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World Bank, GEF launch ‘Global Platform for Sustainable Cities’

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World Bank, GEF launch ‘Global Platform for Sustainable Cities’

Under the GPSC, the international community is investing over a billion dollar in the sustainable cities of the future

Naoko Ishii, CEO and Chairperson of the GEF
Naoko Ishii, CEO and Chairperson of the GEF

City leaders from around the world who met on Wednesday in Singapore, the island city-state off southern Malaysia, have launched the Global Platform for Sustainable Cities (GPSC), which is part of an initiative funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF). The GPSC is expected to mobilise up to $1.5 billion over the next five years for urban sustainability programmes in 11 developing countries, including Brazil, Cote D’Ivoire, China, India, Malaysia, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Senegal, South Africa, and Vietnam.

Coordinated by the World Bank and supported by multilateral development banks, UN organisations, think tanks and various city networks, the GPSC is a knowledge sharing programme that will provide access to cutting-edge tools and promote an integrated approach to sustainable urban planning and financing.  The GPSC will work with a core group of 23 cities, but will reach many more by sharing of data, experiences, ideas, and solutions to urban challenges, and by linking the knowledge to finance that will influence investment flows toward building cities’ long-term urban sustainability.

“If planned and managed well, compact, resilient, inclusive, and resource-efficient cities can drive development, growth, and the creation of jobs, while also contributing to a healthier, better quality of life for residents and the long-term protection of the global environment,” said Naoko Ishii, GEF CEO and Chairperson.  “In a rapidly urbanising world, how we design and build the cities of the future will play a critical role in protecting the global commons, the planet’s finite environmental resources that have provided for the stable conditions enjoyed by humanity for thousands of years.”

By 2050, more than two billion more people will live in cities, a 50 percent increase from today, and the vast majority of this growth will take place in developing countries, mostly in Asia and Africa. The new Global Platform is designed to help mayors and other municipal leaders take more informed decisions in the day-to-day management of their cities, including improving access to clean water, energy, and transport, as well as efforts to mitigate climate change.  It supports cities in pursuing evidence-based approaches to urban planning, including geospatial data, and establishing urban sustainability indicators.

“Linking knowledge to finance is critical to directing investment flows to quality and sustainability. We see this platform as a great opportunity to connect cities not only to cutting-edge knowledge, but also to development banks and financial institutions,” said Ede Ijjasz-Vasquez, Senior Director of the World Bank’s Social, Urban, Rural, and Resilience Global Practice. “The World Bank will work closely with the partner institutions and the existing city networks to build a broad cooperation to support cities in translating knowledge into action and investment.”

In particular, the GPSC will provide cities with ways to help confront issues like climate change, to which cities are uniquely vulnerable, as almost half a billion urban residents live in coastal areas, increasing their exposure to storm surges and sea level rise. Cities also consume over two-thirds of global energy supply, and are responsible for 70 percent of greenhouse gas emissions.

The products and services provided by the GPSC will include studies, workshops, and online data that will leverage existing expertise in order to promote an integrated approach to tackling complex, multi-sector issues.  With common metrics and guidelines in place, the lessons learned from the initial 23 cities can also be shared with hundreds of other cities via a wide range of city networks and other partners.

The GPSC is the foundation of the wider GEF sustainable cities initiative that is expected to create a strong network of cities that will act as global ambassadors for urban sustainability planning, with tangible benefits at both the local and global levels. As a GEF partnership, the initiative, formally called the ‘Sustainable Cities Integrated Approach Pilot’, will involve city municipalities, GEF agencies, development entities, city networks, and technical institutions. Civil society organisations will also contribute.

It will be implemented by the World Bank in partnership with the African Development Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the Development Bank of South Africa, the Inter-American Development Bank, the United Nations Environment Programme, the United Nations Development Programme, and the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation.

The GPSC launch event was held during Singapore Urban Week, organised by the World Bank in partnership with the GEF and key partners in Singapore, including the Center for Liveable Cities and IE Singapore.

Defiant Gov Ayade says critics of Super Highway project are playing politics

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Defiant Gov Ayade says critics of Super Highway project are playing politics

Cross River State governor, Prof. Ben Ayade, has lashed out at critics of his administration’s proposed Super Highway project, accusing them of playing politics to the detriment of national development.

