Benin—The establishment of a renewable fund by all tiers of government to support the development of renewable energy and energy efficiency projects is crucial to development to achieving the goal, a presidential aide, Professor Abubalkar Sambo, has said.

Sambo, Special Adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan on Energy, said this in the keynote speech at the 21st Annual General Meeting/Conference of Nigerian Environmental Society (NES) in Benin.

Sambo, who is also the Director-General and Chief Executive Officer of the Energy Commission of Nigeria, was represented by Prof. Lawrence Ezemonye, Director, National Centre for Energy at the University of Benin (Uniben).

He said the energy policy framework to drive the renewable energy market in the country for sustainable development was in place.

According to Sambo, environmental sustainability exists when human activities (socio-economic) only uses nature’s resources at the rate at which they can be replenished naturally.

He noted that Nigeria had  renewable energy resources in abundance, which should be harnessed to provide adequate energy supply required for sustainable development.

He stressed the need to deploy renewable energy technologies in the fight against environmental problems at local and global levels.

Sambo said what was of utmost importance is the need to pass the National Energy Policy and the National Energy Master Plan into law.

Meanwhile, the World Bank had offered a multi-billion-dollar support to the country to drive its energy and climate change development efforts.

President Goodluck Jonathan said this at the conference, where he was represented by the Minister of Environment, Mrs Hadiza Mailafia.

Jonathan said that the establishment of the Special climate change and renewable energy units was to ensure efficient supervision pilot projects in Kaduna.

He stressed the need to promote sustainable development in the energy sector to ensure security, diversity and effectiveness in energy supply in the country.

He also underscored the importance of collaboration among governments at all levels, NGOs and research institutes to achieve the desired goal.

Earlier, Prof Osayuki Oshodi, the Chairman of the occasion and Vice Chancellor of the University of Benin,  advocated the formulation of a policy on renewable energy, to address the risk posed by climate change and other forms of energy-related environmental challenges.

Oshodi said that such a policy would simultaneously address the risks posed by climate change and other forms of energy-related environmental challenges.

He further said that the policy would reduce the political tensions and economic vulnerabilities generated by the existing patterns of dependence on the predominant fossil fuel resources in the country.

Jonathan was honoured at the occasion as a fellow of the society.