Buhari cautions against total elimination of fossil fuel usage

President Muhammadu Buhari has cautioned the United Nations and world leaders against the total elimination of the usage of fossil fuel in a bid to ensure a healthy climate via renewable energy.

Buhari made this call during his statement on Sunday while addressing the 26th Conference of Parties (COP26) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Glasgow, Scotland.

“It also seems unnoticed that in our global rush for electric cars we risk replacing the last century’s scramble for fossil fuels with a new global race in lithium for batteries. Where significant deposits are to be found, such as in Africa, this could endanger geopolitical stability.

“This makes the economic migrations the U.N. warned of more likely. We must think carefully about whether our dash to terminate the use of fossil fuels so swiftly is as wise as it sounds,” the President cautioned.

He further revealed the impracticability of renewable energy sources especially in developing countries due to costs and unreliability.

Buhari said, “Yet in our rush to address climate concerns, and for western aid agencies and investors to burnish their green credentials, we rush to install the most alternative of energy sources which are often the most unreliable. Wind and solar, the most fashionable of modern energy technologies, are flawed by their reliance on backup diesel generators or batteries for when there is no wind for the turbines or sun for the panels.

“But there are certain things we can and must do—starting with transitioning to cleaner, but consistent, energy production. Fossil fuel power generation that can provide electricity 24 hours a day in all conditions can be re-tooled greener through carbon capture and the conversion of coal and heavy fuel oil power stations to biomass.

“We can bring forward new technologies such as mini-hydropower plants which can operate and produce power day and night along shallow waterways without damaging the aquatic life on which local communities are sustained.”

Read also: Renewable energy and fossil fuels will continue to rely on each other –Lekoil boss

Buhari also revealed that Nigeria is “among a handful of African countries exploring nuclear power, with a research reactor already operational.

“Though not renewable it is carbon neutral and capable of producing baseload, constant electricity production on which sustained economic progress can be built.”

The President also charged world leaders in Europe and America “to lift the moratorium they have placed on fossil fuel investments in Africa. Nigeria has pledged to eliminate illegal gas flaring by 2030—a by-product of our oil industry—and harness it for electricity production.

“Our intention to end Nigeria’s single greatest contribution to greenhouse emissions may stall without it. Yet there are no such limitations on investment in natural gas power in the West where it is considered a transitional energy source.”

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