Abstract
Energy constitutes an indispensable catalyst for sustainable socio-economic development. The imperative of energy security is highlighted by the pervasive energy poverty that characterizes developing countries, especially Nigeria. Despite being a major oil producer and having four refineries, Nigeria imports 90 percent of its domestically needed refined petroleum products. Similarly, Nigeria requires about 98,000 megawatts (MW) to achieve national electricity security. However, its thermal and hydropower stations have a combined installed capacity of only 12,522MW but generate between 3,000MW and 4,000MW and sometimes less than 3,000MW. The electricity challenge is deepened by fluctuations. The implications of this suboptimal power generation include: only 40 percent of Nigeria’s 193 million population have access to electricity, erratic nature of electricity supply and the long hours of power outages. Thus, Nigeria can be categorized as an energy poor country. The major goal of this paper is to assess the link between energy poverty and environmental sustainability given that households must take alternative steps to bridge energy gaps that impact them. It further evaluates the opportunities and barriers to energy security and holds that the untapped potentials, especially among renewable energy resources, hold the key to sustainable energy development to tackle energy poverty in Nigeria.
Highlights
Nigeria is the most populous black country and the largest economy in sub-Saharan Africa
The imperative of energy security is highlighted by the pervasive energy poverty that characterizes developing countries, especially Nigeria
It has the resources to even expand this refining capacity in order to achieve self-sufficiency in refined petroleum products. None of these refineries has ever refined up to 20 percent of its capacity resulting in the country importing about 90 percent of its required refined petroleum products [1,2]. This scenario has led to several distortions and contradictions in the economy of Nigeria ranging from high cost of these products, uncertainty in their availability, encouragement of corrupt practices due to subsidies, and unpredictability in supply often resulting in the unavailability of these products
Summary
Relying on the traditions of exploratory research design, the paper utilizes secondary data sourced from statistical reports, government publications and journals to examine and analyze the inter-linkages between domestic energy poverty and environmental sustainability This is against the backdrop that households must evolve survival strategies to augment shortfalls in their energy needs whether it is because they are unavailable or because they lack the resources to procure them. The paper finds linkage between energy poverty and the depletion of forestry resources which invariably leads to the deepening of household poverty It further reviews and evaluates the opportunities and barriers to energy security and holds that the country must seek for effective ways to exploit its untapped renewable and non-renewable energy potentials
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