…Planning is necessary to avert disasters and manage impact arising from climate change
-Victoria Opeyemi
The Centre for Petroleum Information (CPI) had its Industry Public Symposium (IPS-XX) focused on Global Heatwaves and Tropical Floods: Arising Sustainability Questions, the Chairperson of the event, Eyono Fatayi-Williams, Director, JDR Energy Limited, in her opening remarks spoke on Sustainably addressing the Environmental Consequence and Dilemma.
According to Fatayi-Williams, it is increasingly difficult to consider in isolation the issue of climate change and flooding that comes with it.
Considering the impact on food security, environmental sustainability and corporate responsibility are becoming clear why there is need for effective corporate governance.
For the corporate community, it is time to focus on climate change because across the world there is extreme heat, she added.
Governments are having discussions on systemic and policy changes that are required to address what seems to be a new reality. In the last summer those in Europe experienced heat waves.
For people in tropical locations, it affects livelihoods and food security. This is important because it is relevant for survival.
The impacts of heat waves might be associated with human activities.
How can communities exist in the likelihood of flood coming from somewhere they have nothing to do with? How can the ecosystems be protected while meeting the medical needs of the growing population that are helping it and to ensure that communities, particularly those with livelihoods, depend directly on natural resources?
Fatayi-Williams stated further that these questions are more complex in resource-producing communities where most of the oil companies exist in many other producing areas.
For example, fish traditionally has been central to live in water and is a source of livelihood, while oil and gas is major in driving activity to support communities and the nation.
This leads to the significant questions around environmental protection and life.
Notably, Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG), a framework used by investors, companies and regulators to measure organisation’s ethical impact have become an important part of corporate sustainability agenda but the question that should be clearly asked, has sustainability framework translate into measuring improvements in the lives of people and health of their welfare while operating businesses?
What role should large corporation play? Not simply as funders of community projects but as partners in building sustainable economies, ecosystems, educational systems that sustain communities.
These are not questions with simple answers. The objective is not to arrive at simplistic conclusions, but to explore the tensions, trade-offs and opportunities that lie ahead.
In her submission, Fatayi-Williams was of the view that the conversations should challenge stakeholders to think beyond short-term responses and actions but consider what genuine sustainability should be particularly for tropical economies and communities which are mostly tied to the environment.
Dealing with Flood Related Issues
Speaking on the topic Heavy Flooding in Oil-Producing Communities: Fixing the Dilemmas, Dr Yemi Adeyemi, Manager, Community Relations and SD at Nigeria LNG Limited, (NLNG) reiterated that there was nationwide information from government agencies such as the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and Nigeria Hydrological Survey Agency (NHSA), highlighting significant risks of flood to communities across twenty states.
As organizations were looking at the dilemma in-house and how it might affect businesses, the host communities had their own dilemma as well in terms of agriculture and sustainability.
People in most of these communities are agrarian but pipelines pass through them. The communities are involved in farming, fishing and all other things. Water is not the problem but the flood that comes with it.
Dr Adeyemi asserted that taking a look at the topography of River State, a lot of houses are in low-lying settlement zones. When hard flood comes, it affects those houses.
However, NLNG focuses on gas production, even though gas comes from oxygen as associated gas.
The company developed a plan for disaster management but as a corporate entity, its role is limited even though government is also doing its part.
Really, there is a dilemma because as a corporate body that pays taxes what business does it have in managing flood?
Dr Adeyemi stated further that NLNG as an organization believes that its relationship with most of its host communities is not only for operations. The company has a genuine relationship with its host because they are important to NLNG and identifies with them not only when there is problem.
The government has its duties but there should be corporate support.
How can government and corporate organization work together in order not to be reactive but proactive in such that when there is a disaster, there will be solutions to resolve it.
Dr Adeyemi disclosed that NLNG gave relief materials to 40 of its host communities that were affected and also over 110 of such communities through which the company’s pipelines run across in Rivers State.
Since it will not be easy to get to those communities, the company strategized and focused on the situation and how to get to them.
It embarked on getting to the people through Community Development Committee (CDC); other beneficiaries were reached through vendor.
Central location was also targeted to give relief materials.
He revealed that during the flood, some people houses were flooded and vital property were affected, food items were also distributed to the communities as intervention from the company.
As part of strategy, there has to be workable robust model to deliver and where there are some deficiencies in one model, it has to be combined with others, Dr Adeyemi advised.
He said sustainability must be result oriented in dealing with flood in future because there will always be flood since it is a natural disaster.
In other climes, the focus is on weather futuristic plan in order to deal with such situation.
Planning is necessary to avert disasters and manage the impact to reduce it to barest minimum and integrate it as part of strategy.
The use of technology cannot be overemphasized but local intelligence is also important and both should be combined to assist people.
The sustainability choice is to strengthen the communities where oil and gas companies operate.
Comment here