Gov Ben Ayade of Cross River State
Gov Ben Ayade of Cross River State

At a Twitter engagement session on Monday with some media executives and civil society practitioners, the governor, via his Twitter handle “@ben_ayade,” insisted that having another road other than the existing highway has become a necessity as the nation’s economy expands.

Unveiled recently, the 260km Super Highway is planned to lead from a proposed deep sea port at Esighi in Bakassi Local Government Area, run through the Cross River National Park and the Ekuri Community Forest, and up to Katsina Ala in Benue State, at a cost of N700 billion or about $3.5 billion.

Already, bulldozers have begun destroying farms at Etara/Eyeyen and are continuing towards Ekuri and Okuni forests/communities, preparatory to the construction of the highway.

Local and international voices have however risen against the project, urging the authorities to reroute the highway along a less damaging path and away from community forests and the National Park.

But the governor remains adamant, maintaining that potitical interest, rather than genuine sustainable development motives, is fueling opposition to the increasingly controversial road project.

His words: “I think we should stop playing politics with issues of development. Since when did construction of road become a sin? Please Cross River State is more important than partisan politics. We should support what is good irrespective of our leanings. We have to learn to play politics of development.”

Ayade, a Professor of Environmental Management, questioned the rationale behind the clamour against the project, demanding: “The current highways in the state, were they built in the skies? When the present highway was constructed, was it not through forest?”

He, however, declined further comments when a range of questions were thrown at him, simply saying: “I am sure in this age of technology you can get that information on your own.”

His Tweet-mates wanted to know, for example, the corporate status of the Port Harcourt, River State-based Broad Spectrum Industries Limited (BSIL), a major player in the project. Investigations appear to show that the firm is relatively new and has no experience in road or port construction, a revelation that calls into question its track record in that regard.

The journalists and activists were likewise curious about the funding and the economics of the deep sea port and superhighway project, which some reports say BSILwill bankroll to the tune of N700 billion (US$3.5 billion).

A source said on Monday: “However, it is unclear where this staggering sum of money is meant to be coming from.  It was rumoured that the funds were potentially coming from Germany or the UK or Israel but all efforts to find out more about the alleged funding for the superhighway construction project have proved futile. There are also reports of contributions from Heritage, Skye and Zenith banks. Do the funds for the construction of the highway actually exist? What kind of company would spend US$3.5 billion on the construction of a port/superhighway if the port will only pay back US$30 million a year? This would thus take over 100 years to pay back and that’s not including a discount rate! What kind of company would invest such large sums of money with such bad returns? There has been no transparency on this aspect of the project.”

Questions are also being raised about the engineering feasibility of the project.

The source disclosed; “It is notable that there do not seem to have been any engineering studies carried out to inform the design of the project. If there have been engineering studies, they have also been kept secret. The communities along the proposed route all attest that there have been no engineers surveying on the ground. Without such surveys how can one even determine the cost of the superhighway? How would one know, for example, how many substantial bridges are required or how many millions of tons of rock and soil have to be moved to pass through the hilly terrain?

“However, it is clear from contour maps that the terrain of the proposed route passes though some of the hilliest terrain in the entire country. This is slightly better than the mountainous route that was originally proposed through the heart of the National Park but such lack of basic research calls into questions the seriousness of the actual plan to build such a highway. How can a scheme of this size not be based on any field-based engineering surveys?”

Similarly, there were also queries concerning the existence or non existence of an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report or public consultation on the route.

“The Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Act of 1992 specifies that any construction project that is likely to have a significant impact on the environment or on people must have an EIA carried out and must receive an environmental permit from the Federal Ministry of Environment (FMEnv) before forest clearance works of any sort take place. Such an EIA must involve documented consultation meetings with a wide range of affected stakeholders before the final project design is concluded and approved. So, given the huge impact this project will have on one of Nigeria’s last surviving rainforests and the impact on the lives of thousands of people, how can such a scheme go ahead without an EIA which is made publicly available?

“If an EIA has been carried out who was consulted? Certainly none of the many communities or environmental NGOs have been consulted about the route. Reports from the villages say the superhighway construction has been awarded to several local contractors who are able to hire bulldozers. The local contractors have been apportioned 10 km each to bulldoze. How can clearance of the forests for the route commence be allowed without an EIA permit from the Federal Government?”

