Pic. GCEO NNPC Ltd, Mr. Mele Kyari (right) stresses a point at the Regional CEO Panel Session organised by McKinsey & Company, on the sidelines of the ongoing United Nations Conference on Climate Change (UNCCC), COP 28 Conference in Dubai, UAE, on Monday.
As conversations on finding sustainable solutions for a decarbonized energy future continue to hold globally, the Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO), NNPC Ltd., Mele Kyari has again said what the African Continent needs was “a just, differentiated transition” to enable it to harness its vast resources 11today for the benefit of its future generations.
The call for a special attention to Africa in the quest for the global energy transition has always been Kyari position.
Again, the NNPC Ltd. GCEO seize the Regional CEO Panel organised by McKinsey & Company on the sidelines of the ongoing United Nations Conference on Climate Change (UNCCC), also known as the Conference of Parties (COP28) in Dubai, UAE, on Monday to reiterate his viewpoint.
The GCEO, who joined other global energy leaders from the United States, Holland, and Oman to highlight energy perspectives and insights on the evolving energy market, said the world must understand Africa’s peculiar circumstances in addressing the effects of climate change on energy businesses.
“I have always advocated for a differentiated and just energy transition. In Africa, we have different circumstances compared to other places in the world.
“In Africa today, 75% of our population doesn’t have access to electricity, leaving us with biomass as a key energy source. The world needs to recognize that the most practicable thing today is to substitute what we have in the short term to close the energy gap for our rising population,” Kyari told his audience, which included the US Special White House Presidential Envoy on Climate Change, John Kerry.
With Nigeria forecasted to be among the global top 10 economies by 2035 and 3rd in terms of the global population by the same year, the GCEO said it was critical that the energy poverty question be discussed exhaustively as nations unite to achieve net zero by 2060.
With Nigeria’s endowment with an abundant natural gas reserves of over 206 trillion cubic feet (tcf) and the potential to rise to 600tcf, Kyari said the nation was currently utilising natural gas to drive its journey towards energy transition.
He said the NNPC Ltd. was creating a regional gas pipeline network to supply natural gas across the African continent and boost its Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) supply to the foreign market.
Explaining that NNPC Ltd. was currently eliminating gas flares in almost all its gas projects, Kyari said the idea was to deploy such gas towards developing power plants nationwide, to boost nationwide electricity supply, create employment opportunities, and trigger the nation’s industrial and economic development.
To demonstrate NNPC Ltd’s commitment to a net-zero future by 2030, the Company recently signed up as a participant in the United Nations Global Compact in New York, becoming the first state-owned oil company to join the global initiative.