Vice President Yemi Osinbajo says African nations account for less than one per cent of cumulative global carbon emissions.

Mr Osinbajo disclosed this in his keynote address at the 60th Anniversary Dinner of the Oil Producers Trade Section (OPTS) of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) on Thursday in Lagos.

The OPTS is a subgroup of LCCI, the umbrella association of oil and gas companies that have come together to promote their common interests.

Mr Osinbajo said activities of wealthier nations triggered the most hostile impacts of climate change on the continent. The vice president said that most countries, including Nigeria, agreed that there was the need to reduce global emissions to zero in Nigeria’s case by 2060.

“We are major victims of the effects of climate change, but there are a few important issues that we have flagged to our wealthier brother-countries in the global north,” stated Mr Osinbajo. “The first is that we, in the developing world, are faced with two, not one crisis; one is climate change, and the other is extreme poverty, the cause and consequence of which is energy poverty.”

He added, “Or the fact that lack of access to electricity for millions is a cause of deepening poverty. The second is that African countries are the least emitters of carbon today – less than one per cent of cumulative CO2 emissions and even if we triple electricity consumption in African countries (aside from South Africa) solely through the use of natural gas, this would add just 0.6 per cent to global emissions.”

According to him, the proposals to ban the funding of fossil fuel projects make no distinction between upstream oil and coal exploration and gas power plants for grid balancing.

He said that no economy in the world had been known to use renewables solely to industrialise, as solar power did not have the base load capacity yet for industry.

(NAN)