The Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) has taken a copious view of the policies and programmes of the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu since it assumed office on 29 May 2023.

Speaking on existing and emerging issues in the environment sector under the present administration, Executive Director of ERA/FoEN, Chima Williams stated that several initiatives have been introduced by the new government with varying degrees of impact on Nigerians, and these issues have a connection with the environment.

Commenting on the fuel subsidy removal, he stated that the President’s announcement of the decision in his inaugural address was hasty and obviously not well-thought out, adding that the necessary engagement with critical stakeholders in the Nigerian project including representatives of labour, civil society and community representatives was not carried out prior to this decision.

“The implication was immediate and has resulted to spiralling inflation, high cost of food and transportation with Nigerians at the grassroots feeling the pinch more.

The subsequent announcement of $500 billion in palliatives which targeted N8,000 (eight thousand naira only) per household was a continuation of the confusion in policy before it was withdrawn in favour of N5 billion for palliatives per state, which has failed to address the real plight of ordinary Nigerians. We restate that the solution to the high cost of fuel remains local refining. The rehabilitation of the refineries as promised by the President must be prioritised even as we also demand a probe of the trillions of naira that have gone into turn around maintenance for the nation’s moribund refineries.

We equally demand that individuals and companies that have scammed this nation through the subsidies are held accountable. “

While speaking on the divestment of oil companies in the Niger Delta, Williams explained that the International Oil Companies (ICOs) have escalated their rhetoric about divestment from the Niger Delta region without reversing the environmental harms caused by oil exploration and extraction in the region.

According to him, over six decades of oil exploration in the Niger Delta region has left the region degraded, with frequent oil spills and gas flaring with grave impacts on man and the environment. These hazards continue to shorten the lifespan of the people of the region.

“Unfortunately, national companies have been buying off the oilfields left by the oil majors, without clear provisions about who is liable for historical contaminations and related socio-ecological issues.

We are disappointed, that after providing incentives, conducive environment for business operations for the IOCs, the Nigerian Government does not know the quantity of what is being extracted from their communities, let alone how to quantify the supposed royalties and taxes.

The over 30 million people who live in the oil and gas producing Niger Delta have not benefited from the huge amounts of resources pumped from beneath their lands, rivers, and creeks.”

Further elaborating on the environmental issues of the burning of crude oil vessels and the setting up of the Ministry of Gas Resources, marine and Blue Economy, the ERA/FoEN boss said the current administration still condones the ecological assault being perpetrated on land and sea by the Nigerian security forces in the Niger Delta.

Apart from the recent NNPCL interception of an 800,000-litre vessel, MT Tura II, conveying stolen crude offshore while heading to Cameroon which was later set ablaze, there have been many others. The sad outcomes have always been the burning of the products by the military allegedly to serve as deterrent to oil thieves. This is unacceptable.

He added that the announcement of a Ministry of Gas Resources, Marine and Blue Economy is a novel development in the history of Nigeria, but is one that will further pollute Nigeria’s waters and impact negatively on ocean resources and on the livelihoods of coastline communities.

“While the analysis of the government is that the ministries would boost the economic development of Nigeria and create massive employment for the youths, government has remained silent on concerns that the ministry is one that will give licence to the continuous gas emissions which are a major cause of climate change and the livelihood and health challenges faced by the communities in the Niger Delta and many far from the extraction front. It is our conviction that the new ministry will commodify our waters with terrible consequences like over-fishing, pollution from habitat destruction; sea mining and other activities are ecologically harmful.”

Drawing attention to the present administration’s disinterest in environmental issues, Williams pointed out that the current Minister of Environment is a medical doctor who was once a commissioner for health, agriculture, and housing in Ogun state, and does not have any experience in the environment sector.

He called for the setting up of an environmental remediation bond that will set aside funds to tackle environmental issues when such needs come up without waiting for a budgetary approval, as well as the release of the Ecology Fund earmarked for environmental remediation in communities that have suffered pollution, deprivation and other abuses caused by divesting IOCs.

