World Environment Day: Chevron Nigeria Sensitizes on Biodiversity

Chinazor Megbolu

An oil and gas firm, Chevron Nigeria Limited (CNL) is set to sensitise clients on biodiversity as the world celebrates World Environment Day (WED) today, June 5, 2020.

In a report obtained on Thursday, CNL hinted the annual event is seen as the biggest event to celebrate and promote environmental awareness and sustainability across the world.

The company in the report, quoted the words of Edward Wilson, who said, “We should preserve every scrap of biodiversity as priceless while we learn to use it and come to understand what it means to humanity”.

CNL stated that the aforementioned quote underscores the emerging conversations as the WED is celebrated globally.

The statement according to Chevron, hinted that WED is geared towards increasing awareness and mobilise humans to take positive environmental action to protect nature and the planet earth globally.

The event, the company noted, has since become the principal vehicle through which the United Nations (UN) stimulates global awareness creation about the environment.

The organisation further buttressed, that it’s an avenue that gives human perspective to environmental issues which empowers people to become active agents of sustainable development and advocates multi-stakeholder partnerships in support of the environment.

The Chairman/Managing Director, Mr. Jeff Ewing in the report noted that biodiversity, with the theme: World Environment 2020, defined by the UN Convention on Biological Diversity includes the diversity of ecosystems, species, genes and the ecological processes that support them.

He, however, said the biodiversity is under threat in many areas across the world and stating that maintaining global diversity has emerged as a prominent and widespread issue, as natural diversity in ecosystems is essential to human life and plays an important role in sustainable development lamenting that the issue is rather unfortunate.

Explaining CNL’s commitment to biodiversity, Ewing noted that CNL is proud to be part of the solution to the global environmental issues wherever the company operates through its sound environmental management policy that supports environmental stewardship and sustainable development.

“CNL has in place a company-wide operational excellence management system that delivers industry-leading performance in process safety, personal safety and health, environment, reliability and efficiency.

“CNL has a record of responsible environmental stewardship everywhere it operates and has also established enduring partnerships with governments, non–governmental organisations, business organisations and communities,” he said.

Ewing further pointed out that CNL has been supporting and sponsoring different kinds of programmes aimed at biodiversity conservation. These collaboration and efforts he hinted will continue to be widely recognised.

Ewing maintained that CNL’s environmental stewardship is all about laying foundation for sound environmental management.

He posited that the identification, assessment and management of environmental risks runs through the entire project cycle from inception to operations and through decommissioning.

“CNL recognises the importance of minimising our footprints towards conserving biodiversity. The NNPC/CNL Joint Venture (JV) strives continually to achieve world class environmental excellence by assessing potential risks and reducing its footprints and potential impacts from its operations on the environment.

“CNL continues to conduct Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA) and Environmental Evaluation studies of its operations to ensure potential environmental risks are identified and where necessary mitigated in accordance with environmental performance standards and industry best practices.

“The company continues to invest in best available technology for tracking and managing of its ecological footprint in its areas of operation.

Chevron Nigeria’s commitment to preserving the environment has left enduring landmarks in the landscape.

“Also, in line with CNL’s commitment to environmental stewardship, we partner with Lagos State Government and the Nigerian Conservation Foundation (NCF) to sponsor an annual environmental awareness programmes, tagged, Walk for Nature, an event held to create awareness and promote nature conservation and sustainable environmental management for the protection of Nigeria’s biological resources.