Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA) has intensified demands on addressing climate crisis as it claimed that Net Zero is not the real solution.
The group during a media Roundtable on outcomes of COP26 said Net Zero is against the African people.
Addressing journalists at the roundtable discussion, Dr. Nnimmo Bassey, Executive Director of Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF) explained that COP26 was a failure because “participants came with different orientation which did not make them have a good negotiation and question policies that were made about climate change affecting African Countries.”
Regarding Net Zero, Dr. Bassey said there is nothing like net zero adding that it is not real and does not mean it will have any effect on carbon emissions.
“Net Zero is not zero, it does not mean it will stop Carbon emissions,” he said.
He buttressed that COP26 was a failure because what is needed is a people’s summit and not a Conference of Parties.
He demanded that “African governments must challenge and reject pledges made by polluting corporations and governments to achieve Net Zero emissions, which are being used to shift additional burdens onto the African region and avoid responsibility for their role in the global share of emissions to-date.”
Olamide Martins, Programme Manager at CAPPA, said that “we are not in support of the government by passing Net Zero because it is against African people”.
He buttressed his point by giving details of the projected years of Carbon emissions which are quite contradictory.
He said, “Governments on the continent must ensure that the NDCs of African countries are independent of false solutions and corporations’ influences, but rather accommodate workable and home-grown climate real solutions on mitigation and adaptations.”
Philip Jakpor, Director of Programmes at CAPPA, lamented that the African Governments did not advance the positions and argument that Africans actually want during COP26.
“African communities are facing climate crisis and we want the issue of mitigation and adaptation to be at the forefront of discussion.
“These things did not happen, rather we started hearing about Net-zero which is an industry language to delay action and to push the perils further down the road.”
Affirming that COP26 was a failure, Jakpor said, “the essence of the gathering is to look at climate change holistically and look at what each country can do to cut carbon emissions which is actually the cause of climate change”.
Noting that the Nigerian Government is not committed to addressing issues of climate change, Jakpor mentioned that, “the Nigerian government that is talking about cutting carbon emission by the year 2060 or 2070 as the case may be is still investing greatly in Fossil fuels in some states.
“We are still looking for oil in the North. The government is talking about bringing nuclear power plants and that same government is talking about cutting emissions. This means we have not been able to deliver on climate.
“Our verdict is that the Nigerian is very conflicting and as civil society people we are trying to put our government on the right path”.
Executive Director, CAPPA, Akinbode Oluwafemi, added that tackling the climate crisis is a global effort and not just for the poor.