By Josephine W. Lagowo
FREETOWN, July 14 (232news.com) – Board Member for African Peer Review Committee Aruna Augustine Kamara has called on Members of Parliament together with other partners in government on the need for deeper and far reaching cooperation on global approach to fossil fuel.
Kamara made this statement at the Administration building conference room parliament building tower hill in Freetown
He noted the scientific consensus is clear that human activities are primarily responsible for global climate change and that the climate crisis now represents one of the gravest threats to human civilization and nature.
He went on to say that changes in the world climate are already being felt and that these changes have led to devastating consequences, posing grave risk to people’s lives, homes, livelihoods and many of our cultural traditions.
He mentioned that climate impacts exacerbate the spread of disease, threaten our existing patterns of food production, endanger key infrastructure and will push millions more people in to poverty, hunger, and displacement.
According to him, the burning of fossil fuels can cause by coal, Oil, and gas is the source of 80% of carbon dioxide emissions since the industrial revolution and that in addition to being the leading source of emissions, fossil fuel systems have left billions of people without sufficient energy to live in dignity due to the high cost of electricity and fuel and prioritization of profit over delivery of service and yet there are local pollution, environmental and health costs of extracting, refining, transporting and burning these fuels that are often carried by communities with little power and influence in societies, and these processes frequently violate the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities.
The Board Member informed members of parliament that meeting the temperature stabilization goals set out in the Paris Climate Agreement, which government has ratified, will require significantly more commitment and transformation at all levels of our society.
He called on World Leaders to work together in a spirit of international cooperation to end new expansion of oil, gas and coal production in line with the best available Science as outlined by the inter- governmental panel on climate change and the United Nations Environment Program.
He pointed out that phase out existing Oil, gas and coal in a manner that is fair and equitable, taking into account the responsibilities of countries for climate change and their respective capacity to transitions, commits to and pursue transformational policies and plan to ensure 100% access to renewable energy globally, support economies to diversify away from fossil fuels, and enable people and communities across the globe to flourish through a just global transition, enact national budgets and fiscal policies that will support this swift and just transition nationally and globally ensure the timely and adequate delivery of public, additional and non- debt creating climate finance as part of the obligations of rich industrialized countries to address climate change.
He is calling for new international commitments and treaties, complementing the Paris Agreement to address the urgency of a swift and just transition away from fossil fuel energy and building democratic, renewable, safe energy system for all people and communities in line with the goal of keeping global temperature rise below 1.5 degrees Celsius and preventing climate catastrophe.
The Chairman of Energy Committee Hon Kekura Vandy said they are going to give in to the idea of Africa Peer Review Committee to stop the use of gas, oil because they are polluting the air. Other members of parliament gave their contribution on the resolutions.
