Osinbajo canvasses phased transition from fossil fuels

•‘Withdrawing financing for fossil fuels may deepen energy poverty’

The Federal Government has canvassed gradual adoption and implementation of the transitioning scheme for fossil fuels, especially for Africa’s developing economies with huge energy access gaps.

This followed the restriction of funding by many development finance institutions for investments in fossil fuels.

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo had argued that with a population of about 120 million people without access to reliable and affordable electricity, a just transition to net-zero emissions, probably one where gas as a fossil fuel was still supported, especially for those in Africa, was important, especially as it would facilitate an end of polluting fuels such as coal and diesel.
 
Osinbajo noted that the deployment of the five million solar power connections, which targets 25 million households across the country under the Economic Sustainability Plan (ESP), reaffirmed Nigeria’s commitment to the global green energy initiative.

Already, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) had perfected plans to unveil a Trade and Environmental Sustainability (TES) joint initiative group, which would be a forum for discussing carbon border taxes.

Although viewed by some as a form of green protectionism, carbon border taxes are designed to encourage the use of less carbon-intensive technologies globally and are likely to result in standardisation of what might qualify, as ‘green’ or low-carbon product, including key steel and aluminum areas.
   
Similarly, several international oil firms are already realigning their operations and reducing investments in upstream activities with a view to embracing cleaner fuels.
 

“Our commitment to energy transition is firm and for us, it is an area of comparative advantage. So, we hope to leverage that. We will be happy to work on improving the investment environment to ensure that we work as much as possible with the EU partners.” 
   
Stressing the need to leverage opportunities to build a stronger partnership with the EU in the gas sector, he said Nigeria would explore the caveat in the EU green energy financing instruments to seek better ways of financing gas projects in the country. 
      
On his part, Dombrovskis dwelled on the importance of reviewing investment agreements between Nigeria and the EU, disclosing the commission’s plan to increase its external investment capacities. 
   
On the Vice President’s call for sustained financing of gas investments in the country and beyond, he said the decision to phase out investments in fossil fuels was in line with its policy on promoting green energy initiatives. 
   
He, however, urged the Federal Government to explore the caveat in the financing instruments to seek other ways of attracting investments for viable projects in the gas sector.