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impacts of climate change
A series of articles by Bund/Friends of the
Earth Germany - 1st published in Frankfurter
Rundschau
Climate Change in
Africa
Climate change is already affecting many
places and communities in Africa. The
continent is experiencing more droughts in
already dry areas and increased rainfall and
flooding in areas that are usually
wetter.
The impacts of climate change in Nigeria
serve as an example of what will happen in
many other parts Africa. From mangroves and
rainforests on the Atlantic coast in the
south to the savannah in the north bordering
the Sahara, Nigeria has a variety of
ecosystems. While excessive flooding during
the past decade has impacted negatively on
farming in coastal communities,
desertification is ravaging the Sahel.
Traditionally, desertification in the
Sahel has been blamed on overgrazing
practices of the local population. But it has
been discovered that the real problem is
climate change. Rainfall in the Sahel has
been declining steadily since the 1960s. The
result has been the loss of farmlands and the
conflicts between farmers and herdsmen over
ever decreasing land. This loss of land is
considered the root of the conflict in Dafur
in Sudan.
Many different communities, including
fishermen, farmers and herdsmen are now
confronted with difficulties arising from
climatic changes. Peoples' livelihoods are
being harmed, and already poor people are
becoming even more impoverished. Climate
refugees are being created, as climate change
makes some land unliveable and impacts water
supplies.
Oil and Gas in
Nigeria
While
Nigeria is not a major contributor of
greenhouse gas emissions when compared with
industrialized countries, it is a major
supplier of oil and gas to countries with
high greenhouse gas emissions. The
exploitation of gas and oil for export from
the Niger Delta both contributes to global
warming and it also destroys the environment
and harms communities living near these
projects.
Oil fields in the Niger Delta of Nigeria
contain crude oil mixed with very large
amounts of gas. Major oil companies operating
in Nigeria separate the oil from its
associated gas at flow stations, where the
gas is simply burned off, serving no useful
purpose and contaminating the air and lands
for local communities.
For
the communities, the effects of gas flaring
has been dramatic: continuous noise, rise in
temperature in communities close to flare
sites, acid rain and retarded crop yield,
corroded roofs, respiratory diseases. And the
loss of darkness as with the unnatural
illumination from gas flares at night. Gas
flared in Nigeria, containing high amounts of
methane and carbon dioxide-major greenhouse
gasses, is also a major contributor to global
warming, as it produces emissions that is
more than the combined emissions of the rest
of sub-Saharan Africa.
These oil and gas projects do not provide
energy to the people who live in the region.
They only pollute their air and lands from
the gas flaring by Shell and other major
transnational corporations.
False Solutions to Climate
Change
Climate change should be addressed by
reducing emissions and adopting better and
appropriate energy technologies. But market
mechanisms that are designed to reduce carbon
emissions can encourage or subsidize
corporate abuses. Under the Clean Development
Mechanism (CDM) framework of the Kyoto
Protocol, oil companies in Nigeria could be
given carbon credits to stop gas flaring,
rewarding companies for stopping an illegal
process.
The Nigerian courts have declared gas
flaring illegal and a gross violation of
human rights, and oil companies and the
government have already made commitments to
end the criminal practice by 2008. Gas
flaring reduction projects in Nigeria cannot
and should not qualify for CDM credits as
such projects fail on the additionality and
sustainable development criteria.
The only reason why gas is flared in
Nigeria is because the Nigerian government
fails to abide by its own laws while the
companies continue the practice to make
excess profits. Oil companies in Nigeria can
end gas flaring profitably without CDM
credits. Gas flaring projects can only be
suggested for CDM for the benefit of carbon
market profiteers. This is a sad commentary
for the CDM as a mechanism for global
greenhouse gas reduction.
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