FG Flags Off Programmes to Curb Air Pollution
The Federal Government has launched the national emissions control programmes for generators and vehicles to reduce air pollution in Nigeria from both machines.
It revealed that the programmes involved the periodic testing of generators and vehicles for toxic and greenhouse gas emissions.
The Minister of Environment, Muhammad Abdullahi, made this known in Abuja at the official flag-off of the two programmes, namely, the National Generator Emissions Control Programme and the National Vehicular Emissions Control Programme.
He said the National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency would implement the programmes, as the initiative was in recognition of the need to protect the environment and human life from the dangers posed by toxic air emissions.
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Abdullahi said, “The NGECP and the NVECP are strategies aimed at cutting down emissions of pollutants from generators (stationary source) as well as vehicles (mobile source).
“The programmes will be implemented under public-private partnership and will involve periodic (annual) testing of generators and vehicles for toxic and greenhouse gas emissions.
“In this strategy, the responsibility of NESREA will be to set national emission standards and to develop a reliable national database management system for all emissions data generated from the two programmes in Nigeria.”
He added, “The implementation of the NGECP would be starting with power generating sets of capacity from 10kva and above, while for the NVECP, the lowest limit would be Euro III emission standard as agreed at the ECOWAS regional level.”
The Director-General, NESREA, Prof. Aliyu Jauro, said some of the environmental regulations to back the implementation of the programmes include the National Environmental (Control of Emissions from Petrol and Diesel Engines) Regulations, 2011; and the National Environmental (Air Quality Control) Regulations, 2021.
He explained that as part of NESREA’s mandate to support the implementation of the Paris Agreement as spelled out in the Nationally Determined Contributions, the operationalisation of the two regulations mentioned above were scaled-up with the two programmes – NGECP and NVECP.
“The two programmes have been designed to address the emissions from mobile and stationary sources,” Jauro stated.
