- Ask FG To Reject Proposal
Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA) led climate activists in Lagos, on Tuesday to protest against the Net Zero carbon emissions plan proposed by oil multinational — Royal Dutch Shell as solution to the ongoing climate crisis.
The protesters stormed the Corporation’s headquarters in Nigeria located along Broad Street, Marina-Lagos as the oil giant was holding its Annual General Meeting in The Hague, Netherlands and concurrently around the world.
Ahead of the AGM, Shell had reportedly rallied shareholders in countries, including Nigeria to endorse its Net Zero Carbon Emissions strategy for the climate. Recall The New Diplomat had recently reported that 40 Civil Society Organisations based in the country had written a protest letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Most Revd. Justin Welby, urging the Church of England’s Pensions Board not to back the Shell’s climate plan at the AGM.
The protesters who displayed various placards averred that the Net Zero plan “is a scam”, insisting that the oil giant was attempting to divert the rest of the world away from the real solution which is to outrightly stop the emissions of Co2 and other greenhouse gases.
CAPPA Executive Director, Mr Akinbode Oluwafemi while speaking during the protest described the Shell’s Net Zero plan as a “climate deception.” Oluwafemi said: “While Shell continues to trumpet its Net Zero pledge to end flares by the 2050, communities across the African continent, on the frontlines of the Climate crisis are saying enough to false solutions to climate change and demanding real action including Shell’s greenwashing and abuses.”
He noted that Net Zero which sees solutions in either “emissions offsets or non-existent carbon capture technologies is not a viable strategy” to keep global temperatures below 1.5°C pre-industrial levels in line with the Paris Agreement.
The CAPPA Executive Director added that Net Zero “is increasingly being used by most polluting governments and corporations to evade responsibility, shift burden and disguise climate inaction,” calling on the Nigerian government to reject plan and make Big Polluters like Shell pay for their decades-old environmental abuse in the country.
Oluwafemi added that the false solution is an attempt by the fossil industry to “greenwash bussiness-as-usual” as corporations scale up fossil fuel extraction, burning and emissions.
Also, Director of Programmes, CAPPA, Mr Philip Jakpor called on the Nigerian government to consider real emissions reductions as solution to the climate crisis and shun the Shell proposal.
Jakpor said as evident in the Niger Delta, Africans bear the biggest burden of the climate crisis as decades of despoliation continues to ravage communities. He asked the Nigerian government to further hold Shell accountable for the record oil spills in Ogoniland and other parts of the oil-rich region as well as speed up the clean-up programme which has lagged for years.
