DATABASE EMISSION OF CARBON IV OXIDE (CO2) IN NIGERIA

INTRODUCTION: During the last decade worldwide concern with global climate has highlighted the challenge faced by both industrialized and developing countries in maintaining a sustained process of development. Nigeria, like other developing countries, shares the need for fast economic growth given the current low standard of living and rising population. It also shares the global concern of protecting the environment.

Increase in the concentration of greenhouse gases has become one of the most hazardous impacts on our environment. It has resulted into an increase in the temperature of the earth (Akpojotor and Akporhonor, 2005). It is predicted that the global average temperature will rise by about 1.6 oC - 6 oC by the year 2100 if current trends of greenhouse gases emission continue (IPCC, 1995). This increase in the average temperature of the earth is termed global warming. It occurs when greenhouse gases trap the sun’s heat.  When sunlight reaches the surface of the earth, some of it is absorbed by the earth’s surface and this warms the earth. It is a case of heat transfer since the earth’s surface is much cooler than the sun and radiates energy at much longer wavelengths than the sun. Some of these longer wavelengths are absorbed by greenhouse gases in the atmosphere before it can be lost to space. The absorption of this long wave radiant energy warms the atmosphere. Greenhouse gases also emit long wave radiation both upward to space and downward to the surface. The downward part of this long wave radiation emitted by the atmosphere is the greenhouse effect (Pearce, 1998)

The major greenhouse gas responsible for global warming is CO2. Atmospheric CO2 derived from multiple natural sources including volcanic out gassing, the combination of organic matter and the respiration processes of living anaerobic organisms. Apart from these natural phenomena, man-made sources include the burning of various fossil fuels for power generation in the industry, Agriculture, transportation, domestic uses etc (Albert, 1987).  The growing belief is that increase in man-made sources of CO2 emissions are responsible for global warming, hence it is also known as anthropogenic climate change. These man-made sources depend on the economies of the various countries. This corroborates the report that the concentration of CO2 has increased substantially since the industrial revolution and is expected to continue to be so (Walter, 2004).

The adverse effects of the increasing temperature of the earth’s surface include  increases in global average air and ocean temperatures, widespread melting of snow and ice, and rising global average sea level leading to flooding etc(Wikipedia 1). This flooding is expected to affect African countries on the coastline such as the southern part of Nigeria (Raufu, 2002). There is also the fear of health related problems and uncertain effects on Agriculture (Parker, 2007). Thus in general, the geographical location of a country will determine the level of the consequences of global warming on it. This supports the report by scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the U.S that the effects of global warming are for the first time visible on a local scale (Walter, 2004).

It is surprising to note that in Nigeria, there is still no clear leadership in tackling the issue of climate change and the predicted consequences. While it has been a national agenda in many countries even with relatively high CO2 emission, it is only in June 2009 that a desk office under the auspices of the Nigeria Climate Action Network (Nigeria CAN) was inaugurated in the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology Abuja.

As pointed out in 2005 (Akpojotor and Akporhonor), though Nigeria is not considered by global indices of classification an industrialized nation, the amount of CO2 emitted into the atmosphere in the country can be alarming when compared to those released in some other developing countries. The reason being that the over 140 million populations based on the 2006 census which makes her the most populated African country and the 8th most populated country in the world, means a large transport potential which may translate into a remarkable emission of CO2. This has been aggravated by the epileptic power supply from the national grid and deforestation in the tropical parts of the country (Small and Kazimi, 1995).

It is worthy of note that from the International Energy Agency (Wikipedia 2), Nigeria is ranked 40th among 216 countries in CO2 emission with 95,756 thousand metric tonnes, as against the United States with a CO2 emission of 5461,014 thousand metric tonnes which makes her 2nd, behind China with an emission of 7,031,916 thousand metric tonnes. This total emission does not indicate the variation in emission level from place to place in the county. Therefore it cannot be used for proper environmental planning and policy making. The purpose of this research project is to have a database of CO2 emission in Nigeria. In this work, how to obtain the total amount of CO2 emission in any given place is demonstrated. Note that only CO2 emissions from some major petroleum products (petrol, diesel and kerosene) were used in this research project. The implication is that there are other major CO2 emitters in the country such as coal/peat, natural gas, deforestation and cement which are not included in this work.