Promoting a zero-low carbon economy using the concept of carbon footprinting in Nigeria

By Emmanuel Tembe

Nigeria is promoting an import driven economy where over 90% of consumer products are sourced from the high carbon industrialized nations of the world. This over dependence on imports has created a favorable market for dumping of goods with high carbon footprints and reinforced the resistance of industrialized nations to emissions cuts as required by the Kyoto protocol. While blaming the high polluter nations for contributing most to climate change, we also must share in the blame for massively patronizing these high carbon imports.

Since Nigeria is among the developing countries that are most hit by climate change impacts, it makes sense to collectively as government, organizations and individuals adjust our import driven culture using the concept of carbon foot printing. This implies generating carbon footprints for all import goods and services and placing carbon limits on each of them, sensitizing the public to patronize alternatives with low carbon footprints and enforcing compliance to carbon standards by relevant government agencies.

 The synergy among all appropriate organs of government like the security agencies, SON, NESREA, NAFDAC, Customs as well as CSOs and the media will assist in standards compliance and enforcement. At the local front, carbon footprinting should be mainstreamed into the entire socio-economic structure of the economy. In the energy sector for instance the massive use of generators can be substituted with the use of solar energy and hydro electricity. The transport sector should shift from massive car/truck ownership to train/bicycle/pedestrian movements. The industrial sector should upgrade their systems to meet low-zero carbon targets, while a massive public awareness will encourage individuals to patronize only products with low carbon footprints and promote environmentally sensitive practices for forest/watershed protection, tree planting, reduction in bush burning etc especially in rural communities.

 The rich and highly placed individuals must cut down on extravagant lifestyles to ownership of less number of cars and guest houses, living in smaller but comfortable apartments and maximizing the use of consumer resources through waste avoidance/reduction practices. Work places, organizations and service industries with high turnover of paper, plastics, water, metals, liquid/solid effluents and garbage etc must develop ways and means of maximizing utilization of resources through re-use and possible recycling to save cost, reduce carbon footprints and create jobs.

 Carbon footprinting therefore presents the only window of opportunity for Nigeria and other developing countries with high climate change impacts to compel the high polluter nations to cut down emissions by simply rejecting their high carbon products. This will knock down their markets and compel them to fix their production lines with low-zero carbon systems before new market opportunities are contemplated. The Nigerian government must immediately summon enough political will to enforce the low-zero carbon economy, or face the full consequences of climate vulnerabilities for encouraging a high carbon economy.