He also admonished President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to repurpose his policies in the environment sector and start exactly from where his predecessor, former president, Muhammadu Buhari stopped in the Niger Delta, by ensuring the accelerated clean-up of Ogoniland, adding that all bureaucratic bottlenecks to the clean-up should be removed, followed by an environmental audit of the entire Niger Delta.

Signed:-

Elvira Jordan

Communications Officer

Druzhba Holiday Center is a massive cylindrical building which serves as a resort and it is located in the touristic town of Yalta, on the Black Sea, in the Republic of Ukraine.

Overlooking a popular beach, this interesting structure was built in 1984 by the design of the Ukrainian architect Igor Vasilevsku, as a joint venture by the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia.

This concrete building has been built with earthquake-resistant construction, and every single room has a complete privacy from the guests staying in the room next to them.

All of the windows have panoramic views of the Black Sea, and having in fact that one terrace is behind another one, the guests will not have to fear whether the “neighbor” spies on them. To enter the building from the main entrance, one has to cross a catwalk bridge which is encased in glass tube that descends into the building.

The whole building is supported by giant cement legs, a series of staircases and elevators that connect the public spaces and accommodations.

Even though Yalta was a very exclusive resort town in Soviet time, today, the legacy which was left from that time will continue to draw people who are very fond of Brutalist architecture, where a fine example is the Druzhba Holiday Center.

Tunisia’s blisteringly hot summer has hit Tunisia’s small wine industry, damaging or destroying grapes and leaving farmers and vintners to fear for their future as extreme weather brings hotter, drier weather to North Africa.

Estimates of how far wine output has fallen vary, from a roughly 20% drop according to the Agriculture Ministry’s Kilani Belhaj, to a reduction of 40-50% according to Vineyard Producers’ Syndicate head Salim Chaouch.

Winemakers in France and elsewhere in southern Europe have also warned of lower wine output this year due to the heat.

Farmer Wajdi Graya said his own production had fallen by between two fifths and three fifths this year after July temperature highs of between 38-48 Celsius as the heat reduced sugar levels in his grapes.

In ancient times Tunisia was a major wine producer under the Carthaginian and Roman empires and commercial-scale output began again under French colonialism, though it has not become a significant exporter.

However, Tunisian supermarkets stock a wide selection of locally made wines, many of them from the fertile northern hills near the base of the Cap Bon peninsula.

The grapes are picked early in the morning and driven to a modern processing facility at Takelsa in central Tunisia to be turned into wine.

At Coteaux Takelsa company, which produces wine from grapes grown by Graya and about 160 other farmers, director Hammadi Brik said he was rescheduling farmers’ debts and altering grape specifications to help them manage.

Germany’s wind power expansion is facing an unexpected roadblock: builders need permits to transport the heavy turbines down the country’s roads, and they are waiting months to get them.

With a backlog of more than 15,000 applications for approvals, companies say their projects are heavily delayed, with the costs of prolonged warehousing for steel tower segments, generators and blades running into the millions.

“Assuming nothing changes, it could cost 115 million euros extra by the end of the year,” Felix Rehwald, a spokesperson for wind turbine manufacturer Enercon, said.

Transport permits are needed to drive heavy loads over bridges and highways. Sometimes structures and road signs need dismantling, and police escorts are needed for some loads, while others can only be sent at night.

“It is currently one of the most pressing challenges for us and our competitors,” Rehwald added.

Delays in securing permits were costing the company thousands of euros per day, Rehwald said, adding that bottlenecks could only get tighter as wind construction ramps up towards the middle of next year.

Germany aims to obtain 80% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030, 115 gigawatts of which should come from onshore wind, but a lack of transport permits endanger that goal.

Nordex, a global leader in wind turbine manufacturing, told Reuters that parking spots for its lorries are too scarce and that the cost of permits has risen as much as tenfold, with a spokesperson talking of “massive delays and significant costs.”

The cost of applications had jumped to more than 1,000 euros per permit in 2021 from 100 euros, Nordex said. But permits were so rigid in their scope that companies often made multiple applications to cover for different eventualities.

