Mrs Amina Mohammed, the incoming UN Deputy Secretary-General, has thanked Secretary-General-designate António Guterres and President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria for the confidence they reposed in her.

She also restated are commitment to work for the rights of the poor, particularly women and the youth.

Mohammed, in a statement made available to EnviroNews on Friday, December 16 2016, said she would continue to lay strong foundations for the various ongoing initiatives critical to the Federal Government’s success in the environment sector.

She stated: “The opportunity and responsibility to serve people and planet as the next UN Deputy Secretary-General is truly humbling.

“I am most grateful for the confidence and trust demonstrated by the United Nations Secretary-General-designate António Guterres and President Muhammadu Buhari.

“As directed by Mr President, I will continue in the meantime to lay strong foundations with various important ongoing initiatives critical to the government success in the environment sector.

“These include our Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) under the Paris Climate Agreement, the successful launch of the first Sovereign Green Bonds in 2017, the ongoing Ogoni clean-up and development of the Great Green Walls.”

The Minister of Environment also thanked her colleagues and the various stakeholders in the environment sector.

“The next phase of my continued service to the people of Nigeria at the global level, will certainly build on the rich insights and lessons drawn from engaging with leaders, colleagues and stakeholders across our beloved nation.

She recalled her positions of responsibilities over the last three decades and her contributions to the Millennium Development Goals, the Sustainable Development Goals, and recently working for environment protection as part of President Buhari’s vision to transform Nigeria.

“I have been blessed with the unwavering support and inspiration from leaders, colleagues, activists and stakeholders from the polluted creeks in the Niger-Delta, to the eroded  (Kumaro and Alpha) and overflowing  (Makoko) communities in Lagos,.

“Nnaka erosion site in Anambra and others through the polluted Sharada industrial sites of Kano, the drought-affected areas (Bama) in Borno as wellas the degraded dunes in Yobe and other parts of the catchment area of the disappearing Lake Chad.

“I will continue to work for the rights of the poor, especially women and the youth, ensuring we leave no one behind,” Mohammed pledged.

The 22^nd Session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 22), the 12^th Session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP 12), and the 1^st Session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement (CMA 1) were held in Marrakech, Morocco from November 7 to 18, 2016.

The decisions adopted and initiative launched during COP22/CMP12/CMA1 reinforced the spirit of Parties, united in accelerated and irreversible global climate action.

“COP22 was a first of its kind, with 35 negotiated outcomes, a global climate action agenda, numerous initiatives launched by members of civil society and the Marrakech Action Proclamation that demonstrated political will at the highest levels to consolidate around the Paris Agreement and its implementation,” stated Ambassador Aziz Mekouar, COP22 Head of Multilateral Negotiations.

The outcomes addressed several climate change issues such as finance, adaptation, capacity building and transparency and included the following results:

• Inclusive and transparent consultations with Parties during the Pre-COP and COP22 achieved the adoption by Parties of the Marrakech Action Proclamation For Our Climate And Sustainable Development.
• The first session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement (CMA 1) was held in Marrakech following the agreement’s rapid early entry into force.
• The launch of the AAA initiative for the Adaptation of African Agriculture
• The Marrakech Partnership for Global Climate Action was announced covering the period 2017 to 2020 and the Pathway to 2050 initiative designed to bring together a broad coalition of national and subnational governmental agencies, organisations and businesses who have a critical role to play in the transition to a net zero-GHG, climate-resilient and sustainable development path.
• The NDC Partnership and Navigator were launched to assist countries with identifying capacity building and financing opportunities as they seek to implement their nationally determined contributions
• The Marrakech Global Partnership for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency was launched to consolidate energy sector outcomes from COP21 and COP22 and accelerate the transition to global clean energy systems through information sharing, scaling up of finance, transparency and identifying key policy drivers.
• The establishment of the Network of International Climate Change Centers of Excellence and Think Tanks for Capacity Building (INCCCETT 4CB) was announced to promote capacity building efforts as part of south-south and north-south cooperation.
• The Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF) committed to take actions to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and lead a transformation towards 100% renewable energy
• Pre-2020 action was strengthened by Parties insisting on the ratification and application of the Doha Amendment to the Kyoto Protocol, which Australia ratified during COP22. The Moroccan Presidency (COP22) will lead inclusive consultations in 2017 with Fiji (COP23 President) to identify modalities for the 2018 Facilitative Dialogue.
• Adoption of new axes of Nairobi work plan on impacts, vulnerability and adaptation to climate change to be undertaken by subsidiary bodies in 2017.
• Adoption of a five-year work plan for the “Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage associated with Climate Change Impacts”. Creation of a team in charge of formulating recommendations for an integrated approach to prevent and reduce human displacement was also approved by the Executive Committee.
• Climate finance roadmap of $100 billion by 2020.
• Decision by the Green Climate Fund to allocate $3 million to least advanced countries to formulate National Adaptation Plans.
• Key progress was made regarding the Adaptation Fund under the Kyoto Protocol as an implementation instrument for the Paris Agreement. Several countries announced contributions to it, bringing the available funds to more than $80 billion.
• The Paris Committee on Capacity Building mandate was validated and the committee was established to include Morocco. The work plan of the Capacity Building Mechanism for 2016-2020 was also launched.
• $50 million of financing was announced for the Capacity-building Initiative for Transparency (CBIT) to strengthen the institutional and technical capacities of developing countries to meet the enhanced transparency requirements in the Paris Agreement.
• In terms of gender and climate, the Lima 2nd biennial work program was adopted.  For indigenous peoples and local communities, work was launched to operationalise an information exchange and dialogue platform.
• The Mohammed VI International Award for the Climate and Sustainable Development ($1 million)