As a way out, observers are suggesting that, as an alternative, the state government should upgrade the existing Calabar-Ikom-Obudu highway.

“The existing Federal Highway from Calabar through Ikom to Obudu already serves all the purposes that the government wants the super highway to achieve. It links Calabar with Benue State and provides the route for trade. Communities and trade routes already exist around this road, whilst the super highway would necessitate new feeder roads, which would cut more into the rain forest. Furthermore, this would be much less costly and will do far less damage to the state’s forests and communities,” said the source.

IWD 2016: Hygienic toilets will keep girls in school, says WaterAid

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IWD 2016: Hygienic toilets will keep girls in school, says WaterAid

As the world celebrates the International Women’s Day on Tuesday, March 8, WaterAid is calling for water, sanitation and handwashing facilities with soap in schools, describing these as essential to gender equality.

A school toilet for girls
A school toilet for girls

According to the organisation, one in three schoolgirls around the world do not have access to safe, private toilets at school, a situation that increases the likelihood that girls will drop out at puberty and entrenching the cycle of poverty.

Women and girls, who make up more than half the world’s population, are said to be more deeply impacted than men and boys by a lack of access to safe water, basic sanitation and hygiene (WASH). They are also often more affected by poverty, inequality, lack of access to health care and by global economic crises.

Oluseyi Abdulmalik, the WaterAid Nigeria spokesperson, submitted in a statement: “Globally, some 1.2 billion women and girls still live without adequate sanitation and 330 million women and girls still live without access to clean drinking water. The overwhelming majority of these women and girls live in the developing world. One-third of schools globally and more than half of schools in the world’s Least Developed Countries do not have access to adequate sanitation, according to UNICEF monitoring.

“Dirty water, poor sanitation and poor hygiene including lack of handwashing facilities with soap is primarily a women’s issue, impacting women and girls’ health, safety and right to education more than men, and needs addressing at the highest levels.

“While we must celebrate the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women and acknowledge their many significant contributions to society, the global theme for this year’s International Women’s Day, ‘Pledge for Parity’ highlights that we must also remain keenly aware that progress has slowed or has remained minimal in many places across the world, including in Nigeria. This deceleration in progress continues to keep the gender gap wide open and urgent action is needed to accelerate gender parity.”

Dr Michael Ojo, WaterAid Nigeria Country Representative, was quoted as saying: “On International Women’s Day, when we celebrate how much women have achieved, it is also important to remember that one in three women and girls still do not have the simple dignity of a safe, private place to relieve themselves, and to care for themselves during their periods.

“As long as this is the case, these women and girls will find their health, well-being and education compromised. The world’s leaders promised to eradicate extreme poverty and leave no one behind in the new United Nations’ Global Goals on Sustainable Development. Sanitation is a critical and often overlooked component of delivering on gender equality.”

According to him, WaterAid’s research and experience has shown that when women are empowered to speak out on access to water and sanitation, communities – including homes, schools and medical facilities – are more likely to accommodate the needs of girls and women, improving everyone’s health, well-being and economic status.

Abdulmalik revealed that dirty water and lack of sanitation are responsible for the diarrhoeal deaths of more than 150,000 girls under five each year across the world.

“Women and girls who must spend hours a day seeking water cannot spend that time at school or in income-generating activities. Eliminating that burden, and giving girls the time and opportunity to focus on education, will ultimately lead to healthier, better-educated families, who have a better chance of working their way out of extreme poverty,” Abdulmalik added, saying:

“We are calling on governments to make safe, private toilets and handwashing facilities a priority in schools as well as in homes and healthcare facilities, to help prevent unnecessary deaths and keep girls in school.”

Groups urge Green Climate Fund to reject HSBC, Crédit Agricole’s applications

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Groups urge Green Climate Fund to reject HSBC, Crédit Agricole’s applications

The Green Climate Fund (GCF) must not channel its money through two international commercial banks that are allegedly funding the coal industry, civil society groups meeting at the GCF’s Board in Songdo, South Korea, have said.

