President Muhammadu Buhari has said that his
signing of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change
has demonstrated Nigeria’s commitment to a
global effort to reverse the effects of the negative
trend.
The President said this while addressing the
opening of the meeting on Taking Climate Action
for Sustainable Development in New York, co-
hosted by Nigeria and the United Nations
Environment Programme (UNEP) as one of the Side
Events of the 71st Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA71). President Buhari,
had shortly before this event, signed the Paris
Agreement, where he committed Nigeria to
reducing “Green House Gas Emissions
unconditionally by 20 per cent and conditionally
by 45 per cent” in line with Nigeria’s Nationally Determined Contributions.” Describing the signing
as historic, he had also expressed confidence that
with support from development partners, Nigeria
will meet the above targets. The President also
promised to ensure the ratification of the Paris
Agreement before the 22nd Conference of Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate
Change in Marrakesh, Morocco in November 2016.
He stressed that it was to demonstrate his personal
dedication to the process of implementing the
Agreement that he was hosting the side event on
Taking Climate Action Towards Sustainable Development. President Buhari, who said he was
privileged to have been part of the Paris
Agreement, expressed appreciation to what he
called “the genuine efforts by President Francois
Hollande of France in drawing global attention to
reviving the Lake Chad Basin,” and for galvanizing the political will that led to the global consensus in
reaching the Paris Agreement. The Nigerian
President said his country’s commitment to the
Paris Agreement is articulated through its
Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) “that
strive to build a climate resilient society across the diverse terrain of Nigeria. We have instituted an
Inter-Ministerial Committee on Climate Change to
govern implementation of my country’s NDCs,
thereby ensuring a strong cross-sectoral
approach, coherence and synergy for Climate
Action.” President Buhari, while admitting that implementing the Roadmap will not be easy in the
face of dwindling national revenues, however,
indicated that both internal and external
resources would be mobilized to meet Nigeria’s
targets, adding that the 2017 Budget will reflect
Nigeria’s efforts to accord priority to realizing its NDCs. “In addition, we are set to launch our first
ever Green Bonds in the first quarter of 2017 to
fund a pipeline of projects all targeted at reducing
emissions towards a greener economy,” he said.
While urging global support to transit to a low-
carbon climate resilient economy, the President specifically reminded industrialized nations “to
play their role and deliver on their commitments
on access to climate finance and technology
transfer and help with capacity-building,” adding
that, “Expectations are high for their leaders to
deliver US$100 billion per year by 2020 in support of developing countries to take climate action,
thus keeping the promise to billions of people.”
President Buhari, who thanked the Presidents of
Chad, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo
and Niger for attending the event, also called on
the international community to “give special recognition to the plight of Lake Chad and support
our effort to resuscitate the livelihoods of over 5
million people in the region. This will reinforce our
efforts to reintegrate the thousands of Boko
Haram victims and returning Internally Displaced
Persons (IDPs).” The President noted that the Niger Delta region is a unique biodiversity rich in
coastal environment that is highly prone to
adverse environmental changes occasioned by
climate change, such as sea level rise, coastal
erosion, exacerbated by poverty and many
decades of oil pollution leading to loss of livelihoods and ecosystems. He added however,
that “through an integrated approach,
implementation of the NDCs, and our efforts to
clean up Ogoniland, we will improve livelihoods,
protect the environment and take climate action,
and ensure the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).” FEMI ADESINA Special
Adviser to the President (Media & Publicity)
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