Make gas flaring history
12 January 2009

Nigeria is the currently the world's second largest flarer of gas associated with crude oil extraction.

This causes unjustified destruction of the environment and lives of the people living in the Niger Delta.

Friends of the Earth International is calling for an immediate end to gas flaring.

A new deadline for gas flaring

Since 1969 the Federal Government of Nigeria has refused to enforce various laws it enacted to end gas flaring.

After many missed deadlines - and years of campaigning - a final date of the 31 December 2008 was set by the President of Nigeria himself.

This should mark a deadline to end all gas flaring in the Niger Delta region.

But there is growing concern that this deadline has again been ignored.

Demand the deadline be enforced

Join activists from across the world to show that there is pressure from the international community for this deadline to be kept to.

Write to the Federal Government of Nigeria. Ask them to force the multinational oil corporations to end to gas flaring in all Niger Delta communities.

The online action will be emailed to the President of the Nigerian Senate and the speaker in the Nigerian House of Representatives.

Once the action is closed Friends of the Earth Nigeria will try to personally deliver a hard copy version of your letter to the President himself.

Enforce the deadline to end gas flaring in the Niger Delta

Dear Sirs,

I hereby join Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth, Nigeria and other concerned citizens of the world to express disappointment that the December 31, 2008 deadline to end gas flaring in all Niger Delta communities has not been adhered to. We call on you to halt this practice. I am deeply concerned that - since 1969 - Nigeria's Federal Government has not enforced the various administrative directives and laws it enacted to end gas flaring in the Niger Delta region. Rather than enforce those laws and a subsisting court judgment against the practice, the government in countless instances succumbed to excuses from oil companies for shifts in flare-out deadlines. Nigeria is the world's second largest flarer of associated gas and currently burns 23billion standard cubic meters annually. Gas flaring contributes significantly to climate change. Gas flaring causes acid rain which acidifies the lakes and streams and damages crops and vegetation. It reduces farm yields and harms human health, lives and livelihoods. Gas flaring increases the risk of respiratory illnesses, asthma and cancer. It often causes painful breathing, chronic bronchitis, decreased lung function, body itching, blindness, impotency, miscarriages and premature deaths. While nearly three-quarters of Nigerians live in desperate poverty, Nigeria loses $2.5 billion dollars every year through flared gas. The practice is also a major factor in the tension and conflicts raging in the Niger Delta region. On November 14, 2005, the Federal High Court sitting in Benin and presided over by Justice V.C Nwokorie ordered stoppage of gas flaring in Iwerekhan Community (Plaintiff) by April 2007, saying the practice "violates the fundamental right to life and dignity." It is extremely troubling that, despite the court order, gas flaring has continued unabated in the Niger Delta, thereby continuing to put the local communities and the entire world at risk. The government must put the human and environmental rights of the people of Nigeria above corporate profits. It is now time to make gas flaring history.

You can contact me by email (preferably - to save resources) or at the following address:

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Make gas flaring history12 January 2009

A new deadline for gas flaring

Demand the deadline be enforced

Enforce the deadline to end gas flaring in the Niger Delta

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Make gas flaring history
12 January 2009