By Ahmed Balarabe Said
Nigeria’s recent admittance into the forum of international economic cooperation, G20, has been identified as a potential asset for the nation’s positioning towards securing leadership of the region’s energy security in the emerging transition.
This was made known by Prof. Chidi Ibe, the Keynote speaker at the 12th Emmanuel Egbogah Lecture Series, which held at the Emerald Energy Institute, University of Port Harcourt, Thursday.
Prof. Ibe, who spoke on the theme “Climate Change and the Geopolitics of Energy Transition”, noted that, climate change is driving policy shifts and reshaping global industries and economies within a global energy mix, and only innovative nations with best practices can escape destabilization.
He stressed that, the current global reality of the dynamics of the energy transition and the effects of climate change has led to the realization by many nations that, circumstances outside their control should not threaten their energy security and economy. Nigeria, he noted, cannot be an exemption in this regard, as the membership of the G20 in particular, offers the opportunity of diversifying the nation’s energy value chain and radical pursuit of the national gas policy.
Prof. Ibe acknowledged that, the politics of self preservation among nations will continue to create disruptions amidst markets and economies, citing struggles between major economies like United State and China is affecting the patterns of transition in lesser economies.
He lamented what he described as the “trilemma” of energy security, energy affordability and energy sustainability, all of which further challenges Nigeria’s potential of regional leadership position towards “galvanizing the continent to interrogate the global imposition of a monolithic strategy”.
Speaking exclusively to Valuechain after his presentation, the renowned Professor of Oceanography and Blue Economy, advocated a transition which combines conventional and renewable options.
According to him, “to attain energy security, we need a rational mix of conventional and renewable energy. There are however a lot of impediments to it. To get out of this smoothly as we intensify the gas to power amidst other renewable options, we must build our refining capacities to at least 1.3 million barrels a day and retain oil for the purpose of economies of scale in the global order, because oil will not go away soon”.
Also speaking to Valuechain at the event, Executive Director, Emmanuel Egbogah Foundation, Prof Wumi Iledare, who earlier recalled the objective of the annual event, identified the significant place of research and development in the Nigeria’s energy transition journey, adding that, discourses enabled through platforms such as the legacy lecture series, will offer robust perspectives for stakeholders to aggregate vital ideas towards policy shift. While admitting that, Nigeria’s energy transition plan requires retooling, Prof. Iledare pointed out that, government cannot fund energy transition and must therefore rely on research and development through building the capacity of the nation’s universities and research institutes.
According to him, “energy resources evolve dynamically. There’s no direct transition of energy resources from one to another, and so, Nigeria must adopt a mixed strategy supported by technological adaptation, supported by education and public policy. He added that, for the nation to get it right, “we must disabuse transactional mindsets which have prevented proper and effective planning in our national life”.
Mrs Oluseyi Afolabi, one of the panelists of the discussion session of the event, decried poor incentives as a major impediment for large scale investments in the oil and gas industry. Citing multiple taxation and policy summersaults as major drawbacks, other participants who also spoke to Valuechain affirmed government’s role in providing the required enabling environment to guide the nation’s energy transition beyond rhetorics.