Close to 500 organisations and 140 leading economists on Wednesday, May 9, 2018 in Bonn, Germany called on parties gathered for the latest round of climate negotiations to address fossil fuel production and financing in order to ensure success in meeting goals enshrined in the Paris Agreement. In a submission to the UN’s “Talanoa Dialogue,” civil society organisations from around ...

The global economy will lose a whopping $23 trillion by 2050 through land degradation, a review by the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) warns. To take urgent action now and halt these alarming trends would cost $4.6 trillion – only a fraction of the predicted losses. The outcomes of the review have been assembled into comprehensive and easy-to-use Land ...

“Unifying our Voices for Bird Conservation” is the theme of World Migratory Bird Day 2018. Among the significant, but often underestimated threats to migratory birds across the African-Eurasian Flyways – the major bird migration corridors which links Europe, Africa and Western Asia – is lead poisoning. The UN Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) and the Agreement on the Conservation of ...

The raging floods that have engulfed Kenya since March have claimed 132 lives and displaced 222,456 people, the government said on Wednesday, May 9, 2018. Karanja Kibicho, the Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Interior, called on Kenyans to exercise caution and extreme care during heavy rains in flood prone areas. “Latest statistics indicate that 222,456 people have been displaced ...

No fewer than 695,000 people have been affected by flash floods and river floods, caused by ongoing heavy rainfall in Somalia, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said. According to the WHO, out of the figure, nearly 215,000 people have been displaced in the past few days as most flooding occurred in the regions of Bakool, Banadir, Bay, Hiraan, Lower Juba, ...

Environmental Health Officers from relevant organisations, in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Environment, on Wednesday, May 9, 2018 began the inspection of Federal Government’s premises in Abuja to ensure clean and healthy environment. Mr Charles Ikeah, the Director, Pollution Control and Environmental Health, Federal Ministry of Environment, inaugurated the commencement of the inspection in the federal capital city. Ikeah ...

The Director of Water Quality Supply and Sanitation in the Federal Ministry of Water Resources, Mr Emmanuel Awe, says the ministry has proposed a N30 billion fund to tackle open defecation in the country. Awe said this in Abuja on Wednesday, May 9, 2018 when he received a delegation from the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC) led by its Executive Director, ...

The innovative Talanoa Dialogue (TD) took place on Sunday, May 6, 2018 in Bonn, Germany and was sandwiched between the first and second weeks of climate negotiations.  After the dialogue everyone was somewhat upbeat about how useful the experience was. Indeed, a delegate from the Democratic Republic of Congo was quoted to have said that the TD offered representatives of ...

A civil society organisation based in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, the Collectif Citoyen pour l’Agroecologie (CCAE), has said the planned release of genetically modified mosquitoes (GMMs) in Burkina Faso, Mali and Uganda should not see the light of the day. According to the group, GMM eggs were imported with the approval of the National Biosafety Agency (NBA) in Burkina Faso as ...

The Nigerian government recently reviewed the excise duty rate and structure applicable to tobacco products and alcoholic beverages. Specifically, the government approved an additional ₦1 specific tax on each stick of cigarette (₦20 per pack), which would increase to ₦2 per stick in 2019 (₦40 per pack) and eventually ₦2.90 per stick in 2020 (₦58 per pack) while maintaining the ...