Against the backdrop of the Eighteen Session of the Conference of Parties (COP18) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that commences today in Doha, Qatar, environment activists across Nigeria a couple of weeks ago embarked upon a series of activities to commemorate the 2012 Global Week of Action for Climate Justice. The climax of the activities was the official launch of Nigerian Climate and Sustainable Development Network (NCSDN) on November 17, 2012.
Doha, Qatar
The Nigerian Climate and Sustainable Development Network (NCSDN) is a national coalition of civil society organisations, private sectors, media, indigenous people and individuals in Nigeria brought together by a common agenda of promoting and advocating for climate related and equity based initiatives for sustainable development. NCSDN is an affiliate of Pan Africa Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA).
Samson Samuel Ogallah, National Network Coordinator, NCSDN/PACJA in Nigeria, listed other activities during the launch to include Pre-COP 18 CSOs workshop, media campaign and press conference.
In an address during the event, Coordinator of PACJA, Mithika Mwenda from Nairobi in Kenya, called on NCSDN to unite and speak with one voice ahead Doha for COP 18, in the light of the vulnerability of the African continent to the impacts of climate change.
He applauded the decision of NCSDN to adopt and endorse the African CSO position for COP 18 that was launched by PACJA on October 23, 2012 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Ogallah said the outcomes to be agreed at COP18 in Doha must ensure that developed countries address their historical responsibilities and pay their climate debt, while implementing the Kyoto Protocol and Climate Convention through the Bali Action Plan.
“Africa can no longer wait especially now that evidence of climate change has become a reality on the continent. Our rivers are drying up, arable farmlands shrinking by the day, flood ravaging rural and urban communities, drought and desert encroachment are now more visible, season shift and changes, disease outbreaks etc all these bedevilling our dear continent. Look into the eyes of an African child and you see hunger, even as women and children trek longer distances in search of water. It is unfair and unjust that Africans who lived for centuries in harmony with Mother Earth, contributing the least to GHG, now suffer a crisis they did not cause and bearing the burden of climate change. We do not have another planet so it is Climate Justice NOW or NEVER!” Ogallah declared.
Ahead of the climate talks set to begin in Doha next week, BASIC Ministers reaffirmed that the Kyoto Protocol remains a key component of the international climate regime and that its second commitment period (2CP) is the key deliverable.
A media briefing during the 13th BASIC Ministerial meeting in Beijing, China
Comprising Ministers and their representatives from Brazil, South Africa, India and China, the Ministers stressed that the 2CP is the essential basis for ambition within the international climate regime.
The BASIC Ministers, who met in Beijing, China, from 19-20 November, also “underscored the importance of an effective and legally binding 2CP through a ratifiable amendment (of the Kyoto Protocol’s Annex B which sets out the emission cuts for Annex 1 Parties for the 2CP) implemented from 1 January 2013.”
The first commitment period of the Protocol expires on 31 December 2012.
In a joint statement issued at the conclusion of the 13th BASIC Ministerial meeting on Climate Change, the Ministers “called upon developed country Parties to the Kyoto Protocol to raise their level of ambition in their quantified emission limitation and reduction objectives (QELROs) in Doha, consistent with what is required by science and their historical responsibility.”
They called for the continued discussion on higher QELROs by the meeting of the Kyoto Parties.
According to the joint statement, the Ministers “reiterated that developed country Parties that do not commit to QELROs in the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol should undertake quantified emission reduction commitments under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that are comparable in terms of form, magnitude and compliance.”
The Ministers “confirmed their understanding that developed countries that are not Parties to the Kyoto Protocol or do not participate in its second commitment period would not benefit from the Clean Development Mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol.”
The participants at the Beijing Ministerial meeting were Mr. Xie Zhenhua, Vice Chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission of China; Ms. Edna Molewa, Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs of South Africa; Ms. Mira Mehrishi, Additional Secretary of the Ministry of Environment and Forests of India; and Ambassador Andre Correa do Lago, Director of the Department of the Environment and Special Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Brazil.
Also present at the meeting were Ambassador Mxakato-Diseko of South Africa, as the representative of the President of the 17th meeting of the Conference of Parties (COP17), Ambassador Mourad Benmehidi, Permanent Representative of Algeria to the United Nations as Chair of the G77 and China, as well as the representatives of Fiji, a member of the Alliance of Small Island States and incoming Chair of the G77 and China, and Qatar, incoming President of COP18/CMP8.
Egypt, a member of the Arab Group, and Nepal, the incoming Chair of the LDCs (Least Developed Countries) group, were also invited.
In their joint statement, the BASIC Ministers “welcomed the outcome of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) and the adoption of the document The Future We Want.”
They stressed that “the political consensus reached by the leaders in Rio not only provided the highest political guidance to the Doha Conference and the future climate negotiations, but also reaffirmed that Parties to the UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol should protect the climate system on the basis of equity and in accordance with the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities.”
They “underscored that the implementation of the balanced Durban package is essential to the success of the Doha Conference” and “reiterated that in the overall interest of raising global ambition, the developed countries should take the lead and scale up ambition not just in mitigation but also in adaptation, finance, technology transfer and capacity building.”
