US pledges partnership with Nigeria in combating climate change, gas flaring

By Emmanuel Nlewedum, Port Harcourt

The United States (U.S.) Consulate in Nigeria has pledged to partner with the Nigerian government to combat climate change and mitigate the negative effects of gas flaring on the citizens of the country.

The U.S. Consul General at the Lagos Consulate, Mr. Will Steven made the pledge during the official launch of a ‘Special Application for Data Analysis and Reportage’, by the Media Awareness and Justice Initiative, MAJI, a non-governmental organisation, at the University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

Steven said, the United States is also collaborating with Nigeria to ensure the clean up of oil spills that has caused so much harms to the citizens in the country especially in the Niger Delta region.

Describing climate change as a global problem, Steven noted that climate change was one of the key topics of the U.S. government under former President, Joe Biden.

Steven said, “Climate Change is one of the key pillers of President Joe Biden’s administration. He had the first ever special presidential envoy for climate change, Sean Kerry. We invested our commitment to the COP 28, 29 climate agreement.

“We (US) are working hard with Nigeria to ensure that Nigeria continues to make the amazing commitments that they’ve made to combat climate change to reduce flaring and natural gas, to clean up the oil spills that are happening.

“Right here in Port Harcourt, we worked together with NOSDRA on oil spills in Eleme, we have scientists from the EPA to work together to share expertise.

“It is about partnering, climate change is a global problem that impacts every citizen in the world, so we need to work together to fight it.”

Steven commended MAJI for developing the application that would aid Journalists in carrying out their works professionally.

Speaking at the event which also featured interactive session with the journalists and CSOs to discuss and proffer solutions to the key challenges affecting effective and quality media reporting, especially on data analysis reporting in the Niger Delta, the Executive Coordinator of MAJI, Onyekachi Emmanuel Okoro, said the NGO, in collaboration with United States Consulate, Lagos, Nigeria, is doing a lot through it’s Citizen Science for Newsroom Project.

Okoro said aside launching of the new App, MAJI has embarked on several other programmes to include regular trainings for media practitioners and members of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) as well as community based environmental writers on the use of data analysis for professional reportage.

Okoro said the newly developed application (App) would equip Journalists with the basic rudiments of investigative reporting, via data collection and analysis, and also provide them, and other citizens with comprehensive data about the environment, adding that veritable informations and data’s would be readily available at the fingertip of everyone.

He said “Citizens Science for Newsroom Project is important for media reporting because we understand that news cannot be told one-sided.

“The ‘Project’ is focusing on building the capacity of media, of newsroom journalists, investigative journalists, civil society groups and community based groups.

“Building their capacities, we would be able to tell stories, reports using data in qualitative and quantitative forms. We are also building capacities to be able to engage in data use. We understand that data can only be used if its well aggregated, well analysed, is well visualized and that will help also create more in depth reporting for newsrooms.

“The MOBILE APP we created is accessible via iOS and Android devices, that tool will enable journalists to be able to tell stories around environmental incidents in the Niger Delta, they can also tell stories about air quality in the Niger Delta.

“We also remember that sometime ago, we had the issues of carbon particles called soot that was polluting our environment and we didn’t have any contacts to call to quantity it.

“We have an app and we have deployed air quality sensors in certain locations in Port Harcourt and around Rivers State to collect data, this data is aggregated on that app and this app would be able to speak to Journalists while giving them the tolls to be able to write their stories more effectively and qualitatively,” he said.

In his remark, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Port Harcourt, Prof. Owunari Georgewill commended MAJI for coming up with the application among other laudable projects they have embarked upon to aid the region.