Karen Orenstein of Friends of the Earth U.S
Karen Orenstein of Friends of the Earth U.S

In a statement released on Monday, the groups claimed that the GCF must reject applications for accreditation by big banks HSBC and Crédit Agricole, which are seeking to receive and manage GCF funds.

“The Green Climate Fund Board must reject HSBC and Crédit Agricole. Creating new business for big banks with large fossil fuel portfolios and poor records on human rights and financial scandal would undermine the very purpose of the Fund,” said Karen Orenstein of Friends of the Earth U.S.

“To accredit HSBC and Crédit Agricole is to short-change the vulnerable communities and the countries that the Fund is meant to directly benefit. There is no profit to be made in building the resilience of those adversely impacted by climate change. Public funds must be used to support local communities in developing countries, not to subsidise big banks,” said Sam Ogallah of the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance.

The GCF’s mandate to work directly with developing country institutions is what makes it innovative, the groups say. Targeted funding will help to build skills and expertise in poor countries, allowing governments to better meet the needs of the poorest and most vulnerable people in their countries.

Sam Ogallah of the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA)
Sam Ogallah of the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA)

“Accrediting HSBC and Crédit Agricole would be inconsistent with both the Paris Agreement, and with upholding high human rights standards. Any private sector partner of the GCF must have a credible strategy in place to make its entire portfolio and operations consistent with keeping global temperature rise to no more than 2 °C, let alone well below 1.5 °C,” said Annaka Peterson of Oxfam.

“The accreditation of these banking giants would jeopardise the reputation of the Green Climate Fund and expose it to unnecessarily high fiduciary risk. HSBC and Crédit Agricole provided US$7 billion and US$9.5 billion, respectively, to the coal industry between 2009 and 2014, and their coal financing does not show a clear downward trend. Moreover, HSBC is deeply embroiled in massive financial scandal,” said Yann Louvel of BankTrack.

A U.S. judge recently ordered the release of a report by an independent monitor overseeing the cleanup of HSBC’s massive money laundering – the report is said to be so damning that it would provide a “road map” for criminals seeking to launder money and finance terrorism.

About 172 NGOs released a statement calling for the rejection of HSBC and Crédit Agricole by the GCF. A copy of the statement can be found here. Appended to the statement are annexes on the fossil fuel financing trends of HSBC and Crédit Agricole, both of which fail to show a clear downward trend, while their renewables financing trails far behind their fossil fuel financing.

Photos: Cross River, community in face-off over Super Highway

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Photos: Cross River, community in face-off over Super Highway

For generations, the Ekuri people have relied completely on their ancestral forest for all of their needs. It provides not only fruits, vegetables and other forest products but also their medicines and shapes their unique culture, language and identity. The Ekuri Initiative, an NGO, was established to protect their forests and has successfully brought development benefits to their villages at the same time. But now this forest, and with it the entire Ekuri way of life, is threatened with destruction.

The governor of Cross River State, Ben Ayade, has announced the construction of a 260 km superhighway to go from the coastal city of Calabar to a small town called Katsina-ala in Benue State to the north.

The superhighway will rip through the heart of the Ekuri rainforest, apparently opening it up to farming, logging and hunting on a massive scale.

The government has acquired a 20 km wide swathe of ancestral land of thousands of other forest-dependent villagers along the entire 260 km length of the six-lane superhighway.

The Ekuri know that their forest, homes and way of life are at stake. They intend to protect their forest through peaceful protest and are calling for international support.

The Ekuri blocked the arriving bulldozers from entering the forest and refused to accommodate the construction workers. The workers have since begun destroying the forest in a neighboring community.

“When citizens become dispensable as the superhighway project in Cross River State is suggesting, they rise up in defence of right and life. If Ekuri community and everyone else fail to speak out, the 33,600 hectares of pristine tropical forest in this community in addition to several thousand hectares of forest and farm lands in other locations in Cross River will give way to a superhighway,” said a source.