The Ministers “emphasized the urgency to make progress in the work of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperation (AWG-LCA) and bring it to a meaningful conclusion pursuant to the Bali Action Plan, addressing all elements including ambitious and comparable emission reduction targets by the developed country Parties, adaptation, finance, technology development and transfer and capacity building.”
In the joint statement, they “underlined the need to further define the scope of the ‘Review’ prior to its launch, with a view to facilitating a comprehensive assessment of the implementation of the Convention.”
At COP16 in Cancun, Parties decided “to periodically review the adequacy of the long-term global goal [limiting temperature rise to below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels]… and overall progress towards achieving it, in accordance with the relevant principles and provisions of the Convention” and also requested the AWG-LCA “to further define the scope of this review and develop its modalities…”. The first review is to start in 2013 and conclude before 2015.
The BASIC Ministers “further reaffirmed the centrality of equity in the UNFCCC process and called for progress on all key issues including equitable access to sustainable development, technology related intellectual property rights (IPR) and unilateral measures and the continued discussion of such issues by the appropriate bodies of the Convention after the conclusion of the AWG-LCA.”
According to the statement, the Ministers “underlined the importance of means of implementation for developing countries and stressed that developed country Parties should honour their commitment to provide financial, technology transfer and capacity building support to developing country Parties, and to finance the effective operationalisation of the institutional mechanisms. Ministers reiterated the importance of achieving the goal of providing 100 billion dollars per year by 2020 as committed by developed country Parties and underscored the need for a roadmap to scale up financial resources in order to avoid the funding gap for the period from 2013 to 2020.”
They “stressed that public finance from developed country should be the main source of funding to support developing countries’ actions on climate change, in particular for their adaptation and capacity building. Ministers also called for concrete information on the implementation of the Fast Start Finance to ensure transparency.”
The Ministers “reiterated that the objective of the Durban Platform negotiations is to further strengthen the current multilateral rule-based climate regime, ensuring the full, effective and sustained implementation of the Convention after 2020. The Durban Platform is by no means a process to negotiate a new regime, nor to renegotiate, rewrite or reinterpret the Convention and its principles and provisions. As agreed by all Parties, both the process and the outcome of the Durban Platform are under the Convention, governed by all its principles and provisions, in particular the principles of equity and common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities.”
They “welcomed the timely launch of the work of the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform (AWG-DP) and progress made at the meetings in Bonn and Bangkok. Ministers recognised the usefulness of roundtable format of discussions in Bangkok. They expressed the desirability for further discussions in the current analytical and conceptual phase, with a view to planning its work in accordance with Decision 1/CP17 and the agenda adopted.”
The Ministers “noted with grave concern the ambition gap between what developed country Parties have pledged and what is required by science and their historical responsibility. Ministers stressed that the pre-2020 ambition should primarily be addressed in the context of discussions under the Ad Hoc Working Group under the Kyoto Protocol (AWG-KP) and AWG-LCA and any supplementary and complementary actions shall be in accordance with the principles and provisions of the Convention.”
In the joint statement, “Ministers noted with consternation that the mitigation contribution by developing country Parties is much greater than that by developed country Parties who should take the lead in combating climate change. They object to any attempt to transfer to developing countries the commitments and obligations of developed countries.”
They also “noted the intention of the EU to ‘stop the clock’ on the implementation of the international aspects of the European Union-Emissions Trading Scheme (EU-ETS) legislation by one year. They reaffirmed the importance of multilateralism in addressing climate change in accordance with the principles and provisions of the Convention and reiterated their strong opposition to any unilateral measures on international aviation and shipping as well as similar intentions regarding other sectors.”
The Ministers “stressed the utmost importance of the unity of G77 and China, and reaffirmed the commitment of BASIC countries to continue working together to strengthen it. Ministers stressed that BASIC countries share deep concerns about the urgency of tackling climate change, particularly with SIDS [Small Island Developing States], LDCs and Africa, and reiterated their continued efforts to enhance South-South cooperation.”
The Ministers also welcomed the offer by India to host the next BASIC Ministerial Meeting in the first quarter of 2013.
Close to tears, Dr. Anthony Anuforom, Director-General of the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET), last week in Lagos recalled how his warning on the impending flood disaster was handled with a pinch of salt by 15 state governors.
A flooded community
Anuforom told a bewildered audience at the Eight Annual Meeting of the African Science Academies (AMASA 8) that, drawing from a NIMET prediction in March, he personally wrote the governors on the dangers of the coming flood and what needed to be done. He said he ensured that the letters were delivered.
But, to his amazement, he added, none of the 15 governors wrote or called to acknowledge the receipt of the correspondence. He did not disclose the identity of the governors.
Numerous states in the country were hard hit by the recent flood disasters occasioned by the high intensity rains, along with the release of water from major dams within and outside the country. Consequently, NIMET came under severe criticism for the mishap. But Anuforom declared that the agency should not shoulder the blame alone.
His words: “Nobody took me seriously. I personally alerted governors of 15 states in this country, I wrote them. I did. I did not delegate it to anybody. I also made sure they got the letters. I informed them on what they needed to know and what they needed to do about the impending flood disaster. I did not get one acknowledgement. The rest is history. We did shout; maybe not enough.”
Anuforom
Anuforom called for a national for climate service which, he said, would establish a situational relationship, and link climate data-providing agencies like his with users of such data.
