The recent global Summit in France on Climate Change is one other serious agenda Nigeria is yet to register any worthwhile action plan, writes Correspondent, SAM NWOKORO.
World leaders, including Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari, attended the 21st edition of the Climate Change Summit which started in Paris on Monday, November 30. It will end on December 11. It was a follow-up to the one held earlier in Lima, Peru, last May.
The Summit known technically as the Conference of Parties (COP), those countries who signed on to the United Nations Framework in 1992 to pull resources and initiative together to tackle rising global warming due to the increasing carbon emissions into the air and which has since the early 90s been discovered to be responsible for the depletion of the ozone layer of the earth’s atmosphere, thereby resulting in overdose of heat radiation from the sun pouncing man, animals and plants in parts of the world.
Global warming has also affected agricultural produce adversely in most parts of the world, especially third world nations lacking adequate technological know-how and other resources to cope with costly remedial or containment measures necessary to mitigate the problem and preserve the earth a little longer.
At the summit, President Barack Obama, who came days after the summit kicked off, assured of the G7’s commitment to pursue environmental sustainability in line with resolutions adopted at the G7 Summit which took place in Germany in June. The group had pledged to contribute $1 billion annually over the next five years to mitigate global warming.
Buhari lamented the adverse impact of global warming on agriculture in Africa and Nigeria in particular.
Highlights of summit
Heads of state and government attending the Leaders’ Event on the first day of the 21st session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC COP 21) addressed, inter alia: the inclusion of gender for ensuring climate justice; the importance of differentiation; the legal form of the agreement; the periodicity of the review process; transparency and accountability rules; whether or not to anchor loss and damage in a permanent mechanism; the role of natural capital accounting; the link between climate change and development; balancing mitigation and adaptation finance; technology transfer in providing mitigation support; and the need to address the degradation of forests, desertification, and biodiversity loss.
Switzerland announced a 75 per cent increase in its annual contribution to the Least Developed Countries Fund (LDCF). Norway said her country will double its contribution to the Green Climate Fund (GCF) by 2020 in the context of verifiable emissions reductions from REDD+. Spain said it will increase its annual climate finance for developing countries, doubling contributed funds by 2020. New Zealand announced support of NZ$200 million for climate-related actions over the next four years, primarily for Pacific nations. China, Egypt and several other countries warned against denying the legitimate needs of developing countries to improve living standards and develop economically.
In addition to over 140 statements by heads of state and government and other officials, parties elected Laurent Fabius, France’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Development, as President of COP 21/CMP 11, by acclamation. Fabius outlined three conditions for success in Paris: mobilising heads of state and government; bringing together and obtaining commitments from non-governmental actors; and reaching a universal, ambitious climate agreement that is differentiated, fair, lasting, dynamic, balanced, legally binding and ensures that temperature increase stays below two degrees centigrade over pre-industrial levels.
In the evening, spin-off groups under the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action (ADP 2-12) took place on: preamble, purpose and general; technology development and transfer; capacity building; implementation and compliance, the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Agreement and final clauses.
The workstream organised by the Africa Pavilion on November 30 commenced with ‘Gender, Climate Change and Sustainable Development in Africa: Challenges and Opportunities Post-2015 Agreements’, during which participants highlighted gender desegregation as a missing link in the UNFCCC process, and called for the integration of gender into the negotiations.
During the ‘Financing Climate Change in Africa – NEPAD Climate Fund’ event, participants stressed the need to mobilise national and local resources, harness international finance to catalyse local action and utilise African financial institutions such as the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) and the African Development Bank (AfDB). The ‘10 Million Trees, 10 Million Souls’ event focused on a project in Benin that aims to plant 10 million trees, one for each inhabitant of Benin.
Among the side events that convened around the COP 21 venue at Le Bourget, Paris, France, was an event to launch the ‘Because the Ocean’ declaration, which a number of high-level representatives signed.
The declaration stressed the need to “break down the communication silos” between climate and oceans practitioners, and called for countries to commit to an oceans action plan under the UNFCCC. During the event titled ‘Investing in Resilience – Responding to the Adaptation Needs of the Most Vulnerable’ organised by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), countries pledged new commitments to the LCDF totalling $248 million, including France’s €25 million in 2016; Canada’s CAD$30 million over the next two years; Denmark ($22 million in 2016); United Kingdom (£30 million in 2016); U.S. ($51 million in 2015 to 2016); Italy ($2 million by the end of 2015); Ireland (€6 million by 2020); and Germany (€50 million in 2015 to 2016).
The event titled ‘Sustainable Transformation – Nordic Experiences of Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs) as Building Blocks for Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs)’ focused on Nordic-financed NAMAs in Asia, Latin America and Africa, and provided insights on how NAMA development helps achieve sustainable impact and contributes to sectorial transformation.
During the event titled ‘COP 21: The Key Issues’, participants discussed the feasibility of a 1.5˚C target, the feasibility of a proposal of an international criminal tribunal for climate justice, and whether there is still time to craft an ambitious agreement.
At the event titled ‘The Potential for Crediting Mitigation Actions across Countries with Different Types of Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs)’, panelists discussed how to move towards a more streamlined system for crediting mitigation actions across countries.
During the event titled ‘Impacts and Indigenous Adaptation Strategies from the Amazon and Canada,’ participants expressed concern about: invasive species and changing hunting patterns; how to effectively access climate finance such as funds for REDD+ and those in the GCF; and how to build constructive cooperation between indigenous communities and government agencies.
At the event titled ‘Justice and Future Generations: Achieving Intergenerational Equity in Paris and Beyond,’ participants called for including a strong reference to intergenerational equity in the expected Paris agreement.
During the event titled ‘Results of World Wide Views on Climate and Energy’, participants discussed how the consultation that took place on June 6, 2015, collecting the views of 10,000 citizens who took part in 97 debates in 76 countries, showing how citizens are mobilised and committed to climate and energy issues.
The event titled ‘Sustainable Use of Natural Resources: An Essential Solution to Climate Change’ focused on synergies between decarbonisation and the decoupling of natural resource use from economic growth, and presented policy-relevant messages on how to select clean, safe and sustainable low-carbon energy technologies. The event titled ‘China’s Forestry Actions and Creative Risk Management Methods for Climate Change’ presented forest action on climate change in China
Nigeria and climate change
The issue of climate change and modalities for combating it in Nigeria has not gone beyond the platforms of public debates and lamentations. So far, the Federal Ministry of Environment has no policy blue-print towards containing the effect of global warming in Nigeria.
It is still battling to sort out other immediate environmental problems in the country, including gas-flaring, flooding, refugee crisis, provision of shelter and public hygiene such as refuse disposal.
The idea or awareness that the other countries of the world have long keyed into green economy still sounds utopian or academic to the ‘Giant of Africa’. Even at that, issues about environmental sustainability as enshrined in the still-born Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) is still splitting hair. Energy firms accused of polluting the earth in Nigeria through unguarded noxious gas emissions are still quarrelling with aspects of the bill which they claim make the operating environment expensive for them.
One environmental activist said: “One of the major issues dealt with in the PIB is to commit the multinational oil companies into environmental sustainability of the Niger Delta area. That is contained in the PIB. In Nigeria, we wait until there is calamity before we begin to take measures.”
The only state in the country that has initiated anything resembling action plan to mitigate global warming is Lagos. Under the leadership of former Governor Babatunde Fashola, the state’s Ministry of Environment initiated the UN-sponsored Carbon Credit Initiative whereby individuals, groups or companies who take effective measures in controlling the global warming through tree planting or other measures are rewarded in cash.