Ekuri people kick against the projects
Ekuri people kick against the project
Bulldozers at work clearing the Super Highway's route passing through parts of Boki
Bulldozers at work clearing the Super Highway’s route passing through parts of Boki
The ineffectiveness of ban on logging in Cross River State is exposed as wanton timber extraction goes on in Boki, close to Boje, the LG headquarter
The ineffectiveness of ban on logging in Cross River State is exposed as wanton timber extraction goes on in Boki, close to Boje, the LG headquarter
Timber extraction in Boki
Timber extraction in Boki

Group decries government’s turn-around on monthly stipend

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Group decries government’s turn-around on monthly stipend

The Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) has decried the controversy surrounding the promised monthly stipend to unemployed Nigerians, urging the Federal Government to convene a high-level committee on the National Basic Income Scheme.

Muhammadu Buhari, President of Nigeria
Muhammadu Buhari, President of Nigeria

One of the cardinal campaign promises of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) during the last general elections was a monthly stipend to unemployed Nigerians when the party is elected to power at the center.

President Muhammadu Buhari, while in Saudi Arabia in an interactive session with Nigerians last week, reportedly said that the payment of the monthly handout of N5,000 as promised by the APC which is the platform on which he emerged as president, was not his priority.

In a statement issued in Enugu, ERA/FoEN described the president’s remarks as a double speak of the present administration on the issue, saying it is “unfortunate and smacks of taking Nigerians, particularly the unemployed, for granted”.

ERA/FoEN Executive Director, Godwin Ojo, was quoted in the statement as saying: “We are perplexed that this issue has lingered with back and forths from the APC and the Presidency. Nigerians refuse to accept the current administration’s attempt to renege on this promise which is one of the several on which it rode to power. This is not acceptable.

“While ERA had welcomed the APC initiative when it was made during the elections, we had also pointed out that the N5,000 pledged was meagre and should be jerked up to above N10,000 to reflect the existing reality of massive poverty and disenchantment in the land. It is therefore a let-down that the APC-led government is now doing a u-turn by failing to implement the policy.”

According to him, the government should look for a way to generate funds to fulfill the pledge, even as he recommended that the ERA/FoEN proposal for sustainability of the initiative through a National Basic Income Scheme (NaBIS) for the unemployed is hinged on taxing wealthy Nigerians to pay those that are socially excluded.

He added: “The Federal Government should set up a high level National Task Force to explore ways of its implementation. ERA/FoEN suggests that a one percent tax on earnings exceeding N500,000 can complement budgetary provisions for NaBIS.

“From that source the nation can sustain the payment of the stipend. The NABIS is a social security system that ameliorates to an extent the inequality in the land and redresses the widening gap of inequalities.

“We cannot allow our people and particularly those willing to work to continue to wallow in poverty and idleness when a few are stinking rich and display their opulence in abominable abandon. This administration should do a rethink.”

Reviewing China’s climate action ahead 13th Five-Year Plan

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Reviewing China’s climate action ahead 13th Five-Year Plan

China will this week release its 13th Five-Year Plan, a new economic, social and environmental blueprint for the country’s development through 2020.

ChinaAfter years of astronomical growth, China’s economic expansion has begun to slow. But instead of doubling down on the fossil fuel-intensive strategy that helped produce the country’s runaway growth, China’s leaders have stated that the old growth model has run its course, and that the country will build toward a more environmentally and economically sustainable model of development. Recent signs show that the country is already beginning to shift in this direction, and the new Five-Year Plan provides the opportunity to build on that progress.

 

Three Key Trends of China’s Climate Action

China has strong reasons for doing this, including a rising concern about climate change impacts, dangerous air pollution and energy security, along with the economic benefits of clean energy.

China has made significant strides in decoupling energy use and emissions from economic growth – as of 2014 China was on track to exceed its 2015 energy and carbon intensity reduction targets. Three key trends have emerged:

  • Rebalancing the Economy: China’s leaders clearly intend to shift the impetus of the economy away from investment in heavy industry and toward consumer spending, services (such as retail businesses), innovation, and more innovative and efficient manufacturing. Under China’s 12th Five-Year Plan, services moved from 43 percent of the economy in 2010 to 51 percent last year, replacing manufacturing (which went from 47 percent to 41 percent of the economy) as the largest contributor to China’s GDP. Services continue to grow at a faster pace than manufacturing.
  • Limiting Coal: After years of steep growth in coal consumption, regional coal and carbon limits and new-coal-plant bans have been followed by a leveling off of coal use in 2014 and reduced output in heavy industries like steel (down 2 percent last year) and cement (down 6 percent). A continued shift away from these energy-intensive industries would weaken a major driver of air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.
  • Non-Fossil Energy: China is the world leader in renewable energy, breaking records last year for installation of wind (32 gigawatts last year, 129 total) and solar power capacity (18 gigawatts last year, 43 total), and clean energy investment ($111 billion, nearly double U.S. investment).

