The aim of the process is obviously to improve the quality and quantity of power supply in Nigeria and perhaps finally fulfill the Ministry of Power's mission of producing "a robust and sustainable power sector that fully supports the socio-economic needs of the nation". The genuine effort at this reform is commendable and hopefully transformative in a positive way.
The objective of this write-up is to highlight the impact of the Power Sector on the environment and public health, to make management aware of these impacts. In other words,to improve environmental consciousness among the executives and professionals of Ministry of Power for better decision making; to ensure that they always factor in environmental consideration in their decision re: electricity generation, transmission and distribution even in the process of restructuring the entire system. It is envisaged that this will lead to cleaner environment,improved public health, operational and worker-safety procedures in the power industry and cost savings in the long run.
Environmental input in decision making in the Ministry of Power has long been neglected in Nigeria. Yet, this is a major consideration in the proper restructuring of any modern power industry. The three major policy and regulatory documents guiding the power industry in Nigeria today are: The National Electric Power Policy (NEPP) of 2001, Electric Power Sector Reform (EPSR) Act of 2005 and the Roadmap of Power Sector Reform, August 2010. It must be noted that none of these documents made mention of the word "environment" talk less of considering it.
This is unbelievable but true.Factoring in environmental consideration in decision making in the Power Sector especially during this reform process is not only necessary but an imperative in view of the public health implications. I'm not advocating that we go as far as the developed countries in regulating environmental impact of the power sector because of the economic impact on our fragile economy but it is time to at least begin the conversation and seriously take those baby steps towards making environmental and public health considerations part of management decisions in the power sector.
Climate change is a real threat, it is anthropogenic, and we need to decide on what action to take to curb emissions of greenhouse gases (which cause global warming) into the atmosphere. To do this, we must understand the sources and effects of greenhouse gases in order to make meaningful decisions in cubing their emissions. A greenhouse is a building made of glass or plastic in which plants are grown.The incoming solar radiation passes through the transparent glass and is used up by the plant for the process of photosynthesis.
It is also absorbed by the soil, and other structures inside the building. However, some of this heat energy is re-radiated in form of the infrared spectrum. The glass is partly opaqueto the infrared radiation and so some of this energy is trapped inside the greenhouse, and thus, increasing the net heat energy within. But the temperature within the greenhouse is controlled by opening a valve in the roof to let off some heat. Now, let us imagine the earth as a greenhouse but without the option of letting out excess heat as we can in real man-made greenhouses. The result will be a gradual build-up and net increase in temperature.
The Greenhouse Effect occurs when the ultraviolet radiation comes in to warm the earth and the earth, just like the man-made greenhouse emits back some of this energy in lower frequencies of infrared thermal (heat) radiation. These heat energy is then absorbed or trapped by certain gases in the atmosphere such as carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, ozone, and various chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), and water vapour (the clouds) resulting in global warming. These gases are called greenhouse gases because they have greenhouse effect.
This is a natural and even essential process meant to keep the planet warm enough for life forms and human habitation. But human activities have greatly increased the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere thereby making the earth much warmer, leading to climate change.
The carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere has been increasing since the early 19th century owing to our consumption of fossil fuel and deforestation. Fossil fuel is derived from organic remains (hydrocarbons) deposited and compressed underground for thousands of years. They could be in solidform (coal), liquid (crude oil) or gaseous form (natural gas). In power plants, these are burnt to produce heat for the generation of electricity.
The by-product of this combustion is carbon dioxide. Although the air (atmosphere) naturally contain carbon dioxide which circulates mainly through the processes of respiration and photosynthesis, the burning of fossil fuels generally release new sets of carbon dioxide locked up for thousands of years into the atmosphere. This in addition to deforestation (plants in the forest take up substantial amount of carbon dioxide during the process of photosynthesis) and other human activities greatly increases the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
Also, the concentration of methane, CFCs, Nitrous oxides and ozone has increased over the past two centuries due to human activities. The effect of all these is noticeable global warming (and climate change).
As the Power Sector Reform process goes on in Nigeria, huge contracts are signed between the Ministry, national power holding companies, bulk purchasers and international consortiums locking in the sector to deals that will last for years. I'm not privy to these contracts and so cannot comment on whether there were serious environmental considerations in their formation. However, to guarantee lasting and positive improvement to the industry, major decisions must be made with full considerations and input from all operational angles including environmental.
As these companies clamour for a piece of the pie, we must remember they are in business for what they can get not necessarily as "Father Christmas". So, we must be sure for instance, that the technologies they are bringing in are not obsolete and that operationally, they have been proven to produce minimal environmental impact.
I'm aware that because of sporadic and inadequate power supply that has plagued the nation for some time, a good number of Nigerians will argue in favour of getting the light first and thinking about environmental consequences later. This is a dangerous path to tread because our people are the ones that will suffer the fallout which I dare say include diseases like upper respiratory infection, liver and lung diseases, skin diseases and even cancer.
