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Transportation | |
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Tuesday, December 17, 2019 / 5:20 PM / Festus Okotie / Header Image Credit: The Guardian
Transportation systems are structured and designed to withstand
all types of weather and climate change and is the reason transportation
engineers refer to historical records of climate and extreme weather conditions
when designing transportation structures such as ports, airports, railway
tracks, bridges, roads to withstand severe weather conditions.
The effectiveness of environmental sustainability policies in
Nigeria and other African countries, as well as their potentials to support
adaptation and mitigation measures is yet to be fully realized because most of
the policies remain very broad and are not in position to provide the required
focused response to climate change concerns.
While climate change is mentioned in some key government policies,
there is yet to be specific policies or strategies for climate change
adaptation and mitigation sector activities especially in relation to the
country's transportation sector and also the policy framework for aligning
human development and climate change management which remains largely
undeveloped.
Although the government has recognized the need to adapt existing
national policies, strategies and plans to address climate change concerns and
to ensure that climate change adaptation and mitigation concerns are properly
integrated into its current national development plan, known as Vision
20:2020,experts believe the government and policy makers needs to put more
efforts.
Nigeria's
total Greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) in 2014 were 492.44 million metric tons of
carbon dioxide equivalent (MtCO2e), totalling 1.01 percent of global GHG
emissions. In Nigeria, 38.2 percent of GHG emissions came from the land-use
change and forestry sector, followed by the energy, waste, agriculture and the
industrial processes sector which contributed 32.6 percent, 14.0, 13.0 percent
and 2.1 percent respectively to GHG emissions.
According
to CAIT data, (a suite of online data and visualizations tools that support the
many dimensions of climate policy making and provides free, open, user
-friendly access to world-class climate data from a desktop, tablet or mobile
device, enabling analysis whenever it's needed) Nigeria's GHG emissions
increased by 25% (98.22 MtCO2e) from 1990 to 2014. The average annual change in
total emissions was 1%. In its Intended Nationally Determined Contribution
(INDC), Nigeria pledged to unconditionally reduce GHG emissions by 20% by 2030,
compared to business as usual (BAU) emission levels. It aims to achieve this
goal by improving energy efficiency by 20%, providing 13 GW of renewable
electricity to rural communities that are currently not connected to the
electric power grid, and by ending the flaring of gas.
Greenhouse gas emissions from the conventional energy sources
used for transportation are known to be the main reason for the global warming
which started changing the climates and posing serious threat to the planet and
has now become very crucial to find new ways of integrating sustainable energy
in the strategic implementation of the automotive infrastructure development
plans in order to minimize the emission of these gases into the atmosphere
which encourages sustainable environment.
Also, as a whole, countries that belong to the
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) have already
decoupled their economic growth from emissions. From 2004 to 2014, OECD
countries grew their economies by 16% all together, while cutting fossil fuel
consumption by 6% and reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 6.4%. Results of
international energy association study shows that global emissions remained flat
in 2014 while GDP rose marking a historical milestone.
It is worthy to point out that extreme weather and events such as
hurricanes/cyclones and floods have the potentials of disrupting transportation
routes such as inland and coastal transport systems. Although there are other
climate factors that may affect transportation such as climate change-driven
changes in temperature, humidity and precipitation, coastal transportation
infrastructure, such as seaports, will also be impacted by sea-level rise,
which will exacerbate coastal flooding during extreme storm events.
Transportation
has been traditionally looked upon as a challenge in terms of reducing
greenhouse gas emissions, and a lot of effort has been rightly directed at
solving this issue such as providing guidance on the use of indicators for
sustainable and liveable transportation planning. In addition with the
Sustainable Development Goals and the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, parties to the UNFCCC reached a landmark agreement to
combat climate change and to accelerate and intensify the actions and
investments needed for a sustainable low carbon future that is
increasingly recognised as vital to the continued success of mobility, global
trade and development.
What's new is the growing realization that individual
transport modes and their infrastructure such as seaports, airports, rail
routes, roads, inland waterways have a collective interdependence on each other
because transportation is a "system of systems" and resilience of each
transport mode to the impact of future weather patterns along the entire network
of global supply chains warrants consideration so that impacts, risks and
vulnerabilities across transport modes are identified and
addressed.
The environmental impact of transport is very significant because
it is a major user of energy that burns most of the world's petroleum products
responsible for a lot of air pollution such as carbon dioxide emission, nitrous
oxides and other particulates which is a significant contributor to global
warming.
