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.Says Banning Petrol Cars Not Feasible Now
Yemisi Izuora
Experts in environment issues are considering the potential of Nigeria to follow the pace at which other countries are advancing in addressing greenhouse gases emissions.
They argued that though as part of measures to battle global warming, Nigeria, a signatory to the Paris treaty, may could consider a ban on petrol and diesel vehicles within the next decade, but doubted its switching capacity to other technologies being adopted by proponents of the initiative, like green vehicles that are not powered by petrol.
President Muhammadu Buhari had signed the Paris agreement earlier in the year to reduce greenhouse gases emissions because experts have identified petrol and diesel vehicles as leading causes of pollution across the world.
Indeed, the country is also a signatory to the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals, which has made compulsory reduction of pollution before 2030 a priority.
The level of pollution in a country like Nigeria, where major cities are already regarded as the world’s worst in terms of air quality, has been projected to rise following the adoption of green vehicles in other countries.
They expressed the view that if Nigeria that depends greatly on revenue from oil is to ban the use of petrol and diesel vehicles, it would be counterproductive if its economic diversification fails outside oil in the national revenue matrix.
The country’s finances shall steeply dip such that budget implementation to execute projects and programmes for the development of the country will be near impossible. In fact, energy analysts are worried that the prevailing drive to shift from fossil fuel could reduce Nigeria’s oil earning by half in the next 10 years.
However, the have the belief that boosting the mining of solid minerals which accounts for only about 0.3 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), could support the economy.
For example, the Managing Director, Epina Technology Limited, Prof. Eguakhide Oaikhinan, said an exploding market for batteries to replace oil could turn mineral resources such as lithium, graphite and cobalt into new sources of revenue for the country.
Already, there is surging demand for batteries which are made up of raw materials like cobalt, graphite and lithium found in high deposits in the northern part of the country. The lithium-ore battery market is expected to grow at a 21.7 per cent rate yearly in terms of the actual energy capacity required. It was 15.9 GWh in 2015, but would hit a whopping 93.1 GWh by 2024.
Oaikhinan said: “Minerals containing lithium ore can be found mainly in the northern part of the country, particularly Nasarawa State. Graphite is available in Kaduna State. If these minerals are characterised and processed for industrial uses, we can see a shift gradually from a crude oil-dependent country to a more competitive industrialised nation.”
The reality is defined by moves by buyers of Nigerian crude oil, including India, Netherlands, Italy and the United Kingdom to explore other sources of energy even as they set deadlines to reduce the use of petrol and diesel vehicles in their territories.
Against plans by France, U.K., U.S., India and Norway to ban the new sales of petrol and diesel cars, the Director General, Agency for Automotive Development, Aliyu Jelani says government is ready to lead the citizens away from depending solely on petrol and diesel vehicles.
Jelani, the designer of General Motors’ Chevy Volt, who was appointed by the Federal Government in a drive to turn Nigeria to an automotive manufacturing hub, said players in the national automotive policy must shift attention to green vehicles.
He said government would encourage investors, particularly Nigerians in the diaspora, and friends of the country across the world, to invest in green revolution.