Chairman, Cross River Forestry Commission, Mr Bette Obi, says uncontrolled tree felling for fuelwood by people is increasingly threatening the survival of forests across the country.
Dr Alice Ekwu, Cross River State Commissioner for Climate Change and Forestry
Obi said this in Calabar, the Cross River State capital, on Tuesday, December 5, 2017 at a workshop on “Sustainable Fuelwood Management’’, organised by the Cross River Government in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
He said that forest exploitation for fuelwood had become a serious challenge that many countries had to face squarely, objectively and purposefully.
He said that the workshop, which drew participants from the 18 local government areas of the state, was organised to create awareness and sensitise the citizens to the benefits of the Sustainable Fuelwood Management Project.
He said that it was disheartening that most of the mangrove forests of the state had been degraded, as the trees were continuously felled and used as firewood for cooking and other forms of heating.
He said that, in view of this development, UNDP selected Cross River, Delta and Kaduna states for the commencement of the project.
“The Sustainable Fuelwood Management Project aims at promoting sustainable community-based forest management through incentives-based, structured fuelwood production and utilisation.
“The project also seeks to promote the establishment of private, community-based woodlots for fuelwood supply and introduce the prospects of producing and utilising fuel-efficient cook stoves.
“We have to thoroughly look at this because our mangroves and other forests are increasingly threatened by their unsustainable exploitation for fuelwood by local consumers,’’ he said.
Gov. Ben Ayade of Cross River, who was represented by his deputy, Prof. Ivara Esu, said that the state had over 50 per cent of the country’s forest reserves.
Ayade, who described the workshop as “apt and timely’’, said that the government had started the planting of five million trees across the 18 local government areas of the state, with a view to restoring the forests lost to deforestation.
He urged the focal team of the workshop and development partners to come out with recommendations which would stem the growing depletion of forests in Cross River and other states of the country.
The UNDP Country Director, Mr Sam Bwalya, said that the UN agency was executing the project in partnership with the Cross River Government due to the large forest reserves of the state.
In her speech, Dr Alice Ekwu, the state Commissioner for Climate Change and Forestry, said that the ministry was working with relevant agencies to commence the planting of trees that would be specifically earmarked for fuelwood.
“Through that strategy, our forests would be left alone and duly preserved,’’ she added.
A National Youth Service Corp member in Benue State (name withheld ) suspected to be infected with monkey pox have been confined at Benue State University Teaching Hospital (BSUTH), Makurdi.
Commissioner for Health and Human Services, Dr Cecilia Ojabo
Commissioner for Health and Human Services, Dr Cecilia Ojabo, who disclosed this to newsmen on Tuesday, December 5, 2017 in Makurdi, said the corps member was suspected to have contracted the disease after having sex with a girl from Gboko who was earlier diagnosed positive with monkey pox.
According to her, the corps member, who is posted to do his primary assignment in the place, has also accepted to have had a relationship with the girl.
She said, “When we leant of the case of the monkey pox in Gboko, we swiftly moved and confirmed the lady at BSUTH Infections Unit, and the blood sample from her was sent to Senegal. Few weeks ago the result came back positive.
“The girl told us that she got the disease from a driver who spent a night with her, but when we called him the man denied visiting Benue.
“However, there is another case of a corps member serving in Gboko, who also had an affair with her, both of them are now confined at the teaching hospital and will remain there until we are sure they are properly healed, ” she noted.
She said the third case of monkey pox in the state was reported of a boy schooling in Taraba State who came home at Katsina Ala, with symptoms of the disease, but vanished when a medical team was dispatched to the place to verify his case.
Dr Ojabo said when the parents of the boy with a suspected case were contacted, they also feigned ignorance of their child’s whereabout.
She advised members of the pubic to report any suspected case of the disease in their localities and maintain good hygiene to avoid infections.
The plight of vultures in Nigeria has been that of orphans who are often neglected by the society to fend for themselves in an environment that is becoming more hostile for their survival due to several factors, among which is the commercial exploitation of the birds for fetish and trado-medicinal uses. The mounting hostility has significantly accounted for the continued disappearance of these magnificent birds from our skies.