“I can’t apply for a transport permit and tomorrow say: ‘I’ll drive the green truck instead of the red’, because a new permit is needed,” Kai Westphal, a regional head of transport at Wind turbine maker Vestas, told Reuters.

Some 150 permits are needed on average for transporting a wind turbine, 100 to 120 for cranes, and 60 for turbine components, a study by engineering association VDMA published last year showed.

Without a single law regulating heavy load transport, each federal state requires different documents, the study added.

Singapore launched a research facility on Thursday to find long-term solutions to protect it from the rise in sea levels that could put the country’s low-lying land at risk of inundation.

Singapore’s new Coastal Protection and Flood Resilience Institute (CFI Singapore) aims to bring in expertise and innovation to head off what government officials describe as the “existential threat” posed by rising sea levels, now increasing at a rate of around 3-4 millimetres a year.

Average sea levels are forecast to rise by 1 metre (3.3 feet) by the end of the century, but experts say the effects could be exacerbated by changing rainfall patterns, higher tides and more intense storm surges.

“If we don’t do this well, our lives are at stake,” Grace Fu, Singapore’s environment minister, said during an opening ceremony.

Nearly a third of the Southeast Asian Island nation’s territory is only 5 metres or less above sea level, and with average annual rainfall at around 2,500 millimetres, it is already vulnerable to flooding.

Singapore has invested heavily to improve drainage and has built flood prevention infrastructure, including seawalls, tidal gates, and revetments to protect against erosion.

It also launched a S$5 billion ($3.66 billion) coastal and flood protection fund in 2020.

CFI Singapore, a joint initiative by PUB, Singapore’s water agency, and the National University of Singapore, has already launched research projects looking at new engineering possibilities like flexible seawalls as well as nature-based solutions using mangroves or seagrass to protect coastlines.

Experts said the bottom line for Singapore is to ensure that none of the country’s land would be lost to rising sea levels. Future land reclamation projects would also be designed to protect against sea encroachment.

Fu said better protection against rising sea levels could also help “land-scarce” Singapore reclaim more territory.

The remnants of Typhoon Haikui drenched southern China for a third day since making landfall, and airports in Guangdong province cancelled hundreds of flights due to stormy weather on Thursday though winds had weakened.

Although storm clouds moved westward towards Guangdong, one of the country’s richest provinces, more downpours were still forecast for the southeastern province of Fujian, where state media reported economic losses had reached 5.054 billion yuan ($690.81 million) since the typhoon made landfall on Tuesday.

In Guangdong’s capital Guangzhou, Baiyun Airport, one of the busiest in China, cancelled 316 flights and delayed 271, according to flight tracking app Flight Master. Shenzhen’s Baoan Airport cancelled 176 flights and delayed half of its flights while Zhuhai’s Jinwan Airport cancelled 91 and delayed 74.

Torrential rain reportedly led to rivers overflowing in the Guangdong town Tangxi, and some villages suffered severe waterlogging. Over 350 people, including elderly, women and children were relocated from low-lying areas, according to state media.

The China Meteorological Administration forecast rainstorms in central and eastern Guangdong, the southern part of Jiangxi province, southern areas in Hunan province, the northeastern areas of the Guangxi region, and the central part of the island of Hainan, while northern parts of Guangdong and the southeastern coast of the province were expected to be hit harder.

Later this week, the storms are expected to continue in Guangxi bringing the southwestern region extreme rainfall on Friday and Saturday before potentially dissipating on Sunday. Authorities issued warnings of mountain torrents and geological disasters for the cities of Guilin, Laibin, Guigang and Wuzhou.

Flooding in parts of Fujian province during the past two days forced the evacuation of nearly 300,000 people and damaged more than 2,500 homes.

Almost 10,000 hectares (24, 710 acres) of crops in Fujian were inundated.

Intense rains in the city of Fuzhou shattered 12-year-old rainfall records, surpassing the amount brought by Typhoon Doksuri late July.