual losses from weather related events were in the orders of $1 billion in 1990s, $35 billion in 2004 and almost doubled in 2005. In addition, it was recorded that, between 1980 and 2005, nearly 7,500 natural disasters worldwide took lives of over two million people and produced economic losses estimated at over $1.2 trillion. “About 90 percent of these are due to weather and climate hazards and translates to about $80 billion per year with only a quarter of the amount insured. Managing such risks poses serious challenges to developing countries like Nigeria with low coping capacity.”

Ewah Eleri of ICEED said, “The drought and floods we experienced in recent times are out of the ordinary compared with what we used to have, and it will only get worse. The farmers will bear the brunt of this disaster because their entire life savings depend on their crops. One way to address this is to be able to provide the farmers with some measure that allows them to balance their risks, which means that when crops fail or when heavy rains or dry spells occur, they have something to fall back on.

“In Nigeria, less than one percent of the farming population have access to insurance cover and, if this continues, the Federal Government will not be fulfilling its obligations over the agric sector. It is a mismatch that less than two percent of all bank lending goes to farming, even though 42 percent of the GDP is represented by agriculture. The government response is inadequate because only the NAIC is allowed to under right agric insurance. This does not point to the future. So we have brought all the critical actors to develop a national platform to launch a comprehensive reform in agric insurance.”

By Michael Simire, Deputy Sunday Editor.

Workshop on Climate Based Insurance in Nigeria

Tue, 26 Jul 2011 16:47 +0100

Nigerian agriculture is particularly vulnerable to climate variability. Over 90% of crop production is dependent on rain-fed systems. The agricultural sector contributes 42% of the country’s gross domestic product, and employs about 70% of the total labour force. The limited coverage of irrigation, mechanisation and use of key farm inputs heightens current vulnerability, and will compromise efforts to reduce poverty and grow the wider economy.

The country has significant experience in delivering traditional agricultural insurance schemes through cooperatives and government agencies. However, broadening the market for these risk management services are limited by several factors, including high transaction costs, regulation, product design and poor customer perception. As the threat of climate change looms, the need to reform this scheme has become urgent and pressing.

The Central Bank of Nigeria has recently launched the Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending. One of the key components of this transformative programme is the scale up of agricultural insurance. This will support the expansion of credit to the agricultural sector and help build farmer’s resilience against climatic disasters.

As a follow up to this process, The Nigerian Climate Action Network in collaboration with International Centre for Energy, Environment & Development, Nigerian Meteorological Agency and National Insurance Commission are investigating the possibility of introducing climate index based crop insurance in Nigeria, as part of a broader agricultural insurance reform process.

This workshop on Climate Based Insurance in Nigeria will hold on July 28, 2011 at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja. The workshop seeks to validate a baseline study on climate based agricultural insurance in Nigeria; outline a draft work plan for agricultural insurance reforms; constitute a national committee for the implementation of the work plan; and enhance stakeholder awareness on the reform process.

Participants will be drawn from federal government agencies, financial institutions, farmer’s groups, media and civil society.

A commitment to low carbon industrialisation

Wed, 22 Jun 2011 17:34 +0100

On March 17, 2011 senior policy makers and industry leaders met in Abuja to deliberate on pathways towards a low carbon industrial growth for Nigeria. The workshop sought to identify low carbon development opportunities in key industries and identify barriers to increased investments in low carbon technologies.

Participants identified lack of access to natural gas and hydro-powered grid electricity as the main constraint to growth in low carbon industrialisation. They agreed that reforming the energy sector is crucial to expanding low carbon industrial growth in Nigeria. Other important sectors include cement production and textiles.

Participants agreed to set up a multi-stakeholder committee. The committee will examine innovative approaches to incentivise low carbon transition in industries and develop a national strategy to expand industrial productivity. This approach is consistent with Vision 2020 and Nigeria’s international obligations on climate change.

This forum was convened by the International Centre for Energy, Environment and Development in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Federal Ministry of Environment and the Global Climate Network.

Senator Bent urges Nigeria’s President to sign climate bill

Wed, 22 Jun 2011 17:33 +0100

The chairman, Senate Committee on Environment and Ecology, Senator Grace Bent has urged President Goodluck Jonathan to sign the Bill to Establish the National Climate Change Commission (NCCC Bill). She made this call during a courtesy visit by the Nigeria Climate Action Network in Abuja on March 15 , 2011.

According to Senator Bent “ every responsible government should take the environment seriously, especially during this uncertain climatic times. According to Nigeria’s legislative practice if the president does not sign the bill under the current term it will be returned to the National Assembly”, she warned.

The National Climate Change Commission Bill will provide an institutional framework for handling all climate change related issues in Nigeria.

Nigeria leads the way on low-carbon industrial strategy

Tue, 21 Jun 2011 12:01 +0100

A ground-breaking joint initiative between the Global Climate Network's Nigerian member organisation and the country's Industry and Commerce Ministry will lead to an industrial strategy to promote low-carbon development in Nigeria, was announced on Friday (18th March 2011).

The initiative was launched during a high-level event organised by the International Centre for Energy, Environment and Development (ICEED-Nigeria) in Abuja, the first in six different countries, resulting from a study by the HYPERLINK "http://www.globalclimatenetwork.info/" Global Climate Network to identify the key elements of such a strategy. Speaking at the event, Dr Ewah Eleri, ICEED's director said, 'the low carbon industrial strategy will articulate government and private sector actions that lead to rapid industrialisation through low carbon emission technologies'.

Representatives from several government ministries, industry, finance and academia resolved to set up a multi-stakeholder committee to develop a low carbon industrialisation blue-print for the country.

Climate based micro-insurance

Tue, 21 Jun 2011 12:00 +0100

On March 22-23, 2011 stakeholders representing the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, All Farmers Association of Nigeria, Nigerian Meteorological Agency, The World Bank, Central Bank of Nigeria, the insurance industry and civil society groups met in Abuja to deliberate on the challenges posed to Nigerian agriculture by frequent climatic disasters and the inadequacy of climatic risk transfer mechanism through insurance.

Stakeholders at the two day meeting acknowledged the important role ole agriculture plays in the economy in terms of employment, income generation, poverty reduction and raw materials production, the targets of vision 2020 and the MDGs, may not be achieved if action is not taken now to protect Nigerian farmers through an adequate insurance arrangement.

They identified, inadequate meteorological infrastructure, unsupportive policy and regulatory frameworks, lack of capacity building within insurance industry and poor public awareness among Nigerian farmers constitute major bottlenecks to providing climate based risk management services to farmers.