By the time these will be happening, we'll be spending huge percentage of our GDP on healthcare, we'll lose a lot of man hour from people staying home from work due to ill health, and we'll be having increased premature mortality and loss of young and active workforce. So, without a doubt, it is wiser to build environmental protection into the power sector reform process now and not later.Once the dotted lines are signed, it will be almost impossible to effect amendments. We have to make sure that the technologies we choose are the ones with the least environmental impact and greatest productivity.
Environmental regulation, climate change and global warming are issues of the moment. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), UK Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), and Department for International Development (DFID), Environment Canada, the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Global Environment Facility (GEF), UN Climate Protocol (most notable of which is the Kyoto Protocol) etc. are some of the big national and global bodies/conventions neck deep on these issues. Global warming and Climate change, their causes and effects on the environment, the economy, and human health have been a priority and hot-button issue.
The latest UN Conference of Parties on Climate Change (CoP 19) ended in Warsaw, Poland, last November. At issue was how to regulate and limit the emissions of greenhouse gases (especially carbon dioxide) to the atmosphere and thereby control global warming. Mobile sources of emissions like cars, trucks, ships and airplanes have been the focus of regulation for decades. The result is that we now have cleaner, fuel efficient vehicles on the road. However, the same cannot be said of stationary sources of emission like power plants.
President Obama of United States observed this in his speech in June 2013 at Georgetown University, in Washington DC when he unveiled his New Energy Policy which also includes new initiatives on renewable power and energy efficiency. In his speech, he said that carbon pollution limits need to be set on U.S. power plants in order to curb global warming. He noted that electric power plants especially those fired by coal are the largest single source of global warming pollution in the United States, responsible for nearly 40 percent of greenhouse gas emissions.
In 2007, the US Supreme Court gave the US Environmental Protection Agency – the EPA (equivalent to our NESREA) the authority to regulate greenhouse gases. It was easier to pass such regulations and standards for new power plantsbecause when you want a permit to build any, you have to scale through monumental huddles placed to curb carbon emissions. It is however, not so easy to impose such standards on the existing power plants because of strong opposition from fossil fuel corporations and businesses benefiting from the status quo.
According to Mr Obama, global warming is the global threat of our time and addressing power plant emission must be the central part of any serious climate policy. He further said that the "United States and the world have a moral imperative to take bold action to slow the warming of the planet."
The Obama administration is therefore, bent on using the authority given to the US EPAby the US Supreme Court to address climate-altering pollutants from power plants under the US Clean Air Act. Therefore, in 2012, the E.P.A. proposed greenhouse gas regulations for new power plants that would essentially ban the construction of any additional coal-fired plants.
Today, there is substantial expert agreement on the fact that the earth is getting warmer due to anthropogenic activities. Though one has to recognize some dissenting opinion on these more or less established facts, one really does not need any scientist to show that we now have extremes in weather conditions, worst droughts, severe storms and flooding etc.,scarcity of agricultural land, famine and water shortage. These of course, lead to increased migration, conflictsdue to high population density and even war in extreme cases.
There is clear evidence that the polar ice is melting awayas global temperature increases; that this is resulting in rise in oceanlevels and disappearance of coastlines and small islands. We recall the 2004 Southeast Asian tsunami, 2005 Hurricane Katrina in the US, 2011 Fukushima 1 nuclear power plant explosion and partial meltdowns following the Japanese tsunami, 2012 Hurricane Sandy in the East Coast of USA, and the2013 typhoon in the Philippines etc. All these are offshoots of global warming and climate change.
Following the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011, Japan is now quickly converting to solar power. Coming home to Africa, Ghana went through the process of power sector reform much like we are presently going through in Nigeria. They seized the opportunity of the reform to have Renewable Energy Law which seeks to produce 10% of the country's electricity from renewables like solar and wind power. We can use the opportunity of the reform, for instance, to get the new players to take one month in a year and pay for consumer education on energy efficiency among other things. They will be prepared to do it now that they are looking for something.
We need to allocate resources to demand side management (DSM) and energy efficiency. At the heat of the power crisis in Ghana, the government decided to import 6 million CFL light bulbs and distribute them free of charge. By so doing, they were able toshave peak load of about 135 megawatts mostly lighting loads every evening. The next best option could have been for Ghana to build a new thermal power plant. This would have taken a minimum of 24 months to finish. So, the bulb importation was a good and targeted intervention. After that there were regulation in Ghana that bans importation of incandescence bulbs; minimum efficiency standards for room air conditioners were introduced while second-hand refrigerators were banned completely.
A government program offers credit towards the purchase of a new refrigerator when people bring in their old refrigerators. The subsidy on Kerosene was removed and free solar lanterns were supplied to some villagers. A lot of such similar but practical measures were introduced by the Energy Foundation in Ghana which tenaciously pushed the energy efficiency agenda and educated the public accordingly.
We can learn a lot from the Ghana experience, make serious environmental input in our power sector reform and enjoy a cleaner environment in Nigeria even as we help in the reduction of global warming.
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