L-R: Nkiruka Omeje (Team member), Stephen Aina (Team leader), HRH, Alhaji Zubairu H/Gabdo (Emir of Gashaka kingdom), Somochukwu Udo-Azugo (Team member) and Mr. George (GGNP)
To encourage indigenous approach to biodiversity conservation and stall further threats to the already declining population of vultures in Nigeria, the BirdLife and Birdfair International floated a flagship initiative and award to inspire the direct involvement of young and vibrant nature enthusiasts in biodiversity conservation. Through the initiative, a group of young conservation leaders from the Nigerian Conservation Foundation (NCF) are engaging communities in the support zones (SZCs) of Gashaka Gumti National Park (GGNP) located in Taraba State, Nigeria in a conservation soccer tournament (CST). The CST was conceived with the aim of fostering mutual partnership and cooperation among the SZCs for the protection of Vultures.
The unprecedented turn-out, support and commitment of all spheres of stakeholders across the participating communities allude to the feasibility and practicability of engaging sport as a tool for creating far-reaching awareness and building of formidable platform to enhance community governance for vulture conservation.
To further solicit extended engagement of the emirate and in recognition of the support shown by the emirate to the fledging concept of vulture conservation in Gashaka kingdom, the team presented an award to the Emir of Gashaka kingdom, Alhaji Zubairu H/Gabdo Mohammadu, as the Royal Vulture Ambassador. He was cheered and thrilled by the more than 3,500 villagers who converged to witness the final match between Serti A and Goje communities. Serti A team finally emerged the winner on penalty shoot-out against Goje community with a margin of 5 – 3 goals. The award is said to be the first of its kind in the history of Avifauna conservation in Nigeria.
With the results achieved so far, vultures are beginning to have their fortune turned around through the efforts of the BirdLife/Birdfair Young Conservation Leaders in Nigeria.
As part of a €30 million intervention, the European Union on Tuesday, December 5, 2017 signed a €17.2 million agreement with three United Nations institutions working jointly to reduce the illegal killing of wildlife and the trafficking of wildlife products throughout Eastern and Southern Africa and the Indian Ocean.
African elephant poaching: The project aims to tackle illegal killing of wildlife and the trafficking of wildlife products
The new “cross-regional wildlife programme” will focus its activities in the regions’ most important protected areas, national transit points, and in some of Africa’s most important transboundary ecosystems.
After signing the agreement at the United Nations Headquarters in Africa, Mr. Stefano A. Dejak, the European Union ambassador to Kenya, said: “Illegal killing and trafficking of wildlife now runs into billions of dollars. To combat it, we need find new ways to work together more effectively. This new initiative brings together the European Union and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, as well as the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species and the Convention on Migratory Species. The aim is to build on our various strengths and experiences in protecting wildlife across borders.”
The new project aims at tackling the illegal killing of wildlife and the trafficking of wildlife products at three levels:
CITES, through its MIKE Programme, will lead the implementation of activities to reduce the illegal killing of wildlife at a number of priority protected areas located in critical transboundary ecosystems throughout Eastern and Southern Africa;
At the national and regional level, UNODC will lead activities focused on reducing the international trafficking of wildlife products by strengthening and expanding their highly successful Container Control Programme, improving criminal justice responses and enhancing capacities through the criminal justice chain under the Global Programme for Combatting Wildlife and Forest Crime; and
At the regional level, activities under CMS will focus on developing and strengthening the governance and collaborative management mechanisms for some of the regions’ most important transboundary conservation areas.
The Director-General of the United Nations Office at Nairobi (UNON), Ms. Sahle-Work Zewde, said: “As we move rapidly towards 2030 – Providing technical assistance to Member States as they strive to achieve the bold targets of the sustainable development goals is a challenge of scale. Goal 15 is no exception and the European Union, with its generous financial contribution, is helping ensure that the children of Africa will be able to witness the magnificent diversity its land has to offer.”
Mr. John Scanlon, Secretary General of CITES, added: “CITES is delighted to continue its longstanding, positive relationship with the European Union. This new initiative enables us to enhance our current work and expand our support to those who are serving in the front-line to stop the illegal killing of Africa’s wildlife. It also strengthens the links between CITES and CMS, the world’s wildlife conventions, in a highly effective manner and draws upon the expertise of UNODC and our other ICCWC (International Consortium on Combating Wildlife Crime) partners.”
