Journal of Emerging Trends in Engineering and Applied Sciences: Research Areas

Article Title: How to Use the CO2 Ecological Footprint and Isolated Thermodynamic System Approach as a Tool for Achieving the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development: A Case Study of Nigeria
by Festus Olajide and Joel Ogbonna

Abstract:
To meet the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, there is need to have a way to measure the footprint of human activities, countries, regions, etc on the environment. For countries with mono-cultural economies, it is easier to estimate the impact of the main source of the country�s foreign exchange on the environment. This research focuses on how to use Carbon (IV) Oxide (CO2) Ecological Footprint (EF) and Isolated Thermodynamic System Approach for Oil and Gas producing countries as a tool for achieving the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Using the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry as a case study, model for computing the CO2 EF was developed with MATLAB 7.5.0 Software. In this research, Nigeria was viewed as an Isolated Thermodynamic system, hence, mass and energy cannot cross the Geographical boundary of Nigeria. This is a theoretical analysis as mass and energy can in reality cross the geographical boundary of any country. Viewing every country as an Isolated Thermodynamic system ensures that each country strives to live sustainably. This means the economic development of a country should be within the bio-capacity of its environment and should not be socially injurious at the same time. The Purpose of this research is to demonstrate how the CO2 Ecological Footprint and the Isolated Thermodynamic system approach can be used as a tool for analyzing the sustainability of Oil and Gas Producing Countries. The United Nations 2030 Agenda for sustainable development can be easily achieved using this approach while ensuring the Oil and Gas Producing Countries whose economies benefit from the emission of CO2 also bear some cost in accordance with the �Polluter Pays Principle�

Keywords: ecological footprint, isolated thermodynamic system, bio-capacity, sustainable development.

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