PRESS STATEMENT ON THE OCCASION OF THE 2018 WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY

PRESS STATEMENT ON THE OCCASION OF THE 2018 WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY

As we mark the 2018 World Environment Day, Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) recalls that the theme of this year’s celebration is ‘Beat Plastic Pollution’. The theme is a call for commitment from all stakeholders to address the challenges posed to the environment by plastics and other pollutants.

We recall Nigeria’s environmental policy statements to ‘secure and enforce a legislative ban on plastic bags’; to ‘restrict and or tax the use of polluting non-biodegradable consumer products including plastic shopping bags’ and the admission that there is a ‘preponderance of non-biodegradable materials such as plastic bags and containers in waste materials’.

Beyond the theme of plastics, CSJ notes that the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 places an obligation on the government to protect and improve the environment and safeguard the water, air and land, forest and wild life of the country. We further note that about half of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are directly related to sustainability and conservation of the environment. The Sustainable Development Goals cannot be met if environmental sustainability is not made a priority. Again, Nigeria played a key role in the Paris Climate Change Conference by preparing its Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) which it has since converted into Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). Nigeria committed to reduce her carbon emissions unconditionally by 20% and conditionally by 45% and this includes steps for climate smart agriculture.

Further, Nigeria has prepared the National Adaptation Strategy and Plan of Action for Climate Change in Nigeria (NASPA-CCN) and various regulations developed by the National Environmental Standards Regulatory and Enforcement Agency (NESREA) and other relevant Agencies including regulations for sanitation and waste control, mining and processing of coal, ozone layer control, noise standards and control, erosion and flood control, desertification and drought control, among other regulations meant for the protection of the environment.

The environmental challenges facing Nigeria are numerous. Desertification, erosion, loss of biodiversity, flood, drought, land pollution, water pollution, wild life crime, oil spillage, illegal logging, illegal mining and global warming are some of the environmental challenges bedeviling our country. Nigeria is experiencing one of the highest rates of deforestation in the world with forest area as a percentage of land area at less than 10 percent. Out of Nigeria’s total land area of 909,890Km², about 580,841km² accounting for 63.83 percent of total land is impinged upon by desertification. The combination of accelerated deforestation and desertification is an ecological time bomb, which if not checked, will grossly reduce the carrying capacity of the Nigerian environment. Nigeria’s growing population, accompanied by desertification and deforestation will be faced with dire survival challenges.

The Nigerian Minerals and Mining Act made provisions for an Environmental Protection and Rehabilitation Programme as well as the establishment of the Environmental Protection and Rehabilitation Fund. However, these provisions for the protection of mining communities have been obeyed in the breach ten years after the Act came into force resulting in gross violation of the rights to livelihood and liveable environment of many communities where solid minerals are mined. Again, year after year, the federal budgetary funding for the Environment is usually less than 1% of the overall budget while the proposed cleaning of the polluted Niger Delta environment starting from Ogoniland has remained on the drawing board.

In the light of the foregoing, the 2018 World Environment Day provides the opportunity for all stakeholders and actors to take irreversible steps to provide solutions to Nigeria’s environmental challenges. CSJ therefore makes the following recommendations to the Government:

• Take policy and legal steps to reduce plastic pollution.
• The promotion of climate smart agriculture and reforestation must be prioritized
• The Ministry of Mines and Steel Development should urgently establish the Environmental Protection and Rehabilitation Fund to be financed by the holders of mineral titles.
• Support and mobilization of resources for renewable energy use in Nigeria.
• Implement the 2% per year energy efficiency target in the Paris Climate Change Agreement.
• Mainstreaming of the low carbon framework into Nigeria’s budgeting system and increasing the allocation to the Environment in federal and state budgets to not less than 2% of the overall budget.
• Urgent and targeted steps to address deforestation and desertification through increased resource mobilization, greater accountability, transparency and value for money in resource expenditure and involvement of communities in the interventions.
• The clean-up of oil spills in Ogoniland and in the whole Niger Delta region and addressing the incidence of ‘black soot’ in Rivers State.
• Take strategic steps to end gas flaring on or before the year 2021.
• Increase public awareness on environmental challenges and their remediation.

The time to act is now as delay will be very costly to the human, animal and ecological population of Nigeria.

Eze Onyekpere Esq.                                                  Martins Eke

Lead Director                       Programme Officer, Energy and Environment Programme     

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