“…Once celebrated as a “Garden City,” Port Harcourt is now a massively polluted city in a polluted region.[As of] 2009, over 11 oil companies in the Niger Delta produced 2.7 million barrels of crude oil each day, flaring about 17 billion cubic meters of associated gas and spewing 2,700 tons of particulates, 160 tons of sulphur oxides, 5,400 tons of carbon monoxide, and 12 and 3.5 million tons of methane and carbon dioxide, respectively. (Sanni et al 2014: 254)…”
Nations and NGOs are promoting the idea of a transition from a petroleum-based civilization to one fueled by renewable energy. But there are many questions about how to proceed. The solution usually proposed is to develop "clean energy" as the underlying basis of a transition. Analysts tend to be concerned with climate change and land use change, with a focus on technical developments. Socioecological issues receive scant attention, especially if they relate to oil cities. This article starts from the perspective that progress in saving the planet from destruction can only be achieved by taking seriously past and present injustices and taking measures to rectify them. I use the situation in Port Harcourt, Nigeria to illustrate this proposition. I focus on three interrelated concepts: rent theft, social costs, and just transition. The central problem is rent theft because it is at the root of the "crime of poverty" and the social costs of plundering the land for energy sources. Until they address problems arising from historical injustice, campaigns for a just transition that promote clean energy in a bioeconomy will merely reproduce the central problem. Thus, reparations and land equity must be an integral part of any solution.The Fossil Fuel Question Oil cities and coal towns around the world have an ambiguous reputation. As centers of production of the fuels that have been the engine of economic development, they are viewed as being necessary. But as focal points of the desire to create a "clean and green" world, they are considered an affront to ecological morality. Overcoming their history as sources of blight and transforming them into centers of healthy
“…Once celebrated as a “Garden City,” Port Harcourt is now a massively polluted city in a polluted region.[As of] 2009, over 11 oil companies in the Niger Delta produced 2.7 million barrels of crude oil each day, flaring about 17 billion cubic meters of associated gas and spewing 2,700 tons of particulates, 160 tons of sulphur oxides, 5,400 tons of carbon monoxide, and 12 and 3.5 million tons of methane and carbon dioxide, respectively. (Sanni et al 2014: 254)…”
Nations and NGOs are promoting the idea of a transition from a petroleum-based civilization to one fueled by renewable energy. But there are many questions about how to proceed. The solution usually proposed is to develop "clean energy" as the underlying basis of a transition. Analysts tend to be concerned with climate change and land use change, with a focus on technical developments. Socioecological issues receive scant attention, especially if they relate to oil cities. This article starts from the perspective that progress in saving the planet from destruction can only be achieved by taking seriously past and present injustices and taking measures to rectify them. I use the situation in Port Harcourt, Nigeria to illustrate this proposition. I focus on three interrelated concepts: rent theft, social costs, and just transition. The central problem is rent theft because it is at the root of the "crime of poverty" and the social costs of plundering the land for energy sources. Until they address problems arising from historical injustice, campaigns for a just transition that promote clean energy in a bioeconomy will merely reproduce the central problem. Thus, reparations and land equity must be an integral part of any solution.The Fossil Fuel Question Oil cities and coal towns around the world have an ambiguous reputation. As centers of production of the fuels that have been the engine of economic development, they are viewed as being necessary. But as focal points of the desire to create a "clean and green" world, they are considered an affront to ecological morality. Overcoming their history as sources of blight and transforming them into centers of healthy
The behavior and reactions of prosumers play a key role in the development of sustainable energy and green transformation, as it is the result of their individual decisions that determines the scope of use of renewable energy sources. For these reasons, the main goal of this article is to determine whether and to what extent autarky influenced prosumers’ decisions about the use of solar energy in households, and which promotional channels play the most important role in these decisions. An assessment of the role of autarky and promotion from the prosumer perspective on the photovoltaics market is carried out on the example of Poland as a developing economy, based on the dominant share of coal in energy production. The implementation of this goal will enable recognition and better understanding of prosumers’ intentions and attitudes, and thus more effective stimulation of the green transformation. Surveys in this area were carried out on a representative sample of 754 Polish prosumers, and were analyzed using descriptive statistics and non-parametric statistical tests. The obtained results demonstrate a strong need for energy independence among prosumers (50%) and confirm the role of this motive in the green transformation process. Respondents consider the Internet (a score of 3.8793 on a 5-point suitability scale) and information from companies installing photovoltaic installations (a score of 3.6645 on a 5-point suitability scale) to be the most effective sources of promoting photovoltaics. The example and opinion of family and friends are also important to them. Government campaigns (a score of 2.8647 on a 5-point suitability scale), television and the press play a much smaller role in the popularization of solar energy. Respondents, therefore, prefer numerous and dispersed marketing sources, that allow them to confront and verify the information obtained.
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