The civil society in Nigeria has said that, in line with the Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that keeps temperature increase below 1.5°C, there is an urgent need for emission cuts by setting specific target for all Annex I parties to reduce emissions by at least 40 percent below 1990 level by 2015 and 100 percent by 2050 below 1990 level.
Operating under the aegis of the Nigerian Climate and Sustainable Development Network (NCSDN), the activists, who rose from a two-day forum that held recently in Ibadan, Oyo State, declared that any agreement by Nigeria or other African government to accept keeping the temperature above 1.5°C amounts to “disastrous consequences for us thereby condemning Africa to incineration and conflicts.”
In a document released at the close of the deliberations titled “Ibadan Declaration,” NCSDN joined its continental body, the PanAfrican Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA) to condemn the withdrawal of Canada, New Zealand, Russia and Japan from the Second Period of the Kyoto Protocol (KP2) and the continued refusal of the United States to ratify the protocol. The deliberations reviewed and analysed the outcomes of COP18/CMP8 and their implications for Nigeria.
“We call on these countries to accept their historical responsibilities, reconsider their position and recommit without further delay and conditions,” the group noted, stressing that it disagrees with locking in low ambition in the KP2 implementation period for eight years covering less than 15 percent of the global emission.
“The NCSDN calls on all Parties to use the 2014 Review as an opportunity to scale up targets for the remainder of this period. Further, we call upon Parties to respect the timeline for the adoption of the global climate change deal in 2015 and come up with an ambitious, fair, equitable and legally binding agreement.”
Developed countries, the group continued, should honour and deliver on their pledge of providing $100 billion by 2020, while also scaling up their pledges to fulfill their obligation to provide adequate, new and additional funds “as this amount is far from all estimates of climate finance needed by developing countries.”
The body urged the COP (Conference of Parties) to establish a clear and transparent mechanism for monitoring, verification and evaluation of delivery of climate funds; even as it demanded enhancing participation of civil society organisations (CSOs), faith-based organisations and other relevant stakeholders in climate finance boards.
The Ibadan Declaration reads in part: “We call for immediate establishment of an independent process to conduct transparent and consultative verification on developed countries’ claim that they have successfully delivered all fast-start finance (FSF) of over $30 billion to developing countries during 2010-2012 in accordance with the controversial Copenhagen Accord, which metamorphosed into Cancun Agreement.
“Developed countries must compensate Africa and Nigeria in particular for the full costs of avoiding harms, actual harms and damage, and lost opportunities for our development resulting from climate change. We oppose any efforts to establish adaptation as an obligation not a right, or to use adaptation as a means to divide or differentiate between developing countries. Therefore, we demand for the establishment of an international mechanism for compensation on the loss and damage caused by extreme weather events related to climate change.
“Developed countries must remove intellectual property rights, pay full incremental costs of technology transfer to protect developing countries and contribute for peaking and declining of global emission. We oppose efforts to sell rather than transfer appropriate technologies, or to strengthen rather than relax intellectual property rights. Developed and developing countries should support the adoption and development of indigenous and locally innovated technology as well as ensuring efficiency in technology transfer and deployment.
“Agriculture is one of the crucial sectors affected by climate change and which supports food and livelihoods security of millions around the world especially in developing countries, therefore, member states and Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA) need to conclude the agriculture negotiations under UNFCCC with focus on adaptation and expand the remit to cover sustainable livestock production systems as part of solution to climate change as recommended in pares 111 and 112 of Rio+20 final outcome document.
“Adaptation efforts should systematically and effectively address gender-specific impacts of climate change in the areas of energy, water, food security, agriculture and fisheries, biodiversity and ecosystem services, health, industry, human settlements, disaster management, and conflict and security.
“Strategies to improve and guarantee mainstreaming of gender and reproductive health issues into the climate change discourse and adaptation/mitigation strategies should be developed.
“There is an urgent need for gender equity and enhanced participation of women, youth, indigenous people and marginalised groups in UNFCCC negotiations and representation of Parties in bodies should be balanced between North and South, taken into account the respective differences.
“Nigerian Government should develop a systematic approach with input from all stakeholders and go to every COP with concrete and common National position.”
The organisation expressed concern that the last two decades have been characterised by unfulfilled promises and commitments by developed countries to Africa including Nigeria in particular hence breeding an atmosphere of ever diminishing trust and confidence in international negotiations processes. It lamented that Nigeria and indeed Africa’s right to development and development efforts have been compromised by the negative impacts of climate change, a situation it argued she least contributed.
