Nigeria has validated its Second Biennial Update Report (BUR2) and First National Inventory Report (NIR1), and also commenced preparation of the Fourth National Communication (NC4) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
At a forum organised by the Department of Climate Change (DCC) of the Federal Ministry of Environment in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) held in Lagos from September 8 to 10, 2021, the finalised BUR2/NIR1 documents were presented to stakeholders for validation before its submission to the UNFCCC, amid an inception workshop to commence the preparation of the NC4.
In a welcome address, Halima Bawa-Bwari, Acting Director, DCC, stated that Nigeria as a Party to the UNFCCC is required to prepare its Biennial Update Report (BUR), National Inventory Report (NIR) and National Communications on a continuous basis, adding that the purpose of preparing the BUR is to enhance reporting of mitigation actions and their effects.
She said: “Nigeria as one of the non-Annex 1 Parties under the UNFCCC has the obligation to prepare and submit every two years, transparent, accurate, comprehensive, consistent and comparable BUR to the COP. In fulfilment to this obligation, the BUR1 was submitted in 2017 and immediately after that, the implementation of the BUR2 and the NIR1 commenced.
“National Communications are national documents all Parties to the UNFCCC are obligated to prepare and submit periodically to the Convention. Nigeria being a Party is expected to communicate to the Convention, its National Inventory of greenhouse gas emission by sources and removal by sinks, and measures established towards mitigating global climate change.
“The main purpose of preparing the National Communications is to ascertain the level of greenhouse gas composition in the atmosphere, the vulnerability, adaptation and abatement analyses of the impacts of Climate Change, it also serves as a basis for reference, on future auditing of Greenhouse gas inventory in the country.”
According to her, ensuring a cross-sectoral involvement, participation and national ownership of these national documents informed the need for stakeholder participation.
Speaking on the BUR2 and NIR1 reports validation, Mr Muyiwa Odele of the UNDP, expressed the UN body’s happiness in supporting the Nigerian government in the production of the BUR2, which he claimed has assisted the country in meeting its global obligation and commitments to tackling climate change in concert with the global community, albeit in a transparent, accountable and evidenced-based fashion.
His words: “The process for the preparation of the document that we are validating today started under the leadership of Dr. Samuel Adejuwon who laid the solid foundation for its smooth take-off, who afterwards passed the baton to Dr. Peter Tarfa, who steered its cause in compliance with global best practices and then handed over to our dear Hajiya Haima Bawa – whose contributions especially with regards to the inclusion of Gender has made Nigeria’s BUR2 a world class document. I want to recognise the leadership of DCC to whom the BUR2 owes its incredible quality.
“We are all here today, as part of a very important closure and certification aspect of the report. Your engagement is essential, as an endorsement of the report, after which it would be submitted to the UNFCCC Secretariat and Nigeria can comfortably join the league of other nations who have submitted their BUR2.
“What this signals is that there is much work that now needs to be done – how does this translates into effect MRV systems, tracking and collecting relevant information on GHG, linking this to the implementation plan for the NDC – I would like to pause and congratulate the Honourable Minister for the successful revisions and submission of Nigeria’s NDC, which now frames the pathway towards realistic and ambitious national emission reduction action plan.
“UNDP with the support of the European Union is proud to have contributed to this national success. Two weeks ago, the Minister also presented the LEDS Vision, the IFI and all of these are critical elements of addressing the climate emergency in a comprehensive way. This is highly commendable.
“The BUR2 is a strategic piece of this whole design given the detailed information on specific actions that should be prioritised in order for Nigeria to attain its targets in the revised NDC.
“I would like to most sincerely thank Climargirc for the strong support and excellent work that they continue to deliver in record time which has pushed Nigeria’s ranking up globally. The support of national consultants has been phenomenal. UNDP believes in the need to continue to invest in strengthening institutions of government, individuals and private sector with cutting edge skills, expertise, exposure that will equip them to become the drivers of the preparation of the reports. Working with the leadership of DCC our strategy is to use these processes to present a collaborative platform for the different relevant divisions under the department of climate change to become an integral part of the process and eventually lead future preparation.
