Vice President Yemi Osinbajo (SAN) has said Nigeria is a unique investment destination for liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), which is a transition fuel alongside other renewable sources.
He said this during his keynote address at the World Liquified Petroleum Gas Association’s week-long summit in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, on Tuesday.
The association’s 2021 LPG Week will bring together nearly 2,000 participants from 72 countries, including representatives from major LPG firms, top government officials, industry experts, and other important stakeholders.
“The world should not have to choose between energy poverty and climate change as this can be addressed with both natural gas and Liquified Petroleum Gas as transition fuels alongside other renewable sources,” the VP was quoted as saying in a statement by his spokesman, Laolu Akande.
Speaking on the theme ‘Energizing Tomorrow’ at the Dubai World Trade Centre, Osinbajo noted that it was “worrying that a growing number of wealthy nations have banned or restricted public investment in fossil fuels, including natural gas.”
“Such policies often do not distinguish between different kinds of fossil fuels, nor do they consider the vital role some of these fuels play in powering the growth of developing economies, especially in sub-Saharan Africa,” he stated.
“As development finance institutions try to balance climate concerns against the need to spur equitable development and increase energy security, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the European Union have all taken aggressive steps to limit fossil fuel investments in developing and emerging economies.
“The World Bank and other multilateral development banks are being urged by some shareholders to do the same. The African Development Bank, for instance, is increasingly unable to support large natural gas projects in the face of European shareholder pressure.”
Citing Nigeria’s efforts at balancing energy security with environmental sustainability, Osinbajo stated that the Federal Government has developed an Energy Transition Plan “which shows that achieving net-zero by 2060 will require investments of about $410 billion, above business as usual, and that natural gas will play a critical role in addressing the clean cooking challenge, as well providing grid stability to integrate renewables at scale.”
According to him, “Nigeria has also developed an integrated energy plan with a clean cooking model which shows the clean cooking opportunities across technologies such as electric- cooking and LPG.
“This model shows that there is an opportunity to transition at least five million households to LPG solutions, which will cut emissions by 30% compared to business as usual, reduce other pollutants by 90% or more and avoid 6.9 billion kilogrammes of forest loss from biomass collection.”
The VP added that “LPG remains an ideal fuel to support the journey to renewables, as it is easily stored, does not degrade over time, requires no heating or complex filtration to keep the fuel in a usable condition, and does not constantly boil off.”
He stated that for a gas-rich country like Nigeria, with over 206 TCF of proven reserves and an additional 600 TCF scope to be proven, “it is clear that the use of LPG, at least as a transition fuel, makes the most sense from the standpoint of balancing energy security with environmental sustainability.”
Citing Nigeria as an example, the VP said, “For countries such as my own, that is rich in natural resources but still energy poor – from the point of view of access, the transition must not come at the expense of affordable and reliable energy for people, cities, and industry. On the contrary, it must be inclusive, equitable, and just—which means preserving the right to sustainable development and poverty eradication as enshrined in global treaties such as the Paris accord.”
“These cleaner energy systems include solar for electricity, waste to energy, wind energy, hydro power and natural gas. which aims to adopt and domesticate all forms of cleaner energy sources from household use to commercial use,” he stated.
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