“The progress made on negotiations in Marrakech reflects the Moroccan Presidency’s active, transparent and inclusive engagement with Parties and the global communities irreversible commitment to accelerating forward momentum in the fight against climate change,” stated Mekouar.

President-elect Donald Trump has said that “nobody really knows” whether climate change is real and that he is “studying” whether the United States should withdraw from the global warming agreement struck in Paris a year ago.

In an interview with “Fox News Sunday” host Chris Wallace on Sunday, December 11 2016, Trump said he’s “very open-minded” on whether climate change is underway but has serious concerns about how President Obama’s efforts to cut carbon emissions have undercut America’s global competitiveness.

“I’m still open-minded. Nobody really knows,” Trump said. “Look, I’m somebody that gets it, and nobody really knows. It’s not something that’s so hard and fast. I do know this: Other countries are eating our lunch.”

There is a broad scientific consensus that human activity – including the burning of fossil fuels for transportation, heating and industrial manufacturing – is driving recent climate change. In its most recent report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluded that it is “extremely likely” that, since the 1950s, humans and their greenhouse gas emissions have been the “dominant cause” of the planet’s warming trend. The top 10 hottest years on record have all been since 1998, and 2016 is expected to be the hottest year since formal record-keeping began in 1880.

But it’s not the first time that Trump has disregarded that established scientific view.

During the presidential campaign, Trump referred to climate change as a “hoax” perpetrated by the Chinese, a comment he later described as a joke. But during a town hall in New Hampshire, he also mocked the idea of global warming. At that event, Meghan Andrade, a volunteer for the League of Conservation Voters, asked Trump what he would do to address the issue, to which he replied: “Let me ask you this – take it easy, fellas – how many people here believe in global warming? Do you believe in global warming?”

After asking three times “Who believes in global warming?” and soliciting a show of hands, Trump concluded that “nobody” believed climate change was underway except for Andrade.

During Sunday’s interview with Wallace, Trump said he needed to balance any environmental regulation against the fact that manufacturers and other businesses in China and elsewhere are able to operate without the kind of restrictions faced by their U.S. competitors.

“If you look at what – I could name country after country. You look at what’s happening in Mexico, where our people are just – plants are being built, and they don’t wait 10 years to get an approval to build a plant, okay?” he said. “They build it like the following day or the following week. We can’t let all of these permits that take forever to get stop our jobs.”

The U.S. has outpaced the rest of the developed world in terms of growth since the 2008 recession, though developing countries such as China boast higher growth rates. Typically, economists compare the U.S. against other industrialised nations since developing countries typically grow faster than their developed counterparts.

The New York businessman made the same critique of the Environmental Protection Agency, to which he has nominated Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt – a climate change skeptic – as the head. Wallace asked whether he was “going to take a wrecking ball to the Obama legacy,” to which Trump replied, “No. No. No. I don’t want to do that at all. I just want what’s right.”

“EPA, you can’t get things approved. I mean, people are waiting in line for 15 years before they get rejected, okay? ” he said. “That’s why people don’t want to invest in this country.”