Moreover, China-U.S. cooperation on climate has become an important driver of domestic, bilateral and global action. As part of last year’s breakthrough international agreement to address climate change, China committed to peak its carbon emissions around 2030 (with the intention to peak earlier), to derive around a fifth of its energy use from non-fossil sources by 2030, and to reduce the carbon intensity (carbon emitted per unit of GDP) of its economy by 60 to 65 percent from 2005 levels by the same date.  These pledges complement the progress China is already making and set the stage for new action.

 

China’s New Five-Year Plan

China’s 13th Five-Year Plan will be an important foundation for this new action. The 12th Five-Year Plan outlined high-level policies and set development and environment-related targets, such as those for reductions in energy intensity and carbon intensity and an increase in the share of energy used from non-fossil sources. The new plan will likely define similarly broad goals and a framework for boosting further progress.

Early signs indicate that strengthening the shift to a sustainable development path will be a key focus. In a communique issued last fall outlining the broad contours of the plan, China’s leaders stressed the importance of innovation and the role of consumption in growth. They also emphasized environmentally sustainable development and called for greater accountability for environmental damage.

Further signs of alignment in this direction continue to emerge. Recently, China’s National Energy Administration stated that it would constrain the construction of new coal-fired power plants, particularly in regions with excess capacity. Authorities have halted approvals for new production capacity and called for eliminating unneeded capacity in coal mining and steel production. Several ministries called on the financial sector to withhold finance from industrial producers that fail to comply with environmental targets and policies. Further, China’s State Council recently issued a new urbanisation roadmap calling for resource and energy conservation and environmental protection.

And finally, for China to achieve its climate targets set out ahead of COP21 in Paris, it will need to pursue stronger action in both the short and long term. The 13th Five-Year Plan and its implementation will provide early signs of how it’s going to do this.

 

Don’t Expect the Five-Year Plan to Have All the Details

The plan will inform decision-making at all levels—the central government, ministries and agencies, provincial and local governments, and state-owned enterprises. However, the main document is broad and high level. Finer details – in particular those concerning climate and energy – will continue to be elaborated in 2016 and afterward, as specific sector and provincial targets and plans are established and responsibilities for implementation are allocated amongst the ministries.

China has made considerable progress in recent years. Signs are good – and expectations are high – that the 13th Five-Year Plan and follow-on sectoral plans will expand the country’s environmental protection efforts and launch a new wave of climate action.

By Geoffrey Henderson and Paul Joffe

World Bank plans $20 million carbon credit auction

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World Bank plans $20 million carbon credit auction

The World Bank will hold a $20 million auction for carbon credits from projects designed to cut methane emissions, offering up to 10 times the current market value, the bank has said.

Greenhouse gas increases are leading to a faster rate of global warming. Photo credit: earthtimes.org
Greenhouse gas increases are leading to a faster rate of global warming. Photo credit: earthtimes.org

The auction, to be held on May 12 2016, comes at a time when investment in carbon-cutting projects under U.N. programmes has slowed as countries debate the design of a new global climate pact to come into force in 2020.

Methane is regarded as a highly potent greenhouse gas with a global warming potential 25 times that of carbon dioxide.

The so-called Pilot Auction Facility will offer tradable price guarantees, or a strike price, of $3.50 per ton for carbon dioxide emission reductions, compared with current traded prices around 0.35 euros ($0.38).

Participants will bid on the premium they are willing to pay for the contracts with the premium bid starting at $0.06 per tonne.

Negotiators from almost 200 countries agreed at last year’s climate talks in Paris to support the international trading of carbon credits as part of a new global deal but have yet to decide on the rules or the types of projects that could be included.

In the bank’s first auction, held in July last year, 12 winners secured $2.40 per credit for a total of 8.7 million credits.

