Nigeria, four others ban Europe’s dirty fuel imports
Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu
’Femi Asu
Nigeria and four other West African
countries have agreed to ban the importation of Europe’s dirty fuels,
the United Nations Environment Programme has said.
The UNEP said the move would
dramatically reduce vehicle emissions and help more than 250 million
people to breathe safer and cleaner air.
It said together, Nigeria, Benin, Togo,
Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire agreed on December 1 in Abuja to introduce
strict standards to ensure cleaner, low sulphur diesel fuels and
vehicles emission standards, effectively cutting off Europe’s West
African market to export its dirty fuels.
UNEP noted that a report by Public Eye
in September this year exposed how European trading companies were
exploiting the weak regulatory standards in West African countries,
allowing for the exportation of fuels with sulphur levels up to 300
times higher than was permitted in Europe.
The Head of UN Environment, Erik
Solheim, was quoted as saying, “West Africa is sending a strong message
that it is no longer accepting dirty fuels from Europe. Their decision
to set strict new standards for cleaner, safer fuels and advanced
vehicle emission standards shows they are placing the health of their
people first.
“Their move is an example for countries
around the world to follow. Air pollution is killing millions of people
every year and we need to ensure that all countries urgently introduce
cleaner fuels and vehicles to help reduce the shocking statistics.”
Alongside the introduction of the new
standards, the West African group has agreed to upgrade the operations
of their national refineries, both public and privately owned, to
produce fuels of the same standards by 2020, according to UNEP.
Nigeria’s Minister of Environment, Amina
Mohammed, said, “For 20 years, Nigeria has not been able to address the
vehicle pollution crisis due to the poor fuels we have been importing.
Today, we are taking a huge leap forward, limiting sulphur in fuels from
3000 parts per million to 50 parts per million, this will result in
major air quality benefits in our cities and will allow us to set modern
vehicle standards.”
The UN Environment said it had been
supporting countries in West Africa to develop policies and standards to
stop the practice of importing fuel with dangerously high sulphur
levels and introduce cleaner fuels and vehicles.
“Reducing the emission of the global
fleet is essential for reducing urban air pollution and climate
emissions. A combination of low sulphur fuels with advanced vehicles
standards can reduce harmful emissions of vehicles by as much as 90 per
cent,” it stated.
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