He said: “Part of the problems is that there was an obvious gap. There is no formal policy connecting service providers (like NIMET) with the users of the information. The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) in 2009 adopted the Global Framework for Climate Service (GFCS), which aims at bringing science evidence-based climate service that aims at connecting the service providers with those who use the service. If we had a proper framework, we would be on our way to ensuring proper mitigation of climate effects.
“Extreme weather events are increasing in frequency and intensity. We have evidence of increasing frequency of thunderstorms. We need to think of a national framework for climate service.”
Health Minister, Onyebuchi Chukwu, stated that following recent adoption of the National Climate Change Policy by the Federal Executive Council (FEC), government was considering the idea of mainstreaming climate change into its national health plans.
“The Federal Government will embark on public sector programme on climate change mitigation. We plan to mainstream climate change into health sector development plan. The ministry and stakeholders are working on a national sensitisation on climate change,” he said.
The AMASA 8 was officially opened by President Goodluck Jonathan, who was represented by Science and Technology Minister, Prof. Ita Bassey Ewa, who stated that the Federal Government would adopt some of the recommendations of the policy framework adpted by the academies in its climate change planning.
The Nigerian Academy of Science (NAS) hosted the AMASA 8, which had “Climate change in Africa: Using science to reduce climate risks” as its theme.
AMASA metamorphosed from the African Science Academy Development Initiative (ASADI) in 2004. It aims at building the capacities of African Academies of Science to support their governments by providing evidence-based advice to inform policy.
In a few months’ time in January 2013, no fewer than five million gas cylinders will be distributed to urban and rural dwellers across the nation, under the “Switch to LPG Project”, which was officially unveiled in Abuja last week.
Initially focusing on Nigeria but programmed to spread to other African countries, the phased initiative is essentially utilising the LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) as a climate change control tool, under the premise that with the process curbs the emission of greenhouse gas (GHG) while providing employment opportunities.
The endeavour is being promoted by the Access To Clean Cooking Energy Solutions and Services (ACCESS) Nigeria, an action-based initiative seeking to create sustainable and lasting solutions to Nigeria’s environmental, agricultural and employment issues via strategic partnerships, distributorships, training and agricultural schemes.
At the ACCESS Africa Initiative summit last Tuesday, an official of the group, John Odey, said that, of the several clean fuels, “LPG has been found from complete life-cycle environmental assessments to be a preferable option.”
Odey, former Environment Minister, said: “The use of LPG can thus improve on the health condition of our people. The use of LPG would curb deforestation currently taking a toll on Nigeria’s vegetation. It will also ensure that the huge sums of money spent annually by the various tiers of government on forestation projects are used for developmental purposes.”
He also said that the damage to the environment is enormous, and the recent flooding is one of the most recent examples. He said the negative impacts are unimaginable. All these explain the importance of the ACCESS PROJECT to Nigeria. The solution to the environmental and health challenges posed by use of firewood and other hazardous sources of energy lies in clean, cost effective LPG.
Former First Lady, Justice Fati Lami Abubakar noted the environmental, economic and health hazard of firewood and kerosene. She quoted statistics on the health implications of firewood on women and children and called on participants to discuss in the spirit of partnership and cooperation to ensure that the Switch to LPG Programme works.
A member of the Senate Committee on Environment, Senator Gbenga Ashafa, said the issues plaguing Nigeria include indoor air pollution (IAP), poverty, flooding (about 300,000 Nigerians are displaced by flood annually), deforestation (mainly due to cutting of trees for firewood), greenhouse gas emission, and gas flaring.
He said: “The economic loss is enormous, gas glaring alone would cost Nigeria N2.5 billion annually. The benefits of LPG include elimination of deaths due to IAP since LPG does not produce carbon monoxide. LPG ensures that less time is spent searching for fuel, and frees up time or children to go to school and for women to engage in important economic and productive activities. It reduces gas emissions; it reduces black carbon and saves up to 105 kg of wood per family annually. This LPG programme will create employment opportunities through the supply chain.
“To achieve the switch to LPG programme, there must be a binding law. On behalf of the Senate President and the Chairman Senate Committee on Gas (Senator Nkechi Nwogwo), Senate Committee Chairman on Environment (Bukola Saraki) and other Senators, I promise that the Senate will look into the matter when they consider the PIB. The future of Nigeria is in gas.”
Ashafa called for the training and retraining of experts on gas, adding that the training should focus on this between the age of 25 and 45.
Comrade Abdulwaheed Umar of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) said the labour movement wholeheartedly welcomes the idea and would work with ACCESS to ensure the programme’s success. He called on the ACCESS team not to make the project like other projects in Nigeria that die soon after takeoff. He called on them to make sure that the project continues and succeeds.
He said desert encroachment is a reality and must be tackled. He added that the NLC would not hesitate to encourage any policy or law that encourages the switch to LPG project. He said it is high time the NLC drew the attention of government to this effort to combat environmental degradation, and lamented the absence of government from such an important occasion.
“Government has a lot to do particularly in these kinds of efforts that address the challenge on the environment. One effort the government could make is even to pay for the first cylinder that goes to Nigerian families. Change requires perseverance and patience. Government and the project team should pursue this project vigorously and patiently.”
He said the innovation to create a design of the cylinder with a support that enable women to place large pots is laudable since most African women cook for large families.
