Our Climate is Going to Waste: Time to Think a New Future

March 31, 2017March 31, 2017 admin Climate Justice, Economic Justice, News, Resource Justice

Social Actions and Nigerian groups organise mass rally against fossil fuel and pollution

Mass #Breakfree Actions in Ogoni, Nigeria. On the 30th of March 2017, hundreds of climate activists, as well as concerned and affected Nigerians, joined ongoing actions around the world aimed at pressing home the need to address our dependence on fossil fuels which poisons our planet and threatens to eliminate all of us. This problem is even more pungent in Nigeria where the effects of fossil fuel-related pollution and climate changes are emerging as major disasters. From sea level rises that threaten to consume whole coastal lying communities to crude oil pollutions which continue to deprive many of viable livelihoods, the continued extraction and dependence on fossil fuels has devastating consequences for Nigeria and especially the Niger Delta.

Oil Theft, Artisanal Refineries: Match Your Words With Action – Communities, Stakeholders Charge Government

March 23, 2017March 27, 2017 admin Climate Justice, News, Resource Justice

Stakeholders and communities in the Nigeria’s oil-bearing Niger Delta have urged the Buhari administration to demonstrate political will by effectively addressing the issues of oil theft and artisanal refineries in the area. Representatives of civil society organisations, traditional rulers and other community leaders, academics, oil companies and government agencies at the National Conference on Oil Theft and Artisanal Refineries in Nigeria, organised by Social Action Nigeria, in Port Harcourt, agreed that the artisanal refining of crude oil constitute the greatest immediate threat to the environment in Niger Delta today. They urged the government to deploy adequate means to address the related social and environmental problems, without criminalising community youth. Participants unanimously called for prompt and decisive steps to curb the dangers posed by illegal oil bunkering and artisanal crude oil refineries to both the region and the country’s economy.

Pollution and the Energy Crisis: Addressing Crude Oil Theft and Artisanal Refineries

March 21, 2017March 21, 2017 admin Climate Justice, News, Resource Justice

Welcome address by the Director of Social Development Integrated Centre (Social action), Dr Isaac Osuoka, at the National Conference on Oil Theft and Artisanal Refineries, Le Meridien Hotel Ogeyi Place, Port Harcourt, Rivers State. Tuesday, 21 March 2017.

Protocols

On behalf of the organisers, Social Development Integrated Centre (Social Action) and Stakeholder Democracy Network (SDN), I welcome you to this National Conference on Oil Theft and Artisanal Refineries in Nigeria. We also thank the Ford Foundation and Development and Peace – Caritas Canada for supporting this conference and our work to promote resource justice in Nigeria.

National Conference On Oil Theft And Artisanal Refineries in Nigeria

March 21, 2017March 21, 2017 admin Climate Justice, News, Resource Justice

Representatives of communities, government agencies, citizens groups, oil companies and researchers gather in Port Harcourt on Tuesday, 21 March 2017 to address ongoing ecological disaster, livelihoods and revenue losses and insecurity associated with crude oil theft and artisanal refining industries in the Niger Delta of Nigeria.

Break Free 2017

March 21, 2017March 21, 2017 admin Climate Justice, News, Press Release, Resource Justice

In March 2017, Social Action will join other organisations in two Break Free rallies in Port Harcourt and Bori, as part of the annual ‘global wave of people taking a stand against dirty energy’. In solidarity with Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), Environmental Rights Action (ERA), Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), Kebetkache, Ogoni Solidarity Forum, Egi Joint Action Congress (EJAC) and other organisations, we will be “joining forces to protect communities in vulnerable situations from extreme weather, and from fossil corporations that have polluted our air, grabbed our land, and captured our governments.”

Beyond Boko Haram: looking at the Lake Chad Basin, climate change and the ecological crisis in the Sahel

November 16, 2016November 16, 2016 admin Climate Justice, News

With the Sahel region of Nigeria experiencing some of the worst forms of poverty and violence in the world, a roundtable conference organised by Social Development Integrated Centre (Social Action) will contribute to promoting awareness about the urgency of the ecological and development issues that provide a background to the crises. Academics, civil society actors, representatives of government agencies, pastoral and farming communities will meet in Abuja, the federal capital on 29 November 2016 to share insight and experiences on the theme of the conference: Addressing the Crisis of the Sahel and the Lake Chad Basin: Developing a Pan-Nigerian Civil Society Agenda.

THE CROSS RIVER SUPERHIGHWAY: Route to Land Grabs?

November 4, 2016 admin Climate Justice, Development Research, Publications

The Cross River basin in south-eastern Nigeria contains the largest remaining natural rainforests in Nigeria. Most of the forests have been protected by the government and through community initiatives. However, a new Super-Highway project by the government of Cross Rivers State could open up the forest to more land grabs for property speculation, commercial agriculture and logging. This briefing paper examines how the road construction is violating the livelihood rights of several forest dependent communities whose rights to land and access to the forests for food, medicine and energy is being threatened. The Super-Highway also calls to question the viability of the controversial United Nations-backed Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (UN-REDD⁺) scheme in Cross Rivers State. Read Full Report

OUR PATIENCE IS RUNNING OUT ON GAS FLARING – Delta Communities Warn Nigerian Government; Petition U.N.

September 10, 2016September 30, 2016 admin Climate Justice, Economic Justice, News, Resource Justice

Women and men from over 20 Communities in Delta State Nigeria, have charged the Nigerian government to urgently take steps to put an end to the continued degradation of their environment, rights violation and destruction of their health and livelihood sources through continued gas flaring by oil and gas companies in the area or be prepared to face strong resistance to this evil act by community men and women.

Social Action Event at the World Social Forum (WSF) in Montreal:CLIMATE JUSTICE NOT CARBON COLONIALISM!

August 12, 2016September 29, 2016 admin Climate Justice, News

This discussion workshop is organized by Social Action in collaboration with Development and Peace -Caritas Canada, Kairos, Indigenous Environmental Network and other groups. The workshop will offer a multidimensional view of the carbon market. Apart from examining the outcomes the Clean Development (CDM), Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) and regional carbon markets such as the Western Climate Initiative, participants will propose just and sustainable alternatives to the current failed system. Read More

UP IN SMOKE: Gas Flaring, Communities and Carbon Trading in Nigeria

August 2, 2016October 27, 2016 admin Climate Justice, Publications

The reduction of greenhouse gas emissions remains a global challenge, as climate change continues to adversely impact on all parts of the world, especially in developing countries. The Kyoto Protocol of 1997 introduced carbon trading through different schemes including the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). Following the Paris Agreement of 2015, a new framework will be established for the international trading of carbon credits. However, there is a danger that the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) will replicate the infrastructure already established for the CDM and other existing carbon trading schemes, which failed to produce positive results.

This timely report presents examples of CDM projects in Nigeria to show that international trading of carbon credits fall short of the sustainability criteria. Through an examination of the impacts of two so-called gas flaring reduction projects by oil companies operating in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria, this report shows that the global carbon trading system is flawed and subject to manipulation by the same companies that are responsible for pollution in the global south. These companies exploit the CDM mechanism to make unjustified extra profit while not accounting for real emissions reductions. Meanwhile, the carbon market discountenances the demands for environmental justice by the communities that have borne the real cost of historical pollution. Read Full Report