Experts Recommend Methane Reduction to Combat Climate Change in Nigeria
Blessing Ibunge in Port Harcourt
TExperts in the environment sector have recommended reduction in methane emissions as a way of combating climate change in Nigeria.
They also recommended adequate sensitisation in local communities for activities that lead to methane emissions, and collaboration and as well funding for individuals and organisations involved in projects geared towards methane reduction in the country.
The recommendations were contained in a research embarked by the experts on Methane Abatement in Nigeria, with special focus on Anthropogenic Sources, sponsored by the Environmental Centre for Spill and Gas Flaring (ECOSGF) in collaboration with African Centre for Transparency Accountability and Leadership (AfriTAL).
Presenting the report at a close out meeting in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, the experts also insisted that the mandate of agricultural extension should be enriched to enable them have the capacity to educate farmers on matters relating to methane and its abatement.
The report also called for the creation of a market for biowaste, saying: “Stakeholders have to work out the framework to create a market for biodegradable wastes where waste owners can sell their waste for money of equivalent gas.
“Communal and general enlightenment on the efficient management of wastes, e.g. composting, sewage management, landfills, dumpsites, wetlands, among others.”
The experts said the creation of a biowaste market would create billionaires and other categories of rich men and women in Nigeria because of the potential of waste that can be generated by 210million persons per day. They stated that the research was carried out in Cross River, Delta, and Rivers States where engagements and samples were carried out on paddy rice farmers abattoirs and cattle rearers.
In his speech, AfriTAL Executive Director, Brown Ogbeifun, recommended for urgent need to revisit the curriculum of environmental officers to make them meet the needs of the time and address the effect of methane.
Ogbeifun observed challenges in the first phase of methane emission abatement project in some parts of the Niger Delta region. One of the challenges included the anxiety of the masses who he said seek to know how to drain the swamp used for paddy rice cultivation and further training on upland rice farming.
The expert mentioned major achievements of the scheme to include the hunger in Bayelsa State to join the campaign.
He said: “Bayelsa State has expressed optimism in being part of the programme.
“To elicit private partnership in producing biodigesters, we are now being asked to produce a biodigester within livestock and paddy rice facilities.
“We printed a policy brief to government policy formulators and implementers. There is the establishment of methane champions in Boki and Ibeno communities of Akwa Ibom and Cross River States with logistics provided by TrustAfrica.
“There is ‘Funding engagement of paddy rice farmers and community leaders in Boki, Cross River State on methane emission abatement by ECOSGF officials, courtesy of TrustAfrica funding,” he said.
Ogbeifun continued that the landscape of the climate change movement is being threatened by the executive order already signed by President Donald Trump.
He said methane is a major challenge in the global resolve to address climate change and its impacts.
“Though it is an innocuous, naturally occurring Greenhouse Gas (GHG) in the atmosphere, it becomes hazardous in high concentrations. At the dawn of the 19ᵗʰ century, the effects of methane had already become almost 30 times greater than those of carbon dioxide.”
Earlier in his opening speech (virtually), Edward Obi of ECOSGF advised activists to devise other ways to carry on activities in the face of the Trump challenge. He urged them to re-imagine their plans.
