Beyond oil: Europe, Asia’s electric vehicles pose a risk

The fear of climate change and push for renewable energy in many countries particularly in Europe and Asia is gaining momentum with intensifying of renewable energy sources, and adopting targets to phase out fuel-driven vehiclesandintroduceElectricVehicles(EV).

In 2015, President Muhammadu Buhari joined other world leaders to key into the Climate Change Accord at the COP21 held in Paris. He also reiterated his commitment to this at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, United States in 2016.

As the campaign for renewable energy intensifies in European and Asian countries, some experts and analysts have expressed fears for Africa and precisely Nigeria – the largest country in the continent, being a dumping ground for green house emitting vehicles and machineries. Statistics show that China and Nigeria are among the countries with intense pollution resulting from industrial and vehicular emissions. However, in keying to the tenets of climate change, China and the United States are leading other countries in the two continents on setting targets for phasing out fuel-driven vehicles and replacing their markets with Electric Vehicles (EV). Nigeria is yet to be in the list maybe because it is a crude-oil dependent economy.

Nigeria largely depends on the importation of used vehicles mostly referred to as ‘Tokunbo’ with little record for local production. More so, power infrastructure needed to drive the climate agenda is still in shambles with average electricity generation at about 3,800 megawatts (mw) daily. Despite this deficiency, the electricity source is mostly based on gas –to-power, another fossil fuel form. Our experiments with renewables on the national grid are still paper works as none is existent in the country, maybe till 2018.

These pose a threat of becoming the largest dumpsite for the petrol and diesel driven vehicles that would be phased out in the countries making strenuous move towards improving adopting renewable energy. It could come at a time when the worst crude oil price glut will happen in history because buyers are turning down supply; hence the need for timely diversification and improvement in electricity utilities.