Climate Change: Seplat To Plant Five Million Trees In Five Years

Seplat Energy Limited has unveiled its `Tree 4 Life Initiative’, a commitment to embark on planting five million trees in five years to mitigate climate change and carbon emission.

It said the innovative “Tree Planting and Carbon Sequestration” programme would provide food security, reduce biodiversity loss and support the net-zero emission agenda.

Chief Executive Officer, Seplat Energy Plc., Roger Brown, disclosed this at the official launch of Seplat Energy Tree 4 Life Initiative’ on Tuesday in Abuja.

The tree planting launch was performed by Chief Timipre Sylva, Minister of State, Petroleum Resources, and Sen. Margery Okadigbo, NNPC Board Chairman.

Others are Dr. Ambrose Orjiako, Chairman Seplat, Abdurazak Isa, Chairman, Independent Petroleum Producers Group (IPPG), officials from the Ministries of Environment and Agriculture and Rural Development, and other dignitaries.

Brown said the tree planting initiative, which has 75 percent as economic trees would essentially start with five states including Edo, Delta, Imo, and two Northern states in the country.

“We will deliberately engage women, youth, and communities for sustainable food production and a sustainable environment through tree planting in their communities and mindset change.

“We have adopted a two-prong approach to advocate for Tree Planting and Protection to instill the consciousness of the importance of tree planting and the responsibility of citizens to ensure its success.

“Another approach is to Plant Trees – run Afforestation/Restoration Programmes with a commitment to plant one million trees annually, comprising majorly economic trees.

“This initiative will complement the efforts of the Federal Government and other stakeholders.

"As a result, we will together positively impact lives while driving socio-economic change,’’ he said.

He recalled that at the Conference of the Parties (COP) 26, President Muhammadu Buhari and more than 100 world leaders committed to ending and reversing deforestation by 2030.

Also, during COP26, Nigeria committed to achieving net-zero by 2060. Barely a week after the conference, President Muhammadu Buhari signed the Climate Change Act, 2021 (the Act), which the National Assembly passed in 2021.

He said in the wake of climate action and the drive for energy transition, the industry had the responsibility of evolving to continue providing energy to keep the world running in a sustainable manner.

Therefore, he said, in order to live up to the challenge, substantial resources were geared towards achieving sustainability by Seplat Energy by working to decarbonise the upstream operations and develop renewable energy capability.

In an address, Dr. Ambrose Orjiako, Chairman Seplat, recalled that in 1990, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) produced its First Assessment Report with three major conclusions.