Umar noted that the issues of affordability and sustainability are important. He wants the project team to ensure that supplies are regular and reach the nooks and crannies of Nigeria. Otherwise, the project will be badly affected, he warned, saying that, to avoid this, arrangements must be put in place to ensure regular and steady supply.
He further stressed the need to collaborate with government, reiterating labour’s commitment to the project to save Nigeria. He said the NLC would partner with the project to ensure that government buys into the project. He called on the National Assembly to come up with legislations to support the actualisation of the project.
He said the government should consider the idea of buying the cylinders and distribute them free of charge to Nigerians at the take-off of the project.
Chief Executive Officer, Marketing, Oando Plc, Abayomi Awobokun, lamented the environmental challenges posed by gas emissions and other pollution as well as deforestation due to cutting of forests.
“Nigeria spends about N4 billion annually to subsidise kerosene. The country is the world’s 6th largest producer of LPG but one of the lowest utilisers of the product. The use of LPG will improve on the environmental, social and economic conditions of Nigerians. It will save government money and reduce carbon emissions. With huge deposits of LPG, Nigeria has a chance to overcome problems associated with the use of firewood and other dirty fuels,” he pointed out.
According to him, Oando offers a 3kg cooking stove and intends to introduce 5 million units in the next five years. He added that Oando’s marketing would provide financing through its partners to ensure distribution. The project would create jobs and open retail outlets to enable access to the product, he added.
His words: “We are here because we believe every Nigerian is entitled to clean gas for his cooking needs. Oando in partnership with ACCESS is working towards the switch of about 20 million Nigerian households from firewood to LPG.
“Nigeria has 150 million people, it is the 6th largest global LPG producer, the 2nd largest regional LPG producer, but has a lower rate of LPG utilisation than Ghana. 75 percent of households use dirty fuel.
“The potential LPG Consumption by 25 million Nigerian households is 1,500,000 metric tonnes, which will lead to $2-4 billion savings on kerosene subsidy, up to $5 billion savings on afforestation initiatives. It will create of up to 100,000 primary jobs (through distribution), skills and manpower development for up to 1 million youths, and will boost Nigeria’s steel infrastructure sector by 500 percent.”
He, however, insisted that legislation is necessary to ban the use of dirty fuels; mainly because of the environmental hazards, and the health implications.
“In progress, the project has up to 1 million stoves available, in country. The target is 5 million in five years. We require the support of every stakeholder to creation of an enabling law, empower indigenes to boost LPG switch, embark on a nationwide awareness campaign, and adoption LPG as preferred fuel.”
Jerome Okolo of Afridec underlined the need to outlaw gas flaring, saying that, at the moment, Nigeria flares in every three months the UK’s annual gas needs. He made a case for the switch to LPG.
Ibironke Oluwabamise of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) described the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) as a global effort to support efforts on the environment, saying that it has three ways to support efforts on environment – regional, governmental and community.
“The GEF small grants programme targets local initiatives to help the environment. We have supported projects in many states in Nigeria. This is one of the projects we are supporting. We support pilot projects, projects which show that ‘it is possible’.”
According to her, many Nigerian women fear gas, and believe that it is not affordable. She said a pilot project they supported in Lagos was able to erase these fears. She commended the initiative, saying that it should be made a national effort.
President, National Association of Micro-Finance Banks (NAMB), Chief Jethro Akun, said his member organisations are interested in any effort that brings succour to the people. He said NAMB would support the project.
He said the LPG project is another opportunity for MFBs in Nigeria to engage in a social project that will address environmental and social problems.
He called for the subsidisation on the product particularly in the rural areas, calling on the project team to ensure that the initiative reaches the over 700 LGs in Nigeria. He said a lending system is necessary to enable the stoves reach every family.
“The MFBs have seen the need to partner on this project. They will work out a timeline for the implementation of the project that will carry us beyond today’s meeting and paper presentations.”
National Coordinator, Renewable Energy Programme, in the Federal Ministry Of Environment, Mrs. Bahijjahtu Abubakar, said Nigeria has the potential to be the biggest clean energy society in the world, and that there are opportunities for investments in the clean energy field in Nigeria.
“The ministry encourages companies to establish factories in Nigeria. Thus, we are happy that OANDO is moving in that direction. Nigeria contributes the highest percentage of death from cooking smoke which is quite unfortunate. The LPG is the preferred fuel which can combat the problem,” she stated.
“The absence of proper networking, advocacy, general consciousness, regulatory framework and sustained monitoring and evaluation has contributed to the proper green growth problems in the country.”
Ubani
Those were the words of Eziuche Ubani, Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Climate Change in an address he delivered at a recent forum in Abuja that seeks to pursue a legislative agenda to promote the nation’s green economy growth.
Taking an overview of green economy initiatives for Nigeria, he listed other drawbacks to the nations green economy dream to include: neglect for sustainable environmental practices, climate change effects, lack of coordinated intervention practices, oil spillages/bunkering activities, equipment failures, oil and gas production activities, gas flaring and deforestation.
While describing green economy as a shift to low carbon energy production techniques, efficient life cycle use of materials and more inclusive sharing of economic wealth, Ubani emphasised that the transformation agenda must be taken seriously, and that there should be a defined relationship with green economy policies.
