Barth Nnaji: Renewable Energy Poses More Devastating Environmental Hazard

*Says the world can’t do without fossil fuel yet  

*Calls out Western country’s double standards on global warming

Sunday Ehigiator

Nigeria’s former Minister of Power, and Chairman, Geometric Power Limited, Professor Bartholomew Nnaji, has revealed that renewable energy poses a more devastating environmental hazard than non-renewable energy. Nnaji also said the world could not do without fossil fuel just as yet, while condemning the double standards of Western countries on the issue of global warming.
Speaking yesterday in Lagos at the Inaugural Dele Momodu Leadership Lecture, themed, “The Politics of Energy and The Way Forward,” Nnaji also suggested that Nigeria should declare a state of emergency in the gas sector.

Speaking on renewable energy and some of its challenges, Nnaji said, “Renewable energy has been marketed as the silver bullet to climate change. Many are, therefore, under the impression that there are no environmental issues with electric vehicles, solar panels, solar batteries, wind farms, dams, etc.
“Electric vehicles, for instance, are expensive, to begin with; Tesla vehicles’ prices range from $40,000 to $47,000. Elon Musk has been rattled by cheaper electric vehicles from China like those from BYD.

“Solar panels and batteries do not charge at night. This adds to the high costs, especially in poor nations. However, those deficiencies are hardly mentioned in mainstream Western media. It is like a wind farm works only when there is considerable wind. But this is also not usually discussed. So, you can imagine, that if we begin to rely on wind farms, there are only certain parts of Nigeria where this could work.
“Solar radiation intensity is also an issue. So, certainly, in parts of the southern part, you don’t have enough to power solar. It’s not that you can’t at all; it’s just that you don’t have enough to make it economically viable.

“You can do it on the rooftops and so on, but big solar farms are more economical where the intensity is high. So, a critical raw material used in the production of solar panels and batteries is lithium-ion. It is a mineral-like coal or crude oil. It is mined. The process of extracting it is environmentally hazardous as well. But this is not usually discussed.”
The former minister said in Chile, which is the biggest producer of solar panels in the world, rivers were being polluted, thereby compounding environmental challenge.
He also referred to Yerevan in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where cobalt, copper and lithium-ion were massively produced, and the human rights abuses that went with such industrial production.
He stated, “The beneficiaries are mostly Western multinationals. The DRC government, towards the end of April 2024, hired the services of a team of French lawyers to write to Apple Corporation, the American tech-only giant, accusing it of benefiting from illegal actions in the eastern part of its country, where lithium-ion and copper are used in the manufacture of electronic gadgets, like our smartphones and solar panels, as well as their batteries, where they are mined.”
Nnaji also said, “Rebels are active, very much so, in those parts of the DRC. You can imagine, because the big companies that rely on this, hire rebels also to be part of the business.

“In New York State, where the government plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40 per cent by 2030 and by 85 per cent by 2050, from the 1990 levels, through solar and wind power, there have been protests against the conversion of farmlands to solar and wind farms. There have also been protests against the destruction of biodiversity and the habitat generally, and this is in America.
“The world needs environmental protection. But the world just cannot do without fossil fuel. At least for now, that’s the bottom line. And that’s what those who were campaigning for the total elimination of fossil fuel in Europe discovered more recently.”

Nnaji discussed the issue of Western double standards, saying, “The West, particularly Western Europe, has been mounting a relentless campaign for cleaner energy. It wants the world to embrace solar, wind, and other forms of renewable energy, like hydropower. It has been asking mostly developing countries to abandon coal, in particular, referring to it as the greatest environmental pollutant through carbon emission.
“It has even added natural gas to the list, all to make the world limit global warming to 1.5 degrees centigrade by 2030, as required by the Paris Accord on Climate Change of 2015.

“Something dramatic was to happen in 2022. Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, European nations imposed a series of sanctions on Russia. Moscow, in return, took punitive actions against the West.
“Western countries, like Germany, which depended largely on gas exports from Russia, began to feel the pinch. Germany, the largest European economy, decided to revive coal-fired plants that it had resolved under Angela Merkel to close down.”
Nnaji said Germany chose to reverse its power policy, even though there was no imminent threat of power shortage in that country.
He added, “Germany was not alone. The United Kingdom, which had prided itself on shutting down its coal-fired plants and on building large wind farms, decided to resuscitate its coal plants. Why? It didn’t want its citizens to suffer the 2022 heat wave and dwindle.

“A similar scenario emerged in France this same year. Faced with winter, which could hurt its people, Paris chose to extend the lifespans of its coal-fired plants. Though electricity from coal was responsible for only about 0.6 per cent of national electricity in France, the French government had to extend the lifespans of coal-fired plants just to protect its people.
“This is the country where 196 countries, including the Vatican City, signed the famous Paris Accord on Climate Change under the United Nations processes. The United States is proud that several of its coal-fired plants have been decommissioned.
“Coal used to account for 50 per cent of America’s electricity, but the figure has now reduced to about 17.8 per cent, and it is expected that it may decline to 4 per cent by 2030.

“Environmentalists are delighted at the rapid decline, but it would appear that the decline has not been driven by as much commitment to environmental protection as by economics.
“Now, it is easier to run a natural gas-fired plant than a coal one, thanks to enhanced shareholders gas production in the United States. Fossil fuels make up 60 per cent of the total fuel-to-power in America since gas contributes more than 42 per cent of the fuel-to-power in America.
“So, decommissioning the coal-fired plants, yes, but then there’s another fossil fuel that has taken its place. The Donald Trump administration used to celebrate the ubiquity of coal all over the United States.

“It’s affordability, the convenience of its storage and use, the ease of its transportation, the generous use by steel, aluminium, and cement manufacturers, its extensive use by railway, trams, the millions of American workers who depend on it, its host communities, several American businesses that relied on it directly and indirectly, and its key role in American industrial growth.”