ODAHIEKWU OGUNDE, Yenagoa
A coalition of environment-focused Civil Society Organisations has berated the European Union (EU) for planning to build new gas pipelines as an alternative to Russian gas.
The CSOs noted on Thursday that the boycott of Russian gas was an opportunity to fast-track the switch to renewable energy sources rather than building new pipelines for gas.
The condemnation is contained in a statement issued on their behalf by Miss Kome Odhomor, Media/Communication Lead at Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF).
They argued that the plan announced on Wednesday by the EU did not address the challenges posed by the global energy crisis.
The EU had on Wednesday called on the United States, Canada, African and Gulf countries to open up new gas supplies to displace supplies of Russian oil and gas.
The statement quoted Landry Ninteretse of 350.org as saying: “The strategy fails to address the impacts the energy crisis, the global impacts of the war in Ukraine, and Western sanctions have on developing countries dependent on oil and gas imports.
“It also contravenes the EU’s commitments laid out in the REpowerEU strategy to reduce its gas demand by 30 per cent by 2030.
“It is entirely reckless that the EU calls on African nations to open up more gas supplies to feed their fossil fuel addiction. African countries are faced with a multitude of interlinked and mutually reinforcing crises.
“They include climate impacts, water scarcity, energy poverty, insufficient food production, post-Covid impacts, leaving millions of people vulnerable and unable to meet their basic needs.”
The statement also quoted Svitlana Romanko, Stand With Ukraine campaign coordinator, as noting that: “Russia’s outrageous war against Ukraine fully exposed Europe’s dependence on fossil fuel imports and lack of political willpower to lead the green revolution globally.
“The European oil and gas-led energy security has failed, and we have to acknowledge this.
“The EU is poignantly slow in banning and phasing out Russian fossil fuels and every day still sending about one billion euros to feed Putin’s war machine. But far more active in mobilising oil and gas reserves worldwide.
“This severely undermines the EU global leadership in green transformation declared by the EU Green Deal and brings us back to the dark times of fossil-fueled colonialism.”
In his reaction to the EU’s plan, the Executive Director, HOMEF and Oilwatch Africa, Dr Nnimmo Bassey, declared that now was the time for renewables to be at the core of global energy policies, saying that Ukraine is not just a wake-up call, it is an eye-opener in the heart of Europe.
He asserted: “Instead, the continent (EU), like a drug addict, is turning to Africa in what simply amounts to a rash, stubborn, mindless, colonial pursuit of profit at the expense of people of Africa, the continent and the entire planet.
“We need to be thinking beyond the bottom line of those who have brought us to the brink of catastrophe. Anything less will be nothing other than willful climate and ecological crimes.”