By Emem Idio, Yenagoa

Media practitioners and Civil Society Organisations, CSOs, have called for tougher enforcement of regulations on methane emissions and gas flaring, urging the media to intensify investigations into regulatory failures and the activities of oil and gas operators.

The call was made during a webinar on Media, Accountability and Methane Emissions Enforcement, organised by Policy Alert in collaboration with BudgIT Foundation.

Participants at the virtual meeting said persistent gas flaring and methane emissions continued to expose oil-producing communities to environmental and economic harm, despite regulations intended to curb the practice.

In their separate remarks, Edidiong Dickson and Enebi Opaoluwa, representing the Executive Director of Policy Alert and the Global Director of BudgIT Foundation respectively., highlighted the impact of oil and gas activities on host communities and questioned the effectiveness of existing enforcement mechanisms in addressing methane emissions and gas flaring.

A documentary, Flaring Lives, which examines gas flaring and its effects on communities in oil-producing areas, was also screened during the webinar.

The screening was followed by a panel discussion on media accountability and methane emissions enforcement, as well as an interactive session on investigative approaches to reporting methane emissions and environmental governance.

Participants said journalists should move beyond official statements and routine reporting of emissions figures to independently examine compliance by oil and gas companies and the enforcement records of relevant regulatory agencies.

They urged reporters to investigate whether penalties imposed for violations were actually enforced, track regulatory actions and follow up on commitments made by government agencies and operators.

The journalists also identified publicly available data, community testimonies, company records and field investigations as important tools for uncovering discrepancies between environmental regulations and their implementation.

According to them, stronger reporting would help establish how methane emissions and gas flaring affect communities and determine whether regulatory interventions are producing measurable results.

They further called for closer collaboration between journalists and civil society organisations to improve access to technical expertise, environmental data and affected communities.

The participants also resolved to strengthen journalists’ capacity to report climate change, methane emissions and activities in the extractive sector, while sustaining public attention on gas flaring and Nigeria’s climate commitments.

They said consistent media scrutiny was necessary to keep regulatory agencies and oil and gas operators under public pressure, strengthen compliance and ensure that the concerns of communities affected by oil and gas operations receive greater attention in environmental policy and enforcement.