By Susanna Twidale (Reuters)

Honduran activist, Berta Cáceres, murdered

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Honduran activist, Berta Cáceres, murdered

Berta Cáceres, 2015 Goldman Environmental Prize winner, was on Wednesday night murdered in her home. Her assassins reportedly waited until well after dark before breaking into the house where she slept.

Berta Caceres
Berta Caceres

During her lifetime, the late Ms Cáceres rallied her fellow indigenous Lenca people of Honduras and waged a grassroots campaign that successfully pressured the world’s largest dam builder to pull out of the Agua Zarca Dam.

Since the 2009 coup, Honduras has witnessed an explosive growth in environmentally destructive megaprojects that would displace indigenous communities. Almost 30 percent of the country’s land was earmarked for mining concessions, creating a demand for cheap energy to power future mining operations. To meet this need, the government approved hundreds of dam projects around the country, privatising rivers, land, and uprooting communities.

Among them was the Agua Zarca Dam, a joint project of Honduran company Desarrollos Energéticos SA (DESA) and Chinese state-owned Sinohydro, the world’s largest dam developer. Agua Zarca, slated for construction on the sacred Gualcarque River, was pushed through without consulting the indigenous Lenca people – a violation of international treaties governing indigenous peoples’ rights. The dam would cut off the supply of water, food and medicine for hundreds of Lenca people and violate their right to sustainably manage and live off their land.

It is not yet known who is behind Cáceres assassination but, as an indigenous, environmental and human rights activist, she knew well the risks she faced, according to observers. In 1993, she co-founded the National Council of Popular and Indigenous Organisations of Honduras (COPINH) to address the growing threats posed to indigenous communities by illegal logging, fight for their territorial rights and improve their livelihoods.

The work of COPINH is still sorely needed. Honduras has been called, “the deadliest place for environmental activists”, and is a country where corruption is a major problem. Twelve activists were killed last year alone for their efforts to defend land and the environment, according to a report by UK-based NGO Global Witness – more per capita than any other country (a record Honduras has held for the last five years). “This is a sad day for Honduras and the world,” said Jagoda Munic, chair of Friends of the Earth International, adding:

“Given the situation in Honduras, in which indigenous, environmental and human rights activists like Berta Cáceres are targeted by government and corporate security forces alike, international pressure is needed to bring the murderers to justice and protect those brave enough to speak out on behalf of their fellow citizens and the environment. Our condolences to her family, friends and all who worked alongside her.”

Munic adds: “At Friends of the Earth International, we have for a long time admired the work of Cáceres and COPINH, and at times worked together. In 2013, Friends of the Earth supporters joined voices around the world in support of Cáceres when she and other activists were facing prison sentences.”

On threats to her own life:

“The army has an assassination list of 18 wanted human rights fighters with my name at the top. I want to live, there are many things I still want to do in this world but I have never once considered giving-up fighting for our territory, for a life with dignity, because our fight is legitimate. I take lots of care but in the end, in this country where there is total impunity I am vulnerable… when they want to kill me, they will do it.”
— Berta Cáceres, 24 December 2013

Last year, Cáceres was interviewed about the death of a fellow activist, Tomás Garcia – who was shot at close range during a peaceful protest at the site of the same Agua Zarca hydro-electric dam. This is how she ended that interview:

“We truly believe in solidarity and in hope despite how hurtful this process is. And we can only think of how our brother, Tomas, is no longer with us, of how much he is missed, not just by his family – his sons and daughters, but by COPINH as well. And despite everything that’s happened, we still have hope in our people’s struggle.”
— Berta Cáceres, 9 December 2015

Mohammed: How Nigeria will restore Niger Delta livelihood, lifestyle

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Mohammed: How Nigeria will restore Niger Delta livelihood, lifestyle

Nigeria will begin the long-awaited clean-up of the polluted Niger Delta region by month’s end, Environment Minister, Amina Mohammed, has said.

The Niger Delta region in Nigeria is believed to be one of the most polluted spots in the entire universe
The Niger Delta region in Nigeria is believed to be one of the most polluted spots in the entire universe

She made the disclosure recently in Abuja in a presentation at the FOSTER Technical workshop on “Niger Delta way forward: From stabilisation to sustainable development.”

Stressing that the clean-up “is something that has been on the table for many years,” Ms. Mohammed noted that the authorities would from this week seek consultations in that regard.