It is unclear which permit application Trump was referring to, but he has repeatedly criticised EPA rules. And though he has given mixed signals on whether he would back out of the United States’ voluntary commitments under the Paris climate agreement, it would take several years for the next administration to withdraw now that the agreement has entered into force.

Last week Trump’s transition team for the Energy Department asked officials there to identify which employees have participated in international climate negotiations or worked on domestic efforts to cut greenhouse gases, such as calculating the social cost of carbon. Several scientists, federal union officials and public watchdog groups have expressed concern that these individuals could be targeted for retaliation once Trump takes office.

By Juliet Eilperin (The Washington Post)

A coalition of more than 60 donor and borrower governments agreed in Yogyakarta, Indonesia on Thursday, December 15, 2016 to ratchet up the fight against extreme poverty with a record $75 billion commitment for the International Development Association (IDA), the World Bank’s fund for the poorest countries.

“This is a pivotal step in the movement to end extreme poverty,” World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim said. “The commitments made by our partners, combined with IDA’s innovations to crowd in the private sector and raise funds from capital markets, will transform the development trajectory of the world’s poorest countries. We are grateful for our partners’ trust in IDA’s ability to deliver results.”

The funding will enable IDA to dramatically scale up development interventions to tackle conflict, fragility and violence, forced displacement, climate change, and gender inequality; and promote governance and institution building, as well as jobs and economic transformation – areas of special focus over the next three years. These efforts are underpinned by an overarching commitment to invest in growth, resilience and opportunity.

“With this innovative package, the world’s poorest countries – especially the most fragile and vulnerable – will get the support they need to grow, create opportunities for people, and make themselves more resilient to shocks and crises,” said Kyle Peters, World Bank Group Interim Managing Director and Co-Chair of the IDA18 negotiations. “IDA’s focus on issues like climate change, gender equality and preventing conflict and violence will also contribute to greater stability and progress around the world.”

Financing during the IDA18 replenishment period, which runs from July 1, 2017 to June 30, 2020, is expected to support:

• Essential health and nutrition services for up to 400 million people
• Access to improved water sources for up to 45 million people
• Financial services for 4-6 million people
• Safe childbirth for up to 11 million women through provision of skilled health personnel
• Training for 9-10 million teachers to benefit 300+ million children
• Immunisations for 130-180 million children
• Better governance in 30 countries through improved statistical capacity
• An additional 5 GW of renewable energy generation capacity

“IDA is writing a whole new chapter in the story of development,” said Dede Ekoue, IDA18 co-chair and Togo’s former Minister of Development. “Together with donors, working hand-in-hand with borrower governments, we are putting forward an innovative, ambitious and responsive package of support that gives hope to the poorest. These interventions will help transform the lives of billions of people living in IDA countries.”

To finance this groundbreaking package, IDA is proposing the most radical transformation in its 56-year history. For the first time, IDA is seeking to leverage its equity by blending donor contributions with internal resources and funds raised through debt markets. By blending concessional contributions from donors with its own resources and capital market debt, IDA will significantly increase the financial support it provides to clients.

“The innovative financing package offers exceptional value for money, with every $1 in partner contributions generating about $3 in spending authority,” said Axel van Trotsenburg, World Bank Vice President for Development Finance. “It is one of the most concrete and significant proposals to date on the Addis Ababa Action Agenda – critical to achieving the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.”

The additional financing will enable IDA to double the resources to address fragility, conflict and violence (more than $14 billion), as well as the root causes of these risks before they escalate, and additional financing for refugees and their host communities ($2 billion). Increased financing will help strengthen IDA’s support for crisis preparedness and response, pandemic preparedness, disaster risk management, small states and regional integration.

Efforts to stimulate private sector development in the most difficult environments, at the core of job creation and economic transformation, will receive a major push in the form of a new $2.5 billion Private Sector Window (PSW). The PSW, being introduced together with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), will help mobilise private capital and scale up private sector development in the poorest countries, particularly in fragile situations.

The funds will also help governments strengthen institutions, mobilise resources needed to deliver services, and promote accountability.

A total of 48 countries pledged resources to IDA; additional countries are expected to pledge in the near-term. The World Bank Group is continuing the tradition of contributing its own resources to IDA.

“One of the extraordinary things about IDA is that it brings different countries together to help the poorest. In this replenishment in particular, we’ve really seen that IDA is truly a global coalition,” said van Trotsenburg.