After the signature of the agreement, UNODC’s Regional Coordinator for the Wildlife and Forest Crime programme, Mr. Javier Montano, said: “The comprehensive approach of this programme, will certainly go a long way in bringing systemic change as well as enhancing the criminal justice responses to wildlife crime in the regions.”
Laura Cerasi, representing CMS on behalf of its Executive Secretary, Mr. Bradnee Chambers, said: “CMS looks forward to working with CITES and UNODC and others across Eastern and Southern Africa, to strengthen management in some of the continent’s most important transboundary conservation areas. This project significantly supports the delivery of the joint CITES and CMS work plan and the outcomes of CMS CoP 12 held in Manila last month.”
Growing antimicrobial resistance linked to discharge of drugs and particular chemicals into the environment is one of the most worrying health threats today, according to new research from UN Environment that highlights emerging challenges and solutions in the environmental space.
Erik Solheim, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Photo credit: OECD/Michael Dean
Launched during the United Nations Environment Assembly at UN Environment headquarters in Nairobi, “The Frontiers Report” looks at six areas: the environmental dimension of antimicrobial resistance; nanomaterials, marine protected areas, sand and dust storms, off-grid solar solutions, and environmental displacement.
Of the issues considered, the report finds that the role of the environment in the emergence and spread of resistance to antimicrobials is particularly concerning.
“The warning here is truly frightening: we could be spurring the development of ferocious superbugs through ignorance and carelessness,” said UN Environment chief Erik Solheim. “Studies have already linked the misuse of antibiotics in humans and agriculture over the last several decades to increasing resistance, but the role of the environment and pollution has received little attention.
“This needs priority action right now, or else we run the risk of allowing resistance to occur through the back door, with potentially terrifying consequences.”
Antimicrobial resistance occurs when a microorganism evolves to resist the effects of an antimicrobial agent. Globally, about 700,000 people die of resistant infections every year because available antimicrobial drugs have become less effective at killing the resistant pathogens.
There is clear evidence that the release into the environment of antimicrobial compounds in effluents from households, hospitals and pharmaceutical facilities, and in agricultural run-off, combined with direct contact between natural bacterial communities and discharged resistant bacteria, is driving bacterial evolution and the emergence of more resistant strains.
Once consumed, most antibiotic drugs are excreted un-metabolised along with resistant bacteria – up to 80 per cent of consumed antibiotics, according to the report. This is a growing problem, since human antibiotic use increased 36 per cent this century, and antibiotic use in livestock is predicted to increase 67 per cent by 2030. Additionally, up to 75 per cent of antibiotics used in aquaculture may be lost into the surrounding environment.
Wastewater treatment facilities cannot remove all antibiotics and resistant bacteria, and in fact may be hot-spots for antimicrobial resistance. There is evidence showing that multi-drug resistant bacteria are prevalent in marine waters and sediments close to aquaculture, industrial and municipal discharges.
Solving the problem will mean tackling the use and disposal of antibiotic pharmaceuticals as well as the release of antimicrobial drugs, relevant contaminants and resistant bacteria into the environment, the report says.
The report also considers five other emerging issues.
Nanomaterials: Applying the Precautionary Principle
The global nanomaterials market is expected to grow 20.7 per cent annually, and reach $55 billion by 2022. There is a serious risk that we do not understand enough about the long-term effects of nanomaterials to use them safely. The report finds that the speed of industrial development is far out-stripping the pace of regulatory development.
Past lessons from exposure to hazardous materials – such as asbestos – teaches us that “no evidence of harm” does not equal “evidence of no harm”, meaning that research into the possible negative consequences of environmental exposure to nanomaterials is essential.
Marine Protected Areas: Securing Benefits for Sustainable Development
Overfishing, extractive activities, tourism, coastal development and pollution are damaging ocean habitats and reducing populations of marine species. We have lost half of the world’s coral reefs and are consuming nearly one-third of our commercial fish stocks at unsustainable rates.
Marine Protected Areas offer one of the best options for maintaining or restoring the health of ocean and coastal ecosystems. While the Aichi target of protecting 10 per cent of coastal and territorial waters by 2020 has been achieved – hitting 14.4 per cent to date – protecting the marine environment also requires effective management and the equitable sharing of costs and benefits.
