On the occasion of the World Environment Day (WED) 2026 today, under the theme “Inspired by Nature. For Climate. For Our Future”, Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA) has called on governments at all levels to place environmental justice at the centre of national policy.
Particularly, the group demanded that the Federal and state governments hold corporate polluters accountable, protect vulnerable communities, and confront the growing impacts of climate change across the country.
In a statement to commemorate the global observance, CAPPA reaffirmed its commitment to climate justice, environmental accountability, and inclusive climate governance across Africa.
The group lamented that Nigeria’s environmental crisis is “a lived reality for millions of citizens whose health, livelihoods, and futures are endangered by pollution, ecological degradation, climate-related disasters, and regulatory failures.”
The organisation expressed concern over recent reports indicating that British multinational Shell continued to transport crude oil through pipelines in the Niger Delta despite longstanding evidence, including from its own staff, that this was causing widespread pollution and environmental damage.
“Communities across the Niger Delta have spent decades bearing the burden of these oil spills, contaminated water sources, damaged farmlands, destroyed fisheries, and lost livelihoods,” Akinbode Oluwafemi, CAPPA’s Executive Director, said. “Environmental accountability cannot remain optional. Corporations that profit from the extraction of natural resources must also be held responsible for the environmental and social costs of their operations.”
Oluwafemi called on relevant regulatory agencies to ensure full remediation of polluted sites, transparent environmental monitoring, and meaningful compensation for affected communities.
CAPPA also expressed concern that over a decade after the landmark assessment of oil pollution in Ogoniland by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), many of its key recommendations remain only partially implemented. The organisation noted that the slow pace of environmental remediation and restoration across affected communities sends a troubling signal that environmental harm can persist without adequate consequences.
“The lesson from Ogoniland is that pollution does not end when the headlines fade,” Oluwafemi said. “Communities continue to live with contaminated soil, polluted water, damaged livelihoods, and health risks for generations. Nigeria must strengthen the enforcement of environmental laws and uphold the principle that polluters, not citizens, taxpayers, or affected communities, must bear the full cost of environmental damage and restoration.”
The organisation also drew attention to the worsening situation in the coastal communities of Ayetoro and Abereke in Ondo State, where residents continue to face severe coastal erosion, flooding, sea incursion, and displacement.
For decades, Ayetoro has stood as one of Nigeria’s most visible examples of environmental neglect. Once a thriving fishing settlement in the Ondo State, the coastal community has steadily lost homes, schools, places of worship, and public infrastructure to advancing ocean waters.
According to CAPPA, the continued vulnerability of these communities in the Ilaje parts of Ondo, reflects the failure of successive governments to implement long-promised shoreline protection and climate adaptation measures.
“It is unacceptable that communities facing existential threats from rising sea levels and coastal erosion continue to wait for meaningful government intervention while their homes literally disappear into the Atlantic Ocean,” said Olamide Martins Ogunlade, Associate Director and Head of Climate Change and Extractives at CAPPA.
He urged the Federal Government, the Ondo State Government, and relevant agencies to urgently implement sustainable coastal protection projects and climate adaptation programmes capable of safeguarding lives and livelihoods.
The organisation further noted that climate change is increasingly aggravating resource-based conflicts across Nigeria, including recurring clashes between herders and farming communities in several northern states.
“Climate change is no longer only an environmental issue. It is a food security issue, a public health issue, a livelihood issue, and increasingly, a peace and security issue,” CAPPA said.
The organisation called for greater investment in climate-resilient agriculture, sustainable land management, water conservation initiatives, and conflict-sensitive adaptation programmes.
Simultaneously, CAPPA warned that climate governance processes are increasingly vulnerable to policy capture by powerful commercial and political interests that prioritize market expansion, extractive economic models, and financialized climate mechanisms over genuine ecological sustainability and social justice.
“The growing dependence on carbon markets and offset-based frameworks raises significant concerns regarding environmental integrity, transparency, land dispossession, weak regulatory oversight, and the commodification of forests, biodiversity, and community livelihoods,” Ogunlade said. “Such mechanisms risk enabling major emitters to delay meaningful decarbonization while transferring environmental and social burdens to vulnerable populations in the Global South.’
The group called on governments, and other stakeholders to advance transparent, accountable, and people-cantered environmental governance systems.
“As we mark World Environment Day 2026, we call on policymakers at all levels to strengthen environmental governance, enforce existing laws, invest in climate adaptation and resilience, and ensure that corporations responsible for environmental harm are held fully accountable.
“Environmental justice requires more than sympathy for affected communities. It requires accountability. Communities should not be left to pay with their health, livelihoods, culture, and future while polluters walk away from the damage they have caused. Nigeria must ensure that those responsible for environmental destruction are held liable for remediation, compensation, and restoration.”
