Through the utilization of renewable energy, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo believes that Africa may establish itself as the first green civilisation in the world. On Tuesday in Abuja, following the official signing of the carbon vista final agreement between the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) and the international oil company Vitol, Osinbajo made a statement.
According to him, the pact, which calls for funding initiatives like water purification, reforestation, and clean cooking, is the kind of multilevel cooperation Nigeria and Africa need to fulfill their climate change goals. According to the vice president, a just transition away from fossil fuels was necessary for Africa in order to protect the continent’s climate.
“I think one of the things that this tells us is that we are set for the sort of collaborations that are required among the public, private, and of course the third sector, the civil society,” he said.
“And that if we are not careful, we may find ourselves with a tragedy of immense proportions. Some have said that the death of the planet will come with neglect of the climate and neglect of what we are being told already. While we talk about climate justice and saying that the transition must be a fair one; and saying that we still need fossil fuel for several purposes, we must also agree that there is a new way by which Africa and indeed, Nigeria, can benefit immensely from what is coming to us.”
He went further saying “Africa can become the first truly green civilisation; the first civilisation on earth to use renewable fuels for the purposes of a transformative economic journey.
“And how can we do that? Of course, we can do that because first of all, we are the lowest emitters today; and if we are going to develop our industry for the rest of the world, we can start from where we are today, we do not have to start where the rest of the world is at the moment.
“If we are the least emitters, and we are able to use green energy effectively, we are able to use the young population that we have; we are able to effectively deploy green manufacturing on the scale that is required to become the global green factory of the world and global green power of the world, we can indeed, do something that is revolutionary and different.”