Position Statement of the Nigerian Blue Community Peace Point Development Foundation (PPDF) at COP 30:
As COP 30 opens in Belém, Peace Point Development Foundation (PPDF) supports the Global South especially the vulnerable coastal, forest and sacrificed zones of oil producing communities of Nigeria to declare that this conference must deliver justice, not just ambition or rhetoric like the past few years.
On the foundations of the key themes of COP 30 which are new 2025-2035 Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), climate finance, nature and forests, adaptation, and a “fair, fast and final” clean energy shift, PPDF recommends the following position rooted in our ongoing work in Nigeria’s Niger Delta, coastal belt and other solid mineral mining communities.
1. Aligning NDCs with frontline realities. COP 30 pushes for the submission of new NDCs for 2025-2035 to align global efforts with the 1.5 °C goal.
Be that as it may, for communities in the Niger Delta, climate ambition begins with addressing compelling legacy issues such as oil spills, gas flaring, mangrove destruction, water contamination and subjugation of local voice.
PPDF has worked directly in all the oil-and gas producing communities and most solid minerals mining communities in Nigeria, mobilising town hall meetings, establishing environmental clubs, training monitors, building multi-stakeholder dialogue.
It is on this pretext that we call on governments of the Global South, including Nigeria, when submitting their NDCs to:-
Explicitly embed community-led monitoring and remediation of extractive sector damage into the NDCs’ adaptation/mitigation pathways:-
Recognise that fossil fuel dependent localities must be prioritised for transition support: the same regions where PPDF’s environmental clubs and monitors are active.
Ensure that the NDCs commit to forest, mangrove and coastal ecosystem restoration (recognising their role in nature based solutions) as integrated mitigation and adaptation measures and not just abstract pollution numbers.
2. Climate finance must flow to the Global South’s front lines/Sacrificed Zones.
With COP 30’s theme of scaling climate finance to US$1.3 trillion annually for developing countries and the launch of the Tropical Forests Forever Facility, PPDF notes that for justice to be realised, one central imperative must apply: direct, transparent, community driven access in fragile zones.
We call for:-
A defined share of new climate finance which must go directly to community level governance bodies in forest, mangrove and oil impacted zones of Nigeria and the Global South.
It is interesting that these zones now have Host Communities Development Trusts.
This is one of the options that can be explored.- Finance disbursements must include clear pre-conditions: community-monitoring mechanisms, accessible grievance channels, and conditionality tied to visible local outcomes (example: restored mangroves, cleaner water, fewer oil-spill incidents):-
Funds such as the Tropical Forests Forever Facility must incorporate frontline community leadership, including Indigenous people and coastal/mangrove dwellers, into planning, decision making and benefit sharing.
3. Nature-based solutions and forests: Let’s move from rhetoric to restoration COP 30’s focus on nature particularly the Amazon rainforest. However, it must resonate beyond South America.
In Nigeria’s coastal and mangrove ecosystems the same dynamics hold. The forests and mangroves sequester carbon, protect against sea-level rise, and support livelihoods. Sadly, these canopies are destroyed by oil extraction, illegal mining, deforestation and pollution.
Of particular interest is the Stubbs Creek Forest Reserve which has been lost in Akwa Ibom State to a petrochemical refinery and several forests in Cross River State lost to mining and forest logging. We must not fail to note that the wildlife within these forests, especially endangered species, have been illegally catered away by foreign interests.Hence we demand:-
Global nature finance must expressly include mangrove and coastal forest systems in the Global South, with local restoration and management built into forest protection frameworks.-
Indigenous, traditional and community based custodians must be recognised as equal partners in forest conservation resources and authority must shift accordingly:-
Nature-based solutions must be climate justice aware, meaning restoration efforts must respect the rights, livelihoods and cultural heritage of impacted communities. This should not create new inequalities or green grabs.
4. Adaptation and the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA):
The need to prioritise the most vulnerable. The Global Goal on Adaptation demands better quantification of vulnerability and prioritisation of funding for at-risk nations.
Nigeria’s coastal and forest communities face escalating climate impacts which include coastal erosion, oil pollution, aggravated flooding, and disrupted fisheries. PPDF’s ground-work in community environmental clubs shows how local actors can engage adaptation if empowered.
We Ask that:-
COP 30 must call for adaptation finance that clearly targets frontline, high-risk zones in the Global South and not just national level allocations:-
Adaptation frameworks must integrate conflict-sensitivity and governance in Nigeria, where extractive industry legacies and community tensions persist, adaptation must support peacebuilding and justice, not exacerbate division:-
Metrics for adaptation success must include community resilience indicators (example: restored fisheries, safer living arrangements, youth/women participation) and not only macro-economic numbers.
5. A “fair, fast and final” shift to clean energy with justice for extractive zones.
The call of the UN Secretary-General at COP 30 to end fossil fuel subsidies, invest heavily in renewables, and ensure equity is especially pertinent for countries like Nigeria, where the revenue is almost implicitly driven by oil revenue regardless of the fact that communities are degraded and sacrificed for this.
PPDF’s work highlights that communities in oil producing sectors must not be left behind in the transition. It is a truism that environmental justice is inseparable from clean energy justice.
Our ask:-
The energy transition narrative must commit to just transition mechanisms for communities in the oil and-gas areas.
How new jobs will be created, retraining, environmental rehabilitation and revenue sharing must feature in Nigeria’s transition:-
Clean energy finance must be equity oriented, implying that women, youth and people with disabilities in vulnerable communities (PPDF’s focus groups) receive targeted support, recognising they bear multiple burdens:-
Fossil fuel subsidies should be redirected in part to remediation and resilience funds for extractive impacted areas.
By this, we mean communities which produced the fuel must benefit from both the transition away and the clean up behind closing the curtain at COP 30, our organisation brings to the rostrum the voices, true live experiences and demands of Nigeria’s frontline and sacrificed communities.
By this, we mean women monitoring oil spills in Niger Delta and women and youth who monitor how their water is polluted by mining activities, of youth in mangrove edge villages rethinking their livelihoods, of small scale fishers confronting climate pollution erosion overlap.
Our decades of work on environmental justice, fiscal governance and peace-building have prepared us to hold the system to account.
We ask all delegates, funding institutions and global actors to act differently to ensure that COP 30’s success is measured not by page counts of new NDCs or pledges, but by whether the Global South mostly impacted by climate crisis, especially Nigeria’s Extractive communities see transparent finance reaching their communities.
They will want to see whether their mangroves have been restored, creeks cleaner, and homes safer. These sacrificed communities are interested to see if their rights are respected, revenues tracked, conflicts transformed and most importantly if renewable energy opportunities are accessible to all and not just the urban centres.The Global South must understand that justice is the hinge upon which climate ambition must turn.
For Nigeria, COP 30 must mark a turning point from marginalization of extractive host communities, to genuine inclusion in climate strategy; from promises of mitigation, to real adaptation and restoration; from clean energy promises, to equitable and just transition and ecological restoration.
PPDF is ready and poised in Belém and home front to partner, to monitor, to hold accountable, and to ensure that climate action becomes community empowerment, not community imposition.
Let COP 30 be the moment when the frontlines and sacrificed zones stop being after thoughts, and become leaders in driving climate action.
