By Our Correspondent
.…Demands fair, just climate financing at COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan
A Civil Society Organisation, Connected Advocacy for Empowerment and Youth Development Initiative (CAEYDI) has advocated for the adoption of dialogue for Climate Change adaptability and sustainable solutions in communities and sites of oil extraction.
TheNewsZenith reports that this is the highpoint resolution at a one-day advocacy dialogue, on Wednesday, in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State.
The theme of the dialogue was “Local Community Dialogue on Divestment and Environmental Remediation”.
It also focused on Pre-COP29 expectations from impacted local communities in the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria.
Prince Israel Orekha, CAEYDI’s Executive Director of Connected Advocacy, e-mailed a copy of the communique issued at the end of the dialogue, to TheNewsZenith on Thursday.
Orekha stated that the dialogue dwelt on climate change adaptability and sustainable solutions in communities and sites of oil extraction.
According to him, CAEYDI convened the dialogue to address the worsening climate change issues bedevilling communities in petroleum extraction sites.
“This is intending to develop local solutions via adaptation and sustainability of the environment, livelihoods and the entire ecosystem.
“To address the historical age-long pollution spanning over seven decades, and to share these findings with the international community.
“It is also to demand fair and justice at the climate financing at COP29, which is coming up in Baku, Azerbaijan, later in the year,” Orekha said.
TheNewsZenith reports that one of the resolutions of the dialogue includes the Shell’s divestment strategy in the Niger Delta.
These participants perceived it as an effort to evade accountability for the environmental harm caused by its long-term oil activities.
“By selling its shareholding in SPDC to Nigerian firms, Shell aims to avoid the costs of cleaning up pollution. It also wants to distance itself from compensating affected communities.”
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“There is lack of transparency in the shareholding and asset transfer process heightens these concerns.
“Local companies’ takeover of these assets threatens to exacerbate the already critical pollution issues.
“This is because the companies may deny responsibility for remediating sites devastated by Shell over the past decades.
On environmental liability and cleanup, the Dialogue observed that the divestment raises critical questions about responsibility for past and ongoing environmental damages due to oil pollution.
“With assets changing hands, there is concern about the commitment of new local owners to address legacy pollution issues and invest in necessary cleanup and remediation efforts.”
It drew attention to Shell’s proposed sale and or application of shares in SPDC, like the previous sale of asset ownership to Nigerian firms.
CAEYDI’ said this sales adversely diminishes the local communities’ advantage in addressing their concerns through legal and other channels.
It relayed Nembe’s experience, where Shell’s divestment of Aiteo sparked debates over ongoing pollution responsibility and cleanup adequacy.
This, it stated, “exemplifies the need for more transparent and community-inclusive divestment processes”.
Also, the Ikarama community is one of the communities where people have been suffering in silence by overwhelming adverse environmental destruction and impact.
The dialogue therefore recommended calling for transparent resolution of historical liabilities, regulatory oversight and accountability and community engagement and compensation.
It also called for an assessment of new operators’ capabilities, the halting of further divestment by Shell and the establishment of an environmental restoration fund.
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