“Nigeria has a strategic leadership role to play in Africa and we in UNDP strongly believe that with the calibre of people and level of engagement and quality of data that underpins the preparation of the BUR2 and most importantly the continuing high level of political commitment is a clear demonstration that Nigeria is up to the task.
“I would like to reiterate that climate change is an existential threat and that we are practically running out of time to address these challenges and we need everyone to be able to tackle it. That Nigeria is highly vulnerable has been well documented over the years and that Covid-19 has shown that urgent actions are needed.
“The entire world is facing a survival challenge and I would like to invite us all to continue to reflect on these questions – what will happen if the world were to experience a climate disaster in the order of the Covid-19? Will humanity and the world survive? What can I do, what should we do differently?”
On the Fourth National Communication (NC4), he said: “The NC4 is a bit unique because it is the very first time that Nigeria would be preparing any of its reports as a full-sized project – the import is that there would be opportunity to take a systemic and longer-term approach towards addressing all the major challenges that identified during the preparation of the previous three national communication. The NC4 would integrate the lessons learnt and will be the catalyst for the establishment of national capacities led preparation for future reports under the leadership of DCC.
“It will look at strengthening the processes for identification, collection, processing of data, in order words, establish protocols for robust data collection architecture that would be linked to the MRV, national inventory and the ongoing establishment of a National Climate Change Registry that is currently ongoing under the NDC Support programme.
“The NC4 will amplify the roles of subnational, state and local actors – as a matter of fact we have invited the desk officers from the 36 states of the federation – this is why you would have noticed a swell in the number of participants at today’s meeting. CSOs, NGOs, Women, Youth representatives and Academia that are here today is to broaden the engagement and enrich the process.
“The critical roles of the different focal persons for each of the related IPCC streams of work in the Ministry would be crucial at every stage of the preparation of the Fourth National Communications. It will bring together the Adaptation, IPPU, GHG, Mitigation, Inventory, Youth, NDC and Gender elements of national climate action to ensure coherence.
“We have to ensure the right quality of engagement and participation the process so we value stakeholders’ contributions and the credibility of the data and information they would be sharing to make the final product measurable and easily trackable, leading to greater accountability.”
Dr Iniobong Abiola-Awe, a Deputy Director in the DCC and National Coordinator, UNFCCC National Communication, BUR2 and NR1, stated that the BUR, which is prepared and submitted every two years, “reports reliable, comprehensive and transparent information on greenhouse gas emissions, the mitigation actions undertaken and support received”.
According to her, project activities for the NIR1 commenced in 2019.
She said: “This is Nigeria’s First Stand-alone National Inventory Report (NIR1) that provides information on greenhouse gas emissions by sources and removals by sinks for a full-time series for the period 2000 to 2017.
“Improvements over the previous inventory consistent in the inclusion of additional activity areas and recalculations with the availability of better national activity data.”
During the validation workshop, participants observed that, to further strengthen the process and enrich the documents, there is need for more stakeholder involvement at national and subnational levels.
They further observed that:
- There is inadequate nationally determined emission factor for accurate calculation of emissions;
- Consistency of attendance at meetings by focal points is important;
- There is need to improve inter-agency collaboration to always review the documents and integrate people with administrative authority.
The following recommendations were made:
- Governance structure for the development of the BUR2 and NIR1 reports should be strengthened to include effective participation from Federal and State MDAs;
- Future efforts should focus on developing national emission factors for improved quantitative analysis in the long term;
- The DCC of the Federal Ministry of Environment should ensure that documents for validation are forwarded to stakeholders ahead of workshops;
- DCC should write to stakeholders to identify qualified and relevant officers to act as focal persons on climate change for MDAs that are yet to do so. If possible, provisions should be made for alternates to nominated focal persons;
- There should be capacity building of stakeholders with provision of support for standardized data gathering;
- All stakeholders from national and sub-national levels should be involved in activity data gathering;
- Fully establish national MRV with synergy with states;
- Every state should have desk offices, and technical committees on climate change which should involve the relevant MDAs, and civil society instead of calling it an inter-ministerial committee on climate change; and,
- DCC should create a simplified template for GHG inventory, share and coordinate with States.
