On Tuesday, President Muhammadu
Buhari in Paris appealed to the international community to support Nigeria’s
commitment to reducing the negative effects of climate change.
In a submission to the One Planet
Summit in the French capital attended by over 60 Heads of State and
Governments, as well as representatives of non-governmental and private
organisations, with the theme, “Climate Change Financing,” the President said,
“we cannot implement our Nationally Determined Contribution without adequate
financial, technical and capacity building support from the developed
countries.”
While noting that “since the
adoption of the Paris Agreement, we have been strengthening our national
efforts towards the implementation of the Agreement and the Marrakech Call for
Action,” and Nigeria had already ratified the Paris Agreement in May 2017,
President Buhari, however, said the country’s “Nationally Determined
Contribution to reduce our emission by 20% by 2020 and 40% by 2030,” cannot be
attained alone.
According to him, “having just
come out of recession we are under no illusion of the challenges that we face
in Nigeria.”
President Buhari said “Nigeria
recognizes that ensuring sustainable funding is a major constraint in efforts
to implement the Nationally Determined Contribution,” adding that “to respond
effectively to climate change mitigation and adaptation challenges, critical
mass of financial resources beyond what we can provide from our national
resources will be required.”
On steps Nigeria has taken to
meet its national goal in this respect, he said the country has “embraced the
issuance of the green bond as an innovative and alternative source of projects
funding that would help reduce emissions and provide robust climate
infrastructure, such as renewable energy, low carbon transport, water
infrastructure and sustainable agriculture in line with the Paris Agreement.”
In furtherance of efforts to
deliver on the country’s pledges, the President said the government was
“tightening the existing governance structure in Nigeria for more effective
implementation of climate change activities, including the additional
responsibilities that are consequent on the adoption of the all-encompassing
climate change treaty.”
He also stated that “Government
is actively promoting technologies and practices such as sustainable land
management, climate resilient agriculture, water efficiency, clean energy, and
skills for reducing greenhouse gas emissions among others,” noting that
sustaining these efforts will also require external support.
Other measures required, he said,
included “accelerating Research and Development on facilitating Access to
Climate Friendly Technologies, through technology pooling and collective
approach to financing Research and Development, regulating restrictive
practices in licensing agreements and anti-competitive uses of Intellectual
Property and International Declaration on Climate Technologies.”
According to the President, “In
Nigeria, we are looking at insurance-based proposals to deal with loss, damage
and adaptation to the poor, vulnerable and hard-to-reach groups. Risk
mitigation through insurance must benefit those groups who currently have
negligible access to any form of indemnity coverage. Vulnerable groups will
also benefit from new technologies and ways to make insurance schemes
affordable, including through long term premium support.”
Recognising that “the adverse
impacts of climate change such as temperature rise; erratic rainfall, sand
storms, desertification, low agricultural yields, drying up of water bodies
like Lake Chad, gully erosions and constant flooding are a daily reality in
Nigeria,” President Buhari admitted that highly vulnerable communities lack the
capacity to cope.
He said Nigeria would require
external assistance in the following areas: “A long term solution for a source
of clean power, which can be achieved through private investments to create
economic competitiveness for industrialization, job creation and agricultural
programmes throughout the country; and the inclusion of Nigeria in Climate
Regional Programmes, especially strong financial support to our planned project
for the replenishment of the Lake Chad.”
The President noted that “this
long term solution will ensure sustained livelihood for rural and urban
communities, and permanently address the conditions conducive to the spread of
violent extremism and terrorism, and stem illegal migration especially of our
youths abroad.”
In acknowledging that the
external support must be sustained on a long term basis, President Buhari
emphasised that “the changes that Nigeria and other developing countries need
to make cannot be undertaken overnight.” He said some fundamental restructuring
of our economy was required, adding that “in this process, technology will be a
powerful tool to simultaneously address climate change and advance
development.”
The President said he looked up
to the developed countries to jointly take a leading role in mobilising support
for this action plan on addressing the challenges of climate change within the
framework of the General Assembly of the United Nations.
In their remarks, the three
co-chairmen of the plenary session, the United Nations Secretary-General,
Antonio Guterres, the World Bank President, Jim Yong Kim, and the French
President, Emmanuel Macron, stressed the imperative of a global comprehensive
and speedy action, including private sector financing against the devastating
impact of climate change.
President Buhari had before the
summit, attended a luncheon hosted by his French counterpart in honour of
visiting Heads of State and Governments at the Elysee Palace.
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