The Chief Executive Officer, Seplat Energy, Mr. Roger Johnson has said the energy company will plant 5 million trees yearly to reduce carbon emission and produce cleaner energy.
Roger stated this while speaking at the launch of Seplat Tree4Life Launch in Abuja ,he said Nigeria needed lots of energy and job opportunities considering her population and as such must ensure energy accessibility and affordability.
Roger noted that with Seplat aim of carbon emissions reduction, energy poverty must be eradicated poverty in Nigeria and this is what Seplat aim to do by providing accessible and affordable energy.
“Our initial target is 5 million trees thRoger while speaking at the launch of Seplat Tree4Life Launch in Abuja stated that Nigeria needs lots of energy and job opportunities considering her population and as such must ensure energy accessibility and affordability”.Roger added.
In his remark,Chairman Seplat, ABC Orjiako noted that human activities has continued to degrade the environment and Nigeria is duty bound to protect it.
Orjiako accordingly noted that “In Nigeria, for example, more that 60% are in darkness, how then can we justify that someone tells us not to invest in fossil fuel that is not appropriate and for us in our company, what we are saying is that it will impact in the way we do business by making sure we ensure efficiency in the way we operate and ensuring that Seplat is delivering 25-30% of gas to Nigeria,
“The only reason we keep stressing this is that gas is a cleaner form of energy and bring that down to the home where more than 80% of the real energy need is in domestic household which means that it is complete deforestation that is happening in our environment”.
Orjiako further stated that deforestation contributed to effect of climate change but tree planting will help mitigate its impact and ensure the protection of environment
“The more you deforest, not only are you encouraging climate change but you keep emitting more carbon dioxide and green house gases into the atmosphere so what we then decided that the tree planting exercise aim at putting in check deforestation, protect our environment and our forest and encourage reforestation such that everywhere you are you are planting trees”.
“Tree planting will also impact in food security and job creation for the youth and women”. He added.
Meanwhile, Minister of State for Petroleum, Chief Timipre Sylva has encouraged operators in the industry to tap from government opportunities to deepen gas business in the country.
Sylva maintained that the PIA will enable a lot of gas projects but it be hoovers on operators in the industry to also take advantage of the opportunities provided by the PIA to deepen the gas business in Nigeria.
“As a government, we are also creating corridors and pathways that operators in the industry can take to achieve net zero, the PIA is an enabler for gas business and as you know as a country, we have stated everywhere in the world that our pathway to net zero is gas”.
“We are also creating corridors to deepen the gas business, the AKK is a corridor that we are building from the southern part of Nigeria to North, we are also creating a corridor from the West Africa pipeline to Morocco, this are all opportunities that government is putting in place and should be taken advantage by operators”.the Minister said.
