Climate Change

Climate litigation is on the rise - in Germany, in Europe and worldwide. What role can courts play in the fight against climate change? This article shows the link between human rights and climate change, its implications, and introduces some of the cases.

As conventional oil reserves decline, international oil companies are increasingly turning their attention towards unconventional oils such as bitumen to meet rising demand for petroleum products. Bitumen, a very heavy oil, can be removed from the oil sands and used in road construction or upgraded into synthetic crude oil.  With an estimated 38 billion barrels of bitumen across Lagos, Ondo, Ogun, and Lagos states, Nigeria ranks 6th globally among countries with bitumen reserves.

Armsfree Ajanaku has travelled to Ondo state communities situated along the bitumen belt of Nigeria to try and understand the people’s perception about the bitumen under their feet and their aspiration for development. He describes his experience in this article. 

All technologies have their own footprint. Renewable energy sources are generally cleaner, more sustainable and better for social development than fossil-fueled alternatives. As with any technology there are pros and cons to the use of renewables. Our report “Renewables on the Rise” clearly showed the benefits of renewable energy development. In this blog, author Hans Verolme looks at potential risks and problems associated with the large scale development of renewable energy technologies.

THE GOOD LIFE is a musical movie that shows young Nigerians looking for solutions for jobs, careers and justice in their lives. Some of them create their own power solutions, some demand solutions from election candidates. They all know that Nigeria cannot develop without concrete plans for rising supplies in electricity. THE GOOD LIFE needs POWER.

A local government should be the closest government to the people but in Nigeria it only has minimal implementation power. This is the experience of the organization Community Conservation and Development Initiatives (CCDI). In their climate change training programmes and various initiatives aimed at building local adaptative capacity for climate change resilience at local government level, they realized that initiatives and planned actions are constrained and hampered by poor land use planning and lack of integration of climate change factors into development agendas. In a participatory research project in Amuwo Odofin Local Government they critically analyzed the scope of actions assigned to local governments compared to state governments on existing land use policies, regulations and laws and developed a participatory risk reduction and management blue print.

Fossil fuel producers (the “Carbon Majors”) should pay for the loss and damage their product is causing on poor communities via a levy to the International Mechanism for Loss and Damage.

Increasing areas of northern Nigeria are turning into desert. With increasing climate change, these areas are facing heat above 45 degrees Celsius, soil degradation and shifting sand dunes. Hajia Waziri Toshua from Yobe State had to move her house twice to escape the sand dunes. Her father was not lucky: he died as the sand dunes encapsulated his house. Hear Hajiya talk about life in the desert. Watch Video

Nigeria’s 160 million people are projected to increase to 255 million by the year 2030. With desertification in the north, erosion and sea level rise along the Atlantic coast and more floods, will Nigeria be able to feed itself? With almost half of the country’s arable land not cultivated, there is a real possibility to increase food production. But how should Nigeria’s future agriculture look like? Green Deal Nigeria author Prof Chinedum Nwajiuba argues that sustainable agriculture is possible if small farmers are not left behind.

The Eko Atlantic project is portrayed by Lagos State Government and developers as a model of sustainability, climate change adaptation and economic growth. However, reconciling plans for economic development and environmental protection with the aim of achieving social justice for all requires more open debate and participatory planning.