The Global Initiative for Food Security Ecosystem Preservation (GIFSEP), Coal Free Nigeria and 350Africa.org on Wednesday, called for urgent intervention to mitigate environmental crisis across the country.
The Executive Director of GIFSEP, Mr Michael Terungwa, made the call at a three-day workshop organised by the NGOs in Abuja.
Terungwa said that the aim of the workshop was to sensitise the public on impact of coal mining and climate change in Nigeria as well as Africa at large.
According to him, energy transition and other environmental crisis need urgent attention to reduce energy-related carbon emissions to limit climate change.
“Decarburisation of the energy sector requires urgent action not just in Nigeria but on a global scale.
“Action is needed to mitigate the effect of climate change, renewable energy and energy efficiency measures can potentially achieve 90 per cent of the required carbon reduction,’’ he said.
The executive director said that energy transition was a pathway toward transforming the energy sector from fossil-based to zero carbon at specific period of time.
He said that energy transition would be enabled by information technology, smart technology, and policy framework and market instruments.
The Programme Manager of GIFSEP, Mr Joseph Ibrahim, said that the organisations carried out findings about coal mining and discovered that it was harmful to health.
Ibrahim said that the organisations also discovered three states that mine coal presently in Nigeria, which include, Kogi, Gombe and Benue States.
According to him, the NGOs carried out community sensitisation called Community Resilience Building and create Village Savings and Loan scheme (VSLS), for women in the communities.
The Africa Regional Campaigner 350Africa.org, Ms Charity Migwi, said that Africa needed climate finance to change from use of coal to renewable energy.
Migwi said that the organisations were collaborating to create awareness on energy transition plan, adding that it was part of the aim of the workshop.
She said that the workshop was to discuss and understand how the principles of a just transition could be applicable in the Nigerian framework.
She encouraged Nigerians to embrace renewable energy system, adding that the energy transition plan was a situation where the use of fossil fuel would gradually phase out for renewable energy.
“We want to live in a healthy and safe environment, which renewable energy system will provide. We all want to have sustainable food systems, agriculture that is productive.
“So, those are the things that actually motivate most of our campaigns. I believed that the campaign will be beneficial not just for Nigeria, but as a continent,’’ she said.
The Regional Organiser of the 350Africa.org. Ms Rukiya Khamis, said that most communities do not have access to energy, adding that there was the need to build a resilient agricultural environment.
Khamis said that the objective of the organisation was to build an African movement to fight climate change, adding that the organisation used grassroots to run locally-driven campaigns in every corner of the globe.