A new streamlined draft agreement for a comprehensive climate deal was on Wednesday (December 9, 2015) afternoon released in Paris, with the French presidency urging for the finalisation of the deal on Thursday. The newest version of draft Paris Agreement appears to show progress from 1,609 open brackets and 228 Options in the pre-COP November 10th draft text to currently ...

Nigeria’s new Environment Minister, Mrs Amina Mohammed, is leading the country’s delegation at the ongoing 21st Session of the Conference of the Parties (COP21) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Paris, France. A former Special Advisor on Sustainable Development to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Mrs Mohammed appears to be doing a pretty good job ...

The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN), on Tuesday (December 8, 2015) in Abuja unveiled his short term plans to address housing deficits, provide good roads and urgently increase power generation in the country with extra 2,000 megawatts. Fashola said during his maiden press briefing in the Federal Capital City (FCT) that the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway which ...

Nigeria’s Environment Minister, Mrs Amina J. Mohammed, on Tuesday (December 8, 2015) at a High Level Segment of the ongoing UN Climate Change Conference (COP21) in Paris said that the nation is committed to an economic transformation, which places inclusive green growth at its heart. Mohammed, who is head of the country’s delegation at the COP, emphasised that the transformation ...

A new multi-million-dollar initiative to promote clean energy investment in developing countries was on Monday (December 7, 2015) announced at the COP21 climate talks in Paris, France. The Global Environment Facility (GEF) will provide $2 million in initial funding to help kick-start the formation of the “Climate Aggregation Platform” (CAP) in 2016.  The CAP is expected to leverage over $100 ...

Ask vulnerable countries to explicitly give up the right to raise issues of compensation and liability in future The US, EU and some other developed countries have demanded that poor and vulnerable countries commit at Paris that they shall never ask for compensation or hold rich nations liable for the inevitable loss and damage in coming years. Business Standard accessed ...

The Presidency has assured Nigerians that President Muhammadu Buhari will not give his assent to the bill on anti-social media which is now being considered by the Senate of the Federal Republic. The bill is being sponsored by the Senate majority leader, Senator Uba Na’Allah. A statement by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mallam ...

Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg on Monday (December 7, 2015) in Paris at the ongoing UN climate change conference (COP21) announced plans to scale up Norway’s commitments to the Green Climate Fund (GCF). Norway already pledged $258 million to the Fund last year as part of the initial resource mobilisation and has now promised to double that figure by 2020, provided that GCF can finance verified emissions reductions in deforestation and forest degradation. ...

Two ambitious initiatives to restore 100 million hectares of degraded and deforested land in Africa by 2030 were on Sunday (December 6, 2015) launched at the Global Landscape Forum, an event organised alongside the UNFCCC COP21 in Paris. The Forum created a platform for positioning landscapes in the new international agreements on climate and sustainable development. The African Forest Landscape ...

The African continent has been asked to urgently turn around its current attitude in the realms of climate change diplomacy and quit playing the victim game. Mrs Ngozi Okonji-Iweala, member, Global Commission on the Economy and Climate, who made the submission on Monday (December 7, 2015) at the ongoing UN climate talks (COP21) in Paris, stated that, contrary to popular ...