Lagos Celebrates Climate Change Success Stories

Fri, Apr 24, 2015
By publisher
4 MIN READ

Energy Briefs

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LAGOS State government has said that the state’s Independent Power Plants have reduced the government’s energy cost by 40 percent. Babatunde Fashola, governor of the state, stated this this on Tuesday, April 21, at the opening ceremony of the three-day 7th Lagos State Climate Change Summit. The theme of the summit is ‘Seven Years of Climate Change Governance in Lagos State: Celebrating Success Stories, Reviewing Challenges and Setting Future Agenda.’

The governor said the state government recently inaugurated the 8.5 megawatts Peninsula Integrated Power Project, IPP which is the fifth of such IPPs built in the last five years. “In the area of energy conservation, our independent power plants have led to the reduction of power costs in the running of critical public utilities such as schools, hospitals, waterworks and police stations by close to 40 percent. This is not the end of the journey; we have used cleaner fuel, mainly gas, and this has led to the decommissioning of 400 generators and an annual sustainable carbon dioxide emission reduction, leading to a cleaner and greener environment in our state,” he said.

Governor Fashola noted that the state had also invested in solar power, which currently serves about 127 public schools and 11 primary health care centres. He said the state had also made giant strides in the area of waste management. “Waste management in Lagos is much more improved and I am glad that we have lost the unenviable status of being the dirtiest city in the world and Lagos has become the centre of study on how to manage waste.”

Speaking, Tunji Bello, commissioner for environment recalled that when the summit began in 2009, the goal was to use the platform as a principal vehicle not only for drawing public attention to the challenges that climate change posed to humans, but also to explore all available mitigation and adaptation options. “This is understandable given that Lagos State with its topography, vast coast line and burgeoning population is most vulnerable to the vagaries of climate change,” he said.

Selling Petrol at N40 Not Realistic – IPMAN

THE Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigerian, Ogun State chapter, has said that it would be difficult for Muhamadu Buhari, president-elect, to reduce the petroleum pump price to N40 per litre. The association said the situation in the industry could not allow such reversion, saying, it could, however, be reversed to N87 per litre if the federal government builds refineries in some parts of the country.

Aminu Abdulkadri, IPMAN National President
Aminu Abdulkadri, IPMAN National President

Adeleke Bada, chairman, IPMAN in the state, said the advice given by Tam David West, former minister of petroleum resources, to the president-elect to reduce the pump price to N40, was not realistic. “That is not possible, if you look at the nature of the market, that isn’t realistic. Do we have the refineries? The only reason that can be possible is when we have our own refineries and we do not export our crude oil for processing. If the processing is done in Nigeria, then it can be sold at the rate of N40 but not until all the refineries are fixed,” he said.

Bada, however, blamed the non-compliance of sale of premium motor spirit at the N87 stipulated price on the expenses incurred by the marketers while trying to get the fuel available for the masses to use. He said the levies being paid by the marketers to various regulatory associations and unions have made the marketers to inflate the prices of fuel to their desired amount. “That is why they do not want to leave IPMAN alone. The government has not increased the price of fuel; it is still N87 per litre.

“But by the time you get to the depot, after paying around N2.6million for your ticket, a lot of levies are to be paid, levies from PTD, IPMAN and all others, adding them all together with the cost of transporting your trucks to the station, no one is ready to run at a loss. I even give them (marketers) kudos for selling the fuel because they do not want the masses to suffer despite all these anomalies. That is why if you can afford to buy it at the prices they sell, and then go on because we make use of it every day.”

— May 4, 2015 @ 01:00 GMT

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