A total of 75 low-income countries are eligible to benefit from the IDA18 financing package.

The World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA), established in 1960, helps the world’s poorest countries by providing grants and low- to zero-interest loans for projects and programs that boost economic growth, reduce poverty, and improve poor people’s lives. IDA is a multi-issue institution, supporting a range of development activities that pave the way toward equality, economic growth, job creation, higher incomes, and better living conditions.

Incoming United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres, on Thursday announced Ms Amina Mohammed as his Deputy Secretary-General.

Guterres made the announcement through the spokesman of the Secretary-General, Mr Stephane Dujarric.

Mohammed, Nigeria’s current Minister of Environment, was former UN Under-Secretary-General to outgoing UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on the 2030 Agenda for Development.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the secretary-general-designate also announced the appointment of two other women into top UN positions.

NAN reports that Guterres had hinted on Monday after he took the oath of office that gender parity would be top on his agenda as the UN scribe.

The UN chief, who succeeds outgoing secretary-general Ban, will assume office on Jan. 1, 2017, for the next five years.

Mohammed was recently appointed by President Buhari to serve in the African Union (AU) Reform Steering Committee as Nigeria’s Representative.

Mohammed, who hails from Gombe State in North-East, had formerly served as adviser to the outgoing UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon.

Prior to this confirmation, there were unconfirmed media reports that Amina Mohammed, Nigeria’s Minister of Environment, has been appointed as Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations.

The social and traditional media outfits had reported widely that Mrs Mohammed is set to be appointed UN Deputy Secretary-General.

A tweet by Pamela Falk, CBS news reporter for the United Nations, obtained by NAN, said that the world body would soon release a statement confirming the appointment of the Nigerian Minister of Environment.

The Correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in New York, reports that Guterres also announced the duo of Ms. Maria Viotti of Brazil and Ms. Kyung-wha Kang of the Republic of Korea into high-profile positions at the UN.

“I am pleased to announce that I will be appointing Ms. Amina J. Mohammed of Nigeria as my Deputy Secretary-General, and Ms. Maria Luiza Ribeiro Viotti of Brazil as my Chef De Cabinet.

“I also intend to create the position of Special Advisor on Policy, and to appoint Ms. Kyung-wha Kang of the Republic of Korea to this new role.

“I am happy to count on the efforts of these three highly competent women, whom I have chosen for their strong backgrounds in global affairs, development, diplomacy, human rights and humanitarian action.

“These appointments are the foundations of my team, which I will continue to build, respecting my pledges on gender parity and geographical diversity,” Guterres said.

Mohammed, the current Nigeria’s Minister of Environment, served as UN Under-Secretary-General and Special Adviser to outgoing Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Post-2015 Development Planning.

She was instrumental in bringing about the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, including the Sustainable Development Goals.

Before joining the UN, Mohammed worked for three successive administrations in Nigeria, serving as Special Adviser on the Millennium Development Goals.

She provided advice on issues including poverty, public sector reform and sustainable development, and coordinating poverty reduction interventions.

She is also an Adjunct Professor in Development Practice at Columbia University, and serves on numerous international advisory boards and panels, including the UN Secretary-General’s High-level Panel on Post-2015 Development Agenda.

Others include the Independent Expert Advisory Group on the Data Revolution for Sustainable Development, and the Global Development Program of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

She is also the UN Secretary-General’s Global Sustainability Panel, the African Women’s Millennium Initiative, Girl Effect and the ActionAid International Right to Education Project.

Born in 1961, and educated in Nigeria and the UK, Mohammed is married and has six children.

Guterres had hinted on Monday after he took the oath of office that gender parity would be top of his agenda as the UN scribe.

“I think that one very important element of the agenda would be to give a clear signal that gender parity is a must and so in the appointments I will be making.

“And the first ones would be announced soon. You’ll see that gender parity will become a clear priority from top to bottom in the UN and it will have to be respected by all.”

“This is a very ambitious agenda, an agenda that must be for both woman and man, and that is why parity is so important in our reform perspectives.

“That is also why the empowerment of women is so important in everything the UN will be doing around the world,” the incoming UN scribe said.

Guterres, succeeds outgoing secretary-general Ban, who bows out on Dec. 31, 2016 after a decade of two terms, while the new secretary-general assumes office on Jan. 1, 2017, for the next five years.