Sustainability is an innovative process of development to
meet the present needs by valuing a desirable state of equilibrium and by
respecting the ability and opportunity of future generations to meet their
needs. In general, sustainability may have different interrelating dimensions
such as economic, environmental, ecological, political, and cultural. The
environmental sustainability of transportation mainly involves the energy
consumption of the various forms of transportation and the pollution from the
system in general.
Although, in
the last few decades the growth of the transport industry has been very
significant because overall assessment shows that the industry as a whole has been actively involved in
enhancing sustainability performance through efforts such regular workshops,
research, development and other stakeholder forums.
Sustainable
energy consumption in transportation mainly involves efficiency improvements in
energy consumption, alternative fuel technology and optimised transport
movements. In addition, greenhouse gases create the greenhouse effect which
changes the earth's climate.
Carbon
dioxide is a key greenhouse gas that drives global climate change and has
continued to rise thereby trapping heat from the sun which has kept the earth's
climate habitable for humans and other species. Despite atmospheric levels of
carbon dioxide which is the most dangerous and prevalent, greenhouse gas is
presently at the highest levels ever recorded.
Greenhouse gas levels are so high primarily because humans have released
them into the air by burning fossil fuels. The gases absorb solar energy and keep heat close to Earth's surface, rather than letting it escape into space which is
responsible for greenhouse effect. It may interest you that while CO2 emissions are falling in many
other sectors globally, transport emissions are expected to rise in the future.
Shipping
currently accounts for about 3% globally anthropogenic CO2 emissions and its
share is expected to grow as a result of increased transportation activities,
in a combination with difficulties in implementing effective fuel efficiency
measures and replacing fossil fuels.
Most
countries that belong to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development (OECD) have already decoupled their economic growth from emissions,
between 2004 to 2014, OECD countries grew their economies by 16% all together,
while cutting fossil fuel consumption by 6% and reducing greenhouse gas
emissions by 6.4%. Results of international energy association study also
showed that global emissions remained flat in 2014 while GDP rose, this
actually marked a historical milestone.
Climate change impacts involves multi-hazard phenomena such as the
simultaneous occurrence of sudden-onset hazards and creeping changes because
the effects on transport operations and logistics systems can be multifaceted
where changes in weather patterns directly affect the earth's flora which also
affects humans and animals. In addition, sea level rise, storm surges and waves
induce major impacts on coastal transport hubs and networks, including
transient or permanent flooding of seaports and connecting coastal roads and
rail lines.
Also, large increases in coastal urban and industrial development
associated with transportation observed in many regions will test the ability
of transport systems to respond effectively to climatic changes. for instance
delaying/cancelling seaport services are often lower than thresholds for damage
to infrastructure and also assets are more sensitive to stressors whose
occurrence is relatively unlikely in comparison to typical weather variability,
for instance during the 2005 Katrina hurricane, the superstructure of US Gulf
coastal bridges were subjected to excessive loading from direct wave impacts
due to unprecedented storm surge elevation.
Road and
rail infrastructure, inland waterways and airports will also be affected by
flooding and may face more frequent inland flood events and deeper floodwaters
under climate change. There is also high probability of infrastructural damages,
as well as disruption and delay of transport businesses throughout the global
supply chains, which may have major economic impacts.
The need
for greater focus on transportation adaptation measures is very expedient from a sustainability perspective because it is very
necessary to make continuous efforts to improve the environmental performance
of the sector which will in turn increase the efficiency and productivity of
the sector because climate change has adverse environmental impacts causing
enormous concerns all over the world.
These anomalies include increase in the concentration of
GHGs, HFCs and CFCs in earth's atmosphere, which ultimately leads to global
warming. In fact, global warming has already begun, as earth's temperature has
risen between 0.4 and 0.8°C in the last 100 years. Nigeria is one of the
world's most densely populated country with a population of almost 200million,
half of which are considered to be in abject poverty and is recognized as being
vulnerable to climate change.
The impact of climate change and global warming if left
unchecked will cause adverse effects on livelihoods in Nigeria and other
African nations affecting crops production, livestock production, fisheries,
forestry and post-harvest activities, because the rainfall regimes and patterns
will be altered, floods which devastate farmlands would occur, increase in
temperature and humidity which increases pest and disease would occur and other
natural disasters like floods, ocean and storm surges, which not only destroy
lives but also affect property and future existence of the nation and
continent.
*Festus Okotie is a maritime transport specialist. He can be
reached via fokotie@bernardhallgroup.com, fokotie.bernardhall@gmail.com. You can also read more insights on www.bernardhallgroup.com and www.festusokotieconsulting.com
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