By Michael Oche
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has called on the federal government Federal Government to adopt and develop Compressed Natural Gas as an alternative fuel, adding that the recent astronomic price increases of the Premium Motor Spirit have exacerbated the scourge of energy poverty in Nigeria.
In a statement to mark this year’s Earth Day, the NLC said policymakers, regulators and businesses in the oil and gas sector should increase their commitment to phasing out gas flaring and finding ways to harness the gases that destroy the environment for productive energy use in homes and production plants.
The statement signed by Comrade Echezona Asuzu, Coordinator of the NLC Climate Change Program, noted that this requires strategic re-thinking in energy investment as the common strive and commitment must be how to use gas as a transition fuel to resolve the humongous and horrendous energy poverty ravaging the vast numbers of our population.
“It is in this light that we use this occasion to call on the Federal Government to adopt and develop Compressed Natural Gas as an alternative fuel to the Premium Motor Spirit which recent astronomic price increases have exacerbated the scourge of energy poverty in Nigeria,” he noted.
He said overall, environmental emancipation from plastic, gas flare, and other greenhouse gas emissions ensures that we stay alive to the fact that there are no jobs on a dead planet.
He explained that at the heart of the Organizationally Determined Contributions of the NLC is the consciousness that People must come first.
He said, “This is also the resonance of this year’s Earth Day. We must rise to the challenge of protecting people, workers, children, babies and the unborn from the grave dangers that uncontrolled proliferation of plastics especially microplastics and single use plastics pose to human health and to the environment.”
