Given Africa’s status as the lowest emitters of carbon coupled with its young and vibrant population that is capable of effectively deploying green manufacturing on a large scale, the continent can become the first truly green civilization, according to Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo.
Prof. Osinbajo stated this Tuesday in Abuja at the official signing ceremony of the Carbon Vista Agreement – an initiative that aims to support Nigeria in meeting its net-zero targets by investing in carbon avoidance and removal projects.
Carbon Vista is a joint venture investment company established by the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority, NSIA and Vitol (a multinational energy and commodities company) – committing an initial sum of US$50 million for projects such as climate-smart agriculture, green industrial technologies, waste management, etc., cutting across several sectors, including agriculture, energy, and manufacturing.
According to the Vice President, “Africa can become the first truly green civilization – the first civilization on earth to use renewable fuel for purposes of a transformative economic journey.”
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“How can we do that? First of all, we are the lowest emitters today, and if we are going to develop our industry for the rest of the world, we can start from where we are today, we don’t have to start from where the rest of the world is, especially the global North.
“If we are the least emitters and able to use green energy effectively, we are able to use the young population that we have, we are able to effectively deploy green manufacturing on a scale that would be required to become the global green factory and power of the world, we can indeed do something revolutionary and different.
“This is why what we are seeing today, this sort of collaboration between NSIA and Vitol is an important one because the pipeline of projects they are talking about are the sorts of projects that will make us a truly green economy and can cause us to realize that dream we are talking about,” the VP added.
Prof. Osinbajo further stated that Africa’s ambitions are also closely related to the talk about climate justice in the energy transition debate, stressing that “the transition must be a fair one, and fossil fuel is still required for several purposes, we must also agree that there is a new way by which Nigeria and Africa can benefit immensely from what is coming to us.”
Continuing, the VP commended the partnership between NSIA, Vitol and other partners, noting that “this sort of collaboration is only the beginning, we have to do a lot more and demonstrate that we are capable of being not just a victim in the climate change story, but an important catalyst and innovator for making our world greener and introducing to our own people, a prosperous economy based on the green initiatives that we have.”
He expressed hope that the Carbon Vista Fund will be bigger adding that more investments are expected from other stakeholders. According to him, “this is such an incredible opportunity and we must not leave it to just be a $50 million fund.”
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