The Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has launched the Green-Sky-Green, the first Eco-Citizen Flyer Miles programme that deploys incentive-based voluntary Eco label tokens to mitigate aviation industry carbon omission footprint beyond the ICAO’s CORSIA scheme in Nigeria.
The initiative will leverage forest impact programmes that guarantee biodiversity and eco-system conservation to combat desertification and protect wetlands for SDG Goals 14 and 1.
The director-general of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) and chairman, Banjul Accord Group Aviation Safety Oversight Organisation (BAGASOO), Capt. Musa Nuhu, made this known in Abuja at the Aviation Week.
“Green Sky and Green Nigeria is a programme that will help contribute to dealing with environment issues in Nigeria. Safety is our priority.
“Green-Sky-Green programme is a voluntary carbon emission reduction programme that empowers eco- citizen travelers to grow 10 trees for every domestic ticket and 100 trees for every international ticket purchased in Nigeria.
“The Green-Sky-Green programme drives the Fly-2-Green Nigeria Eco-Label Token that is structured as a sustainable aviation policy enterprise product for airline operators under the NCAA regulatory spectrum to guarantee carbon neutral emission footprint through out-of-sector green marketplace mechanism. Green-Sky-Green is engineered to launch the first Green Aviation Marketplace programme in Africa and promote progressive possibilities that profit the people and the planet through climate smart ESG efficient programmes that guarantee ‘green’ and ‘blue’ economic growth for the United Nations Global Green Goals Agenda.
“Green-Sky-Green empowers eco-mobile citizen travelers to promote voluntary travel emission reductions through Eco Lifestyle Flyers Miles programme that accelerate eco-responsibility to a greener planet where eco-passengers to activate future forest conservation and restoration programme for sustainable development.
“The sustainable aviation policy leverages on the ICAO’s CORSIA scheme while re-purposing the Paris Climate Agreement to deploy nature-based solutions to meet the Nigerian Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) through the first Aviation Eco-Label Regime that promotes out-of-sector market-based long term aviation goals (LTAG) commitment to the global biodiversity protection programmes under the United Nation International Decade of Ecosystem Restoration 2021-2030.
“The Green-Sky-Green is situated as a Sustainable Aviation Green Citizen Flyer Miles programme that innovates a Climate Change Finance Mechanism for Green Airport Infrastructure, community-based climate change adaptation and mitigation programmes (Great Green Wall, Lake Chad) to create green jobs for net-zero emission footprints of the country.
“Green-Feet-Green Initiative + Green-Sky-Green programme develops, deploys and finance mainly biodiversity conservation programmes through the Green-Feet-Green Initiative, an ecosystem conservation vehicle that drives reforestation/afforestation programmes for ‘blue’ and ‘green’ economy development projects across Nigeria.
“Green-Sky-Green programme is structured to run on strategic green policy impact partnership to achieve the nationally determined contributions (NDCs) targets in the Nigerian aviation sector through nature-based solutions/forest carbon offset programme. The Fly-2-Green Nigeria programme is anchored on collaborative culture to sustain the aviation marketplace’s competitiveness by seeking and maintaining progressive partnerships to profit the people and the planet,” he said.
According to Nuhu, the revenue model for the Fly-2-Green Nigeria product is structured to deploy embedded eco-incentives for air travel passengers to reduce their aviation carbon footprints through biodiversity projects that profits the planet. “The big ‘green’ profit for the Fly-2-Green Nigeria programme is fundamentally structured to funnel innovative climate finance and harness home-grown green economy solutions for sustainable aviation and carbon-neutral community development in Nigeria.
“Climate Change is the most existential crisis of our time and the global frenzy to innovate climate-smart solutions across multi-industry stakeholders, multi-lateral development institutions and the United Nations has created a forced perspective for corporate leaders, heads of regulatory organisations and leaders of nations across the world; emphasising the need for concerted efforts to achieve the Paris Climate Agreement and the Glasgow Declaration to keep global temperatures below 1.5 degrees Celsius and global carbon concentrations in the atmosphere at less than 360ppm (parts per million).
“These concerted efforts to achieve the Paris Climate Agreement and the Green Goal imperative has shaped the need for the global service industry to think ecology before economics, creating a carbon-neutral policy framework and instrument to partner cleaner and greener industry-specific eco-solutions that promote possibilities that profit in the planet.
“The global aviation industry contributes less than 5 per cent of global carbon emissions footprint, buttressing the need for ICAO’s CORSIA programme for sustainable aviation policy that is anchored on the ‘common but differentiated responsibility’ principle for global civil aviation industry regulators and operators to innovate clean and green, low carbon, energy-efficient technology through in-sector and/or out of sector, region-specific market-based measures to mitigate the carbon emissions footprint of the industry operators for sustainable aviation,” he stated.
Nuhu added that the time for Africa to put a “green foot forward” is now and this can be achieved through climate-smart sustainable aviation solutions that meet the aspirations, ambitions and emerging opportunities for operators, regulators, travel consumers and the planet.
