media advisory
29 September 2006
Friends of the Earth International
NIGERIA: AWARD FOR COMMUNITY AFFECTED BY
GAS FLARING
ABUJA, NIGERIA, September 29, 2006 – The
Friends of the Earth International award [1]
will be presented today to representatives of
the Nigerian Iwherekan community for their
victory in a court case in which they forced
oil giant Shell to stop flaring gas in their
community.
On April 11, 2006 a Nigerian High Court
ordered Shell to provide detailed plans to
stop gas flaring by May 2007, confirming a
previous court order in favour of local
resident Mr Jonah Gbemre and the Iwherekan
community. These orders are a welcome victory
for the mostly poor people affected by the
wasteful and destructive practice of flaring
in the oil-rich Niger delta.
The September 28-29 international
conference on energy and climate change was
organized in Abuja by Friends of the Earth
International and Environmental Rights
Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria. [2]
Reverend Nnimmo Bassey, Executive Director
of Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the
Earth Nigeria, said: “We expected the
judgment to be respected and that for once
the oil corporations will bring their
damaging and wasteful flaring activities to a
halt. We are shocked that Shell is refusing
to implement the order of the court and
continues its harmful gas flaring.”
“Oil giant Shell was told twice now to
stop gas flaring. Nevertheless, Shell plans
to continue flaring until 2010. It is time
that Shell starts to respect Nigerian law and
stops breaching human rights in the Iwherekan
community and in the rest of Nigeria,“ added
Meena Raman, chair of Friends of the Earth
International.
Nigeria has been the world's biggest gas
flarer, and the practice has contributed more
greenhouse gas emissions than all other
sources in sub-Saharan Africa combined, as
well as poisoning localities with their toxic
cocktail.
The practice costs Nigeria about US$2.5
billion annually, while about 66% of its
population live on less than US$1 a day.
Shell Nigeria has said that it does not plan
to stop flaring before 2010.
For more information read the gas flaring
report at
http://www.foei.org/publications/pdfs/gasnigeria.pdf
IMAGES of gas flaring are available from
http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/images/shell_nigeria_2006
for more information contact:
Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the
Earth Nigeria:
Nnimmo Bassey, Executive Director Tel: +234
8037274395 (Nigerian mobile) or email
nnimmo@eraction.org
Chima Williams, lawyer Tel: +234 80 388
59477 or +234 80 236 49890 (Nigerian
mobile)
notes to editors
[1] The Friends of the Earth International
award is presented bi-annually to a group or
person who has made an exceptional
contribution to the environmental movement.
Friends of the Earth International (FoEI) is
the world's largest grassroots environmental
federation with 71 national member groups in
70 countries and 1.5 million individual
members and supporters. Environmental Rights
Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria is a
Nigerian advocacy non-governmental
organisation founded in 1993 and focused on
environmental and human rights issues in
Nigeria.
[2] The Sept 28-29 Abuja conference on
“Minimizing climate change impacts and
curbing global energy chaos” is attended by
around 100 international participants and
addressed the following themes: Energy Crisis
and Sustainable Resource Management;
Affirming Energy Rights and National
Sovereignty; The Unending Crisis in the Niger
Delta; Trials and Tribulations of Challenging
Corporate Control and Abuse of Energy
Resource; Alternative Sources of Clean
Energy.
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