“To attain a higher green growth as envisaged by the Federal Government’s Vision 20:2020, there must be a organised government arrangement, legislation policy, and legal framework that contemplates the objectives of the new concept to enable its attainment,” he noted, underlining the need for development to constitute little or no negative externalities to people and environment.
“Some firms in Nigeria today are dealers on efficient lifecycle use of materials which principally involves material recycling, waste-to-energy techniques such as incineration purification. A more inclusive sharing of economic wealth not only implies that resources (such as crude oil) benefit majority of stakeholders but more importantly such resources do not constitute an increase to carbon content as experienced in the Niger Delta region.”
He traced the genesis of the quest for a green economy in Nigeria to the launch of the National Policy on Environment in early 1990s, saying that the policy had it flaws such as a failure to specify strategies to be adopted in its implementation, advocacy and mitigation.
“I want to note here that the House of Representatives saw the future when the leadership of the Sixth House which the Rt. Hon. Speaker was part of created a Committee on Climate Change. The Committee, in collaboration with the Africa Adaptation Programme (AAP), a programme under the supervision of the Climate Change Department of the Federal Ministry of Environment (SCCD) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), has designed this project to increase the understanding of Members of the National Assembly of their expected role in Nigeria’s quest to transit to a green economy.”
Ahead of the Eighteenth Session of the Conference of Parties (COP 18) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) scheduled to hold in a few weeks in Doha, Qatar, Nigerian negotiators and media practitioners have stepped up modalities towards ensuring a successful country participation at the annual global event.
For two days (Tuesday and Wednesday) last week in Abuja, the climate change negotiators and media experts interacted at a forum designed to hone their skills in their respective spheres of endeavour.
Acting Director of the Climate Change Department (CCD) in the Federal Ministry of Environment (FME), Samuel Adejuwon, submitted that, besides providing an overview of the UNFCCC negotiations and their outcomes to date, focusing on key issues on the negotiation table in Doha, the brainstorming session was likewise designed to accord media personnel with hands-on-training on proceedings, daily interpretations and reporting of emerging climate change issues.
According to him, some of the capacities developed would be applied locally and as appropriate to ensure that “we move our nation forward in the concerted effort to effectively tackle the climate change challenge for the good of inhabitants of this great nation and humanity at large.”
While disclosing that negotiators and the media were combined to provide room for crossbreeding of ideas and strategies, Permanent Secretary in the FME, Taiye Haruna, expressed reservations over the devastating effect of climate change in recent times.
He said: “The recent flood disaster in some parts of the country is a case in point. Apart from the painful loss of lives and properties, the gains already made towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) have been seriously threatened. Socio-economic infrastructure and farmlands were destroyed, resulting in the displacement of large populations, causing a lot of human insecurity.
“If we are to make an impact in the discourse of the phenomenon, we must not forget that this scourge represents a multigenerational and irreversible threat to human societies and the planet. Africa as a whole must be at alert as our region and people are particularly susceptible to the growing risk of run-away climate change, with its attendant catastrophic impacts on the natural ecosystems and humankind.”
In a presentation on “Technology Development and Transfer Negotiations under the UNFCCC,” Peter Ekweozoh, Head of Climate Change Desk in the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology, wants Nigeria to domesticate all Conventions and Protocols that can build the capacity of Nigerians to acquire green and environmentally sound technologies.
“Nigeria should optimise the immense opportunities in the various bilateral and multilateral agreement already entered into in the area of Technology Development and Transfer,” he added.
In the light of the nation’s vulnerability to the impact of climate change, N. H. Alhassan of the CCD urged the authorities to engage more in the science of climate change, undertake an inventory of greenhouse gases (GHGs) to identify sources and sinks, embark on mitigations options, assess vulnerability and impacts of climate change, assess and develop adaptation strategies, engage in education and public awareness, as well as actively participate in other cross-cutting issues.
Reflecting on the issues to be addressed in Doha, Alhassan stated that the Ad-Hoc Working Group requested to complete its work, even as the debate over the completion of some issues such as mitigation commitments of developed countries, finance and adaptation would take place.
“Parties are expected to negotiate a Protocol, another legal instrument or agreed outcome with Legal Force, and complete negotiations and adopt outcome at COP21 in 2015 and to enter into force as from 2020.”
A negotiator, Prince Lekan Fadina, stressed that, within the context of African Group and F77+China’s position, Nigeria should, as part of its key strategies, increase local capacities, embark on policy development and outreach, generate investment, design new financial mechanism, increasing enterprise access to credit, exploring the role of science and technology, consolidate value chains, and building capacities through environmental education and education for sustainable development.
“We must therefore use our strength to get what we want and ensuring that we tap all the opportunities even if we have to provide our services to other smaller countries,” he declared, pointing out that It is necessary that some of the nation’s key negotiations be available few days prior to COP18.
Adejuwon urged the negotiators to adopt respect and diplomacy; remain calm and keep their emotions in check; be prepared to work long hours with little time for relaxation; use informal meetings to build good will with other delegates; manage time efficiently; maintain credibility by respecting previously-granted concessions; and be attentive and active listener.
He listed the attributes of a good negotiator to include: strong language skill, strong analytic skill, readiness to read, detail understanding of own country’s interest and position, and knowledge of the interests and position of other states and coalitions.
