The Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) has published a policy brief on International Oil Companies Divestment in the Niger Delta & Local Communities’ Concerns in response to the growing number of oil corporations quitting onshore oil facilities in the Niger Delta region.
The report noted that the term divestment in Africa has been distorted by the fossil fuels industry and mispresented to mean the sale of toxic assets and oil facilities in environmental hotspots as against its true meaning.
In the global civil society community, divestment is the pulling out of public finance, loans, and subsidies from extractive industries, particularly oil and gas because of their contribution to environmental pollution and climate change and its impacts. The climate justice community believes that by reducing extraction by about 80% such monies running into billions of dollars will be redirected to alternatives, especially renewable sources of energy such as solar, wind, and community energy development. The report advised the government to ensure that the IOCs clean up their mess and pay up before they are allowed to quit operations or sell off their onshore assets.
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