The Nigerian Civil Society Framework on Paris Agreement and SDGs (NCSFPAS) has called on Federal Government to effectively engage non-state actors in the nation’s climate change governance.
The coalition of CSOs made this call in a communiqué titled: “Nigerian Civil Society Position on COP24” signed by Dr Ibrahim Choji, the Chairman, Board of Trustees, Climate and Sustainable Development Network (CSDevNet) in Abuja.
The communiqué was issued at the end of the CSDevNet National Consultative Workshop on the 24th Conference of Parties (COP24) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) held in Abuja on Tuesday, June 18, 2019.
The UNFCCC COP24 was held in Katowice, Poland in December 2018.
The group said a strong Nigerian voice was needed to ensure that climate change dialogue process truly reflected Africa’s priorities and needs.
The CSOs said the time had come for Nigerian civil society to forge alliances and constructively engage all state and non-state actors in the implementation of the Paris Agreement and SDGs in Nigeria.
It noted that there was need for a comprehensive plan aimed at harnessing and cultivating the strength of a broad spectrum of the Nigerian civil society, academia, media and private sector in Nigeria’s climate change governance.
It said this process would be fully underpinned by the four guiding principles of inclusion, equity, people-centered and environmentally sustainable.
“Now is the time to lay strong foundations for the future and ensure that Nigerian perspectives are strongly reflected through the engagement of non-state actors in the implementation of Nigeria’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), the SDGs and the Economic Growth and Recovery Plan (EGRP).
“Such engagements must anchor on a genuine global sustainability and low carbon development pathway, and must reflect the integrated link on social, economic, cultural and environmental dimensions of development.
“That any implementation plan that fails to integrate these dimensions in a balanced way is not feasible for addressing present and future development challenges in Nigeria.”
The group also called for a review of Nigeria’s NDCs to address the issues of ambition in the country’s NDCs with regards to emission reduction targets from now until 2020 and post-2020.
“The NDC is a binding agreement, which spelt out the actions a country intends to take to address climate change, both in terms of adaptation and mitigation, when it ratifies the Paris Agreement.’’
The CSOs said this had become necessary because of the increasing rate of gas flaring, upsurge in soot and importation of generators across the country.
The group said it expected the Nigeria negotiators at the COP to effectively dialogue on loss and damage, climate finance, adaptation mitigation, agriculture, capacity building and gender as it pertains to Nigeria.
“We call for the commitment in the implementation of the Warsaw International Mechanism on Loss and Damage and need a predictable financing approach for Loss and Damage in Nigeria.
“Nigeria continues to suffer enormous economic losses in millions of dollars as a result of climate change impacts, coupled with immeasurable social losses due to climate induced displacement of persons thus triggering conflict.
“We emphasise that there is need to build long term capacity among developing countries which includes strengthening capacity of climate change institutions; capacity building should at all times be focused on the needs of countries and driven by countries.
“We call for parties to increase their efforts in ensuring that women are represented in all aspects of the convention process, and gender mainstreaming is achieved in all processes, and activities of the Convention,’’ the communiqué said.
By Okeoghene Akubuike