“Climate of Change,” a play that depicts the impact of climate on rural folks, has won the third prize in the Drama Category at the recently-held Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) Convention in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.
According to Elaigwu Ameh, the writer of the play that has been published as a book, Climate of Change also got high commendation from ANA for its presentation “of the complex and often scientifically abstract climate change issue in a simple, educative and entertaining way.”
Ameh added: “As a result of the prize, some ANA chieftains have called for more readings and performances of Climate of Change across the nation in order to spread the climate change message to more people.
“I want to express my sincere gratitude to the Federal Ministry of Environment (FME), Africa Adaptation Programme (AAP), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and JICA for using Climate of Change to elucidate and accentuate the plight of a plurality of poor rural dwellers in Nigeria, who livelihoods are maligned by the variability and unpredictability of climate.
“This award and widespread publicity for a cause that is dear to you and me would not have been possible without your generous and proactive support.”
The play is a snapshot of rural dwellers’ struggle for survival and integral development in a climate-constrained world. It takes the reader or audience on a journey into the lives of rural dwellers, while portraying their apprehension, courage, despair, hope, flaws and strengths.
By emphasising the linkage between climate change on one hand, and then gender, health, politics, conflicts and food insecurity on the other, the play seeks to draw attention to the fact that climate change is indeed one of the defining challenges of our time and must not be treated with levity, according to Ameh.
On why the UNDP/AAP is supporting the initiative, Muyiwa Odele of the Sustainable Development Unit of UNDP Nigeria submitted: “UNDP recognises that Art has a crucial role to play in changing society. Since behavioural and attitudinal changes are some of the keys to tackling climate change, this stage play is just natural. The play will not only engage everyone in a deep way but also in a personal way.”
The perception of the transition to a green economy requires a refocus, according to Environment Minister, Hadiza Mailafia.
Hadiza Mailafia
She said last Wednesday at the National Assembly in Abuja at a forum that legislative alliance is required in the shift to green growth which, according to her, is more than environmental issue but an economic revolution that presents tremendous opportunity for business.
Mailafia, represented by Samuel Adejuwon, Director of the Climate Change Department in the Federal Ministry of Environment (FME), emphasised that low carbon economy would increase competition, catalyse efficiency and innovation, create new jobs and open new exciting markets.
A green approach to business likewise directly reduces operational costs through motivating increased efficiency and innovation, added the minister, in an address at the opening of the event with the theme: “Pursuing a legislative agenda to enhance Nigeria’s green growth: Developing an efficient oversight framework for resource governance.”
The daylong Dialogue was hosted by the House of Representatives’ Committee on Climate Change, the FME, Africa Adaptation Programme (AAP) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
Mailafia said: “To achieve an effective policy blueprint, we need the lawmakers’ collaboration, commitment, support and, most essentially, strong legislative backing to establish a framework to guide the actualisation of this pathway.
“Furthermore, effective green growth will not be achieved without the push from the private sector. Direct leadership by business will help guide policy development and demonstrate a resolute commitment to drive forward the transition to a profitable green economy.”
She noted that the green economy approach requires a new level of mainstreaming that goes beyond business-as-usual.
“The linkage of ‘green’ and ‘economy’ with human well-being and social equity as core goals requires renewed commitment to measure and value human and natural assets more appropriately, and to put them at the centre of economic development. It also requires more inclusive and proper incentives provided through economic instruments, regulations, sound framework conditions for innovation and technology diffusion, distributional policies and voluntary initiatives that can help channel investments – public and private – towards targeted sectors and enhance the effectiveness and fairness of such investments.
“Indeed, there is a clear requirement for a stronger web of collaboration, partnerships and regulation that spans between levels of government and the private sector. Based on this premise, the Ministry of Environment welcomes this laudable initiative of pursuing a legislative agenda to enhance Nigeria’s green growth and the development of an efficient oversight framework for resources governance,” Mailafia stressed.
Greening the economy implies reducing emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs) in developmental pursuits to ensure economic growth and poverty eradication.
Todd Stern and Jonathan Pershing are President Obama’s diplomatic climate change negotiators, charged with representing America’s interests in the tumultuous U.N. global warming negotiations.
Pershing
They are described by environmentalists, fellow negotiators and former colleagues as smart, pragmatic and occasionally didactic. Nearly all used similar language to describe the tough political and diplomatic obstacle course Stern and Pershing have had to navigate over the past four years.
They were: “constrained” by Congress. “Hands tied” by the domestic policy and “walking a tightrope” between moving the U.N. negotiations ostensibly toward a global treaty while avoiding promises to cut emissions or deliver money that the government cannot keep.
Stern
With President Obama winning a second term last Tuesday, activists are hoping for a more productive environment. Now is the time, they insist, for the White House to embrace climate change as a priority, lay the foundation for domestic legislation and prepare the United States to join a treaty that will keep the global average temperature rise below 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels.
“There seems to be a little bit of an opening here,” said Alden Meyer, director of strategy and policy for the Union of Concerned Scientists. He pointed to Superstorm Sandy, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s eleventh-hour presidential endorsement of Obama based on climate change, and Obama’s own victory speech, in which he envisioned an America “that isn’t threatened by the destructive power of a warming planet.”
But Meyer and others said significant action will require Obama to do what he didn’t in his first term: expend political capital.