Governing the oceans in a sustainable way could see Marine Protected Areas as a driver – not a limit – for the vital economic and social benefits that we derive from the global ocean.
Sand and Dust Storms: Subduing a Global Phenomenon
Sand and dust storm result from strong winds eroding sand, silt and clay particles from arid landscapes and impoverishing their soils. They can travel thousands of kilometres across continents and oceans, entraining other pollutants on the way and depositing particles far from their origin.
Chronic exposure to fine dust contributes to premature deaths from respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, lung cancer and acute lower respiratory infections. Economic losses from a single dust storm can also be huge. A massive dust storm, called Red Dawn, in Australia on September 22 to 23, 2009 cost an estimated $262 million.
Despite the known issues, human activity has caused dust emission to rise by 25-50 per cent since 1900. Land-use changes are responsible for 25 per cent of global dust emission.
Reducing the threat will require strategies that promote sustainable land and water management in landscapes including cropland, rangelands, deserts, and urban areas, integrated with measures addressing climate change mitigation and adaptation.
Solar Solutions: Bridging the Energy Gap for Off-Grid Settlements
Nearly one billion people worldwide live without electricity. While significant progress has been made in recent years, an estimated 780 million people could remain off-grid in 2030.
Recent years have seen the proliferation of small distributed solar energy systems serving low-income customers in Africa and Asia, where at least 95 per cent of the world’s off-grid population reside.
There have been successful roll-outs of solar products with improved batteries, lower capital costs, affordable financing and easy access to pay-as-you-go schemes. With the right policies and regulations, off-grid solar could be key to achieving the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals for universal access to affordable, reliable and modern energy services and eliminating poverty.
Environmental Displacement: Human Mobility in the Anthropocene
We live in an era of unprecedented mobility. About 250 million people live and work outside the country of their birth. Another 750 million people migrate within their own countries. Migration drives development and progress, offering opportunities, spreading ideas and creating connections around the world.
Natural disasters and conflicts also drive migration. For example, severe drought and food insecurity has displaced 761,000 people in Somalia since November 2016. Globally, 117 million people were displaced by weather-related disasters between 2012 and 2016.
Migration produces environmental changes that cascade through the Earth’s systems – air, water and soil pollution, deforestation, soil erosion and desertification, water scarcity and biodiversity loss.
The interwoven trends of climate change, population growth, rising consumption, and environmental degradation are likely to lead to the displacement and migration of even greater numbers of people in the future. Unless we deal with long-term environmental vulnerability and build resilience in communities, environmental displacement will become a new normal.
President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi will be hosting six African heads of state at the Africa 2017 Forum that takes place this week in the picturesque beach resort of Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.
President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi of Egypt
The President of Guinea, current chair of the AU, will be joining the Forum as well as the Presidents of Chad, Rwanda, Côte d’Ivoire, Comoros and Somalia. The Vice President of Nigeria, Yemi Osinbajo, is also expected as is the Prime Minister of Mozambique.
This business and investment Forum, whose theme is “Driving investment for inclusive growth”, has been convened to increase intra African investments and cross border collaboration. Egypt in 2015 hosted the signing of the tripartite agreement between the three regional economic communities SADC, COMESA and the EAC, and the Forum has been designed for African business leaders to play a greater role by investing in opportunities throughout the continent.
The first edition of the Forum took place in February 2016. This year the programme has been enhanced to include two exclusive Presidential Roundtables, where the business leaders will openly discuss policy with the African presidents present to help create a more conducive business environment, in addition to immense investment and business opportunities available in the continent. Youth and entrepreneurs will also play a prominent role. Over 50 of the continent’s brightest and most promising entrepreneurs have been invited to showcase their businesses and will be presenting them to investors and funds in a Deal room curated by Asoko Insights.
The Forum is being organised by the Ministry of Investment and International Cooperation of Egypt and the COMESA Regional Investment Agency (RIA). Speaking ahead of the Forum, Dr Sahar Nasr, Minister of Investment and International Cooperation of Egypt, stressed the importance of greater intra-Africa collaboration
“Intra-Africa trade is a valuable component of Africa’s and Egypt’s economic growth strategy,” she said. “For Egypt’s growth strategy, Intra-