COP28: ANEEJ Backs World Council of Churches on phase out of fossil fuel, scale up of renewables
ABUJA, NIGERIA. November 15, 2023… The Africa Network for Environment and Economic Justice, ANEEJ, has thrown its weight behind the World Council of Churches’ call for urgent phase out of fossil fuel extraction which account for 75% of greenhouse gas emissions and the urgent need to scale up renewable energy if the goal of Paris Climate Agreement will be realized.
The Executive Director of ANEEJ, Rev David Ugolor who recently led a delegation of Nigerian Civil Society Organisations to Norway canvassing for a stoppage of financial and moral support to shell and other Multinational oil companies expanding their fossil fuel extraction in Nigeria amid decades of devastation of the Niger Delta welcomed the WCC’s statement on climate emergency ahead of the United Nations Conference of Parties billed to hold in Dubai, United Arab Emirates from 29th of November to 12th of December.
The executive committee of the World Council of Churches, meeting held in Abuja, Nigeria, from 8 to 14 November 2023 is pushing that “climate justice must be rendered to more vulnerable and low-income nations and communities, to address the loss and damage they have already suffered, and to support them in adapting to future climate change impacts and to join equitably in the ‘green transition’ to a renewable energy economy.
In his reaction to the statement of World Council of Churches, Rev David Ugolor said “The WCC statement on the Niger Delta provides a prophetic hope for millions of suffering women and Children in the region and their message resonates with our demands at the first and second People’s AGM to Shell and other multinational oil companies and their investors.
“We call on WCC to join forces with the People’s AGM to amplify the voices of the poor who have lost their livelihoods from the activities of Oil spillage and environmental degradation,” Ugolor said
Deputy Executive Director of ANEEJ and Team lead of its official delegates to COP 28, Mr. Leo Atakpu notes that ANEEJ agrees with the WCC’s call on COP28 to “make operational as soon as possible the Loss and Damage Fund established at COP27 in view of accelerating climate impacts. This means ensuring new, additional, adequate and predictable funding for economic and non-economic losses and damages experienced mainly by more vulnerable and low-income countries which is expected to reach $150-300 billion a year by 2030. Such funds must be made accessible to climate-impacted communities,” pointing that this request resonates with ANEEJ’s demand concerning the Niger Delta and oil producing communities that have suffered severe losses and damages.
“From COP27 to COP28, its time to walk the talk on the commitment of $100bn annually for loss and damage. We need the developed countries to act now,”Atakpu demanded.
National Coordinator of Publish What You Pay (PWYP) Nigeria, Comrade Taiwo Otitolaye while welcoming the two WCC statements issued at the end of its meeting in Abuja lauded the body for identifying with Nigeria particularly the security challenges that have affected development and rendered more people poor, noting that the World Council of Churches’ call for urgent phase of fossil fuel also seats with the Peoples AGM’s demand for Shell to urgently revise itsenergy transition strategy and those of other multinational oil companies to align with Paris Agreement, of limiting the increase in the average global temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
ANEEJ is the Convener of the Peoples AGM, a Civil Society shadow platform that challenges oil extractive companies that meet annually to celebrate mouthwatering profits from the tears, sorrow and blood of the beleaguered people of the oil-rich Niger Delta. The platform has its campaigns targeted the Boa Church of England Pensions Board led by the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Norwegian Oil Fund to stop lending moral and financial support to Shell. They have also beamed their searchlights and on other oil companies such as Total, ExxonMobil, among others.
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