“I think the question for the White House is, does the president want to make this a legacy issue?” Meyer said. If so, he said, that requires a “major effort” from the administration, starting at the very top.
Starting out with applause
Cheers greeted Stern at his first U.N. climate meeting in 2009 after Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton tapped him to lead the negotiations. “We’re back,” was Stern’s message in those first heady days, along with a promise to “make up for lost time” — specifically, time lost under the George W. Bush administration.
So happy was the United Nations to end the Bush era, in which the Kyoto Protocol was declared “dead” and the very words “climate change” verboten, that, as one developing country diplomat recalled, negotiators applauded Pershing — a scientist who headed the delegation of the World Resources Institute before joining the U.S. team as Stern’s deputy — as he walked into a meeting hall.
“I remember Jonathan being applauded as he came in. It wasn’t even a COP [Conference of the Parties to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change],” the diplomat said. “Then things started to get difficult. Not in the first moment. In the first moment, it was positive.”
Things soured quickly, from the perspective of European countries and developing nations. The United States put forward an emissions pledge most considered too weak. Meanwhile, the realization that carbon cap-and-trade legislation was simply not going to pass the U.S. Senate slowly snowballed through the international consciousness.
Still, the United States promised to cut carbon 17 percent below 2005 levels this decade. All the while, Stern and Pershing insisted China and other emerging countries be held to the same legal terms as industrialized ones — a massive change from the status quo under Kyoto in which only wealthy countries were expected to act on climate change. They also pushed for what would become equally controversial: voluntary targets rather than legally binding ones.
The frenzy of 2009 culminated at the climate summit in Copenhagen, Denmark, where, instead of developing a new global treaty as many hoped, Obama, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and a handful of other world leaders worked through the night to cut a deal.
Through the eyes of many American analysts, the Copenhagen Accord that emerged that night — recording emissions pledges of every major emitter — was a success for which the U.S. negotiating team and Obama himself deserve credit.
“I don’t think China would have inscribed anything on mitigation if not for the personal intervention of the president,” said Joe Aldy, an assistant professor of public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School and a longtime White House aide who served as special assistant to the president for energy during Copenhagen.
Others agreed that the United States deserves credit for heralding a new era in getting other major emitters to pledge carbon cuts, though some also noted that countries were headed in that direction. One European diplomat conceded, “I don’t think the E.U. alone would have been able to pull that off.” And a former major emerging nation negotiator whose country made a Copenhagen pledge said, “It certainly helped to have U.S. pressure.”
Said Andrew Light, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, “They basically got the world to create what I think is a very good Plan B in the short term when it was clear that we weren’t going to get a new Kyoto-style agreement out of Copenhagen.”
‘They acted just like Bush’
For many developing nations, though, Obama’s failure in Copenhagen to deliver a treaty with a top-down target aimed at averting catastrophic warming to which all nations would be legally bound remains a bitter pill. Ensuing years, in which the United States made heavy demands on developing countries but made no move to show how it planned to meet its own target, rankled even more.
“I started out extremely hopeful that Obama would make a big change, and until the last minute in Copenhagen, I was expecting him to come up with something brilliant. But I was very, very disappointed. And since then, I’ve seen the Obama administration retrench,” said Saleem Huq, a senior fellow at the U.K.-based International Institute for Environment and Development.
“In some ways it’s almost as bad, if not worse, than the Bush administration, in the sense that the Obama people get it,” Huq said, noting several scientists in the administration. “We all think of Obama and the Democrats as the good guys, but in the negotiations, they acted just like Bush. The only difference was that it was harder to criticize them than it was to criticize Bush.”
The “no different from Bush” assessment doesn’t just come from across the ocean. One former U.S. climate negotiator made similar, albeit kinder comparisons, insisting that unlike Bush, the Obama team sincerely cares about climate change and has been far more inclusive internationally. Still, the diplomat said, “The irony is that it doesn’t actually translate into significant differences in policy.”
Others bristle at the comparison. They point to the 54.5 mpg fuel efficiency standards, billions of dollars in stimulus spending toward renewable energy and pending EPA rules addressing climate change and industrial pollution. At the multilateral level, American activists defend the administration as successfully finding an imperfect but robust way to curb carbon under the weight of knowing Congress had rejected before and would reject again any treaty that did not put China on an equal footing to the United States.
“If you compare this to the Bush administration and even to the Clinton administration, what they’ve done is way more proactive in the international negotiating scene,” said Jake Schmidt, international policy director for the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Neither James Connaughton, Bush’s Council on Environmental Quality adviser, nor his U.N. climate envoy, Harlan Watson, could be reached for comment. But other Republicans said the comparison between the Bush and Obama team goals before the United Nations were not far off.
“They acted fairly conservatively once they realized they weren’t going to get any carbon legislation out of Congress. I don’t think they played it very differently than, say, Harlan Watson did,” said George “Dave” Banks, who served a senior adviser on international environmental affairs under Bush. He added, “It doesn’t matter who is in the White House. It always comes down to national circumstances.”
Creating opportunities at Doha?
As Stern and Pershing prepare to attend their fourth and perhaps last U.N. Conference of the Parties later this month in Doha, Qatar, they have developed both personal friendships and a few animosities.
