Abuja – Mr Atayi Babs, an Environmentalist, has advised the Federal Government to give priority to the development of renewable energy in order to achieve sustainable economic development.
Babs gave the advice in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Monday.
He specifically urged government to develop an Intended Nationally – Determined Contributions (INDCs) that would clearly state strategies to boost renewable energy in the country.
The INDCs under UN Framework Convention on Climate Change require countries across the globe to be committed to creating a new international climate agreement by the conclusion of the Paris Climate Summit.
Countries that are signatories to Kyoto Protocol had at previous climate negotiations, agreed to publicly outline what actions they intend to take to address climate change under a global agreement before October.
. Cue in audio 1
“If our INDCs indicate a clear and a sustainable path to transiting Nigeria to renewable energy in the next 15 years, it will greatly impact on the common man.
“In the sense that businesses and livelihoods that have been wiped away as a result of poor access to light (electricity) and other issues will no longer be there.
“Because, we believe that Nigeria can generate enough solar energy to power the whole of Africa if possible with the solar power capacity that we have in Nigeria.
“If you put effective measures in place to drive the policy that will see us transiting to even if it is 50 per cent renewable energy by 2030, the economic well-being of the typical Nigeria will improve.
“Barbers will have light and all allied businesses that depend on power will save the money they normally spend on generators and diesel for other things and that will greatly impact on the economy.’’
Babs, the National Network Coordinator for Climate Change Sustainable Development, a Non-Governmental Organisation (CSDevNet), said that there were also business opportunities in renewable energy.
According to him, the business opportunities are the production of solar panel which the poor and unemployed can be trained on how to do it on solar panel.
He also said that there were business opportunities in the production of clean cooking stoves, adding that they were a clean source of cooking energy.
“Nigerian women can be trained on clean cook stoves that will be beneficial to Nigerian women anywhere and this will in turn affect their economic well-being; it is like a multiplier effect.
“Also, the Nigeria’s INDCs must reflect a clear cut pathway to reducing our emissions from oil and gas.
“We must come up with an INDCs that will carefully look into ways or project ways of reducing the instances of flooding in Nigeria.’’
The environmentalist, however, expressed optimism that Nigeria could achieve 100 per cent in the use of renewable energy to meet its energy needs.
He said all that Nigeria needed to do was to deploy unbreakable spirit as witnessed in the film sector (Nollywood).
[pro_ad_display_adzone id=”10″]
“We can see that Nollywood without government regulation is almost the largest in the film industry across the world, before government even came in to support the sector,’’ Babs said. (NAN)