She said: “The President made this commitment in his campaign; he reiterated it as he visited Nairobi.  The nNew NEP report is amazing. It didn’t have so much buy-in at first but I can tell you that today it is like the gospel in the Niger Delta. It is one document that everyone revolves around and it is waiting for implementation. We have to be responsive to the current situation we have.

“We are working on beginning the clean-up by the end of March, we will seek consultation from Government in those areas to Government in the Niger Delta from this week going on. It is complex. It is incredibly a protracted situation so therefore things that we think should be common sense are not, things don’t add up. Overtime, people have been neglected, resources have been misused and not appropriated properly.”

According to her, a recent visit in the company of the Minister of State to Forcados at an oil spill site “illustrated how difficult it was even to communicate with representation. How difficult it was that when you not in the eye of the TV screen a lot that could happen in terms of ambition doesn’t happen because it doesn’t matter, it is just another spill. We have huge challenges and we are not to underestimate them.”

She adds: “For me, perhaps the greatest concern in environment is that it probably is quite easy to get us around cleaning banded around cleaning up, but how do we stay clean the day after, for a year, for two years, and 20 years after? That is what is complex and we must take into account and communicate in terms of the expectations that we need to meet the people of the Niger Delta. It would of course start with Ogoniland that is put on everyone’s radar, nationally and internationally. We have to recognise that the issue of oil pollution is a Niger Delta challenge.

“We will have to look inwards. The oil companies clearly have a responsibility towards that to ensure that what they are company to clean remains clean. We are also looking at the third party challenges that we have to the oil spills, we need to see how to better own our environment, to have a stake in it. That means, government has to provide the environment for that stability, means what is the stake of young people; of those in the Niger Delta in terms of their future, livelihood matters? People see that there is a horizon there that they can move towards. It is important that what we say in terms of the diversification of the economy, it is a big thrust that this economy has, what is the role of the Niger Delta, discussions that you have that look at life beyond oil and that has to be a national discussion.

“More often we hear people speak of smart agriculture, industrialisation, what does that mean in the Niger Delta and how do we accommodate that in the sense of discussion? Encouraging ownership and accountability again is going to be critical. We have said, corruption and the rule of law is important.  How do we do this at the level of state governments and local governments and the communities themselves, what are the checks balances that we put in? How do we better utilise our people in civil societies so that we can strengthen the independent feedback that we need to make sure that we are doing the right thing? It is important that we define roles and responsibilities to ensure we don’t have distractions that are there in who is playing what parts and this applies to all major stakeholders in the environment, our ministries but also the state and local governments, business and partners.

“It maybe this time that we have to try to right the wrongs that we could begin to think constructively on how to reduce the trust deficit, that means addressing what people don’t trust about one another. How do we bridge those gaps? Maybe we are not the right people to it in government, maybe there are other parties that can do in better. What is the mix that we have for that?

“The Niger-Delta like the rest of Nigeria is full of assets and the biggest assets that we have neglected are its people and that requires a lot of attention and that is not easy. It is people that are here for the long term. There are no quick fixes to what we have messed up over the years. This is just a solid step to make that foundation to recovery real.”

“Climate change is real, we know the many issues that affect us, from the drying up of Lake Chad to the flooding we have to coastal erosion and much of what we see in the country. So taking climate actions, what are the specific actions we can begin to take? We have a lot of support to create a robust Climate Change Department in the Ministry and last but not the least, it is about a policy thrust that talks about building our green economy and creating jobs, taking climate action, protecting our environment and environmental governance.

“The Ministry has a huge remit for regulation for affecting some of the laws that we have, it is the least strengthened that and it is not seen in tangible ways. So when our two agencies NOSDRA and NESREA who have that responsibility are often accused of not being as strong as they should be, it is because we don’t make investment in what we don’t have. We will not remake things; we will build on strengthening things like our Green Wall.

“When I came into office, we had what we call an INDC and that was our intended national contributions to how we would reduce emissions for climate change. That would be revised after the Climate Change Agreement to actually effectively have a plan that involves sectors and I think that is another strength in this environment that you see Ministers all the time working together because of integration, coordination, coherence has got to be the theme of the day. Here the INDC ends up being an NDC in the next few months.”

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