Stern, observers say, is low-key but can be undiplomatic and blunt. Yet he has built up a warm relationship with Chinese delegation leader Xie Zhenhua — even taking him to a Cubs game while meeting in Chicago in September, according to Aldy. Pershing, meanwhile, is widely described as brilliant — yet several diplomats said he has rubbed many counterparts the wrong way, coming across as a lecturer more concerned with winning an argument than finding common ground.
Environmentalists once enamored with the team are now openly bitter. But many say they hope Obama’s second term will breathe new life into the talks.
The looming question, though, is the end goal. Does the Obama team want a legally binding treaty?
Analysts and leaders close to the administration say the long sought-after goal of a global treaty to replace Kyoto might be dead. Or at least irrelevant.
“We’re too hung up on the negotiations in a traditional way. We’re too hung up on the traditional framework of the negotiations,” said Tim Wirth, president of the U.N. Foundation and a former State Department undersecretary for global affairs.
“I think the administration has been helpful in moving away from the idea of a single framework toward what is now popularly called the building block approach,” Wirth said, citing energy efficiency, building standards, renewable energy and clean cookstoves. “If I were Todd Stern and the administration, I would try to get the world to develop as many common standards as they could.”
Light, at the Center for American Progress, said from his point of view, it’s going to be the administration’s job to prove that the “bottom up” approach can actually achieve the needed global emission reductions. He thinks it is doable. “They’ve got a theory that I think has proven more useful than what many critics say, in terms of getting countries to articulate their ambition and the conditions upon which they would increase their ambition,” Light said.
Environmental activists who have fought for more than 20 years for a global treaty say they’re not willing to give up the quest. Meyer, for one, said the goal of keeping global temperature rise below 2 degrees Celsius cannot be achieved by voluntary measures. Regardless, though, he insisted that if the Obama administration intends to abandon the goal of a legally binding treaty, its negotiators need to say so publicly and clearly.
By Lisa Friedman, Deputy Editor, ClimateWire
Reproduced with permission, copyright 2012, E&E Publishing LLC. www.ClimateWire.com
Jude Okonkwo is a Lagos-based banker who resides in Surulere on the Mainland. Besides the traffic congestion, he considers power supply as a major worry since moving to Lagos nearly two decades ago. Though he has developed some sort of a thick skin to the erratic delivery, what he has been battling with entails achieving energy efficiency in his home.
Five years ago, he was privileged to learn about the topic through a colleague. Impressed, Okonkwo set out to be domestically energy efficient, albeit at a cost. Immediately, he changed all the incandescent light bulbs in his three-bedroom bungalow apartment to the compact fluorescent ones; potentially saving, according to scientists, 82 percent of energy.
But, alas, instead of his light bills reducing, they shot up. Puzzled, he made inquiries and discovered that the power authority officials were generating estimated bills and not doing a proper assessment of his energy consumption. The scenario persisted despite several complains.
Then, as a way out, he applied for and obtained the pay-as-you-use (or prepaid) meter.
But catastrophe struck a few months later when, all of a sudden, a power surge from the neighbourhood’s transformer occurred and damaged the meter. The development has left him at a crossroads over the much-vaunted campaign on energy efficiency, which entails improvement in practices and products that reduce the energy necessary to provide services.
The concept is gaining prominence nonetheless, thanks to a $3 million initiative launched in May 2011. Titled: “Promoting Energy Efficiency in Residential and Public Sector in Nigeria,” the programme is being promoted by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Global Environmental Facility (GEF).
Apparently in line with one of the scheme’s four components that seek to enhance stakeholder capacity to understand the concept, nature and potential of energy efficiency, a national summit (the second in the series) held last week in Abuja, the Federal Capital City.
Stakeholders observed with concern at the close of the two-day event that, besides the fact that energy supply in the country is inadequate and thus far from efficient, many Nigerians do not have access to prepaid meter.
They flayed the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), saying its services are at variance with the use of energy saving bulbs, which get damaged from the power firm’s incessant voltage fluctuations. They likewise frowned at the fact that the cost of energy saving lamps is relatively high compared with that of incandescent lamps.
“Climate change is one of the greatest threats facing the world today, Nigeria inclusive, and this is mainly caused by greenhouses gases (GHGs) as a result of energy generation. If we save energy and reduce wastage by using efficient appliances, we will increase access to electricity in Nigeria,” they submitted in a communiqué.
Participants then called for intensive awareness creation and sensitisation on energy efficiency best practices; declared that regulatory agencies have a critical role to play in ensuring that only energy efficient appliances are in the market for patronage; urged government to make policies in the area of standards and label and develop frameworks for enforcement; suggested that government should adequately address cost and quality of energy efficient appliances; and, encouraged Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) as well as organisations to carry out energy audit and to adopt energy efficiency and best practices.
Besides clamouring that energy efficiency best practices should be mainstreamed into the housing policy, they charged government to put in place a policy to gradually phase out incandescent bulbs, while providing incentives for large scale energy consumers to retrofit their obsolete appliances with energy efficiency ones.
“Nigerians need to change their lifestyle by changing the way we consume energy. It should be made mandatory for utility companies to provide prepaid meters to all consumers. Certain percentage of interest from electricity sales should be set aside by government to promote energy efficiency,” declared the participants.
The forum had “Promoting energy efficiency for national development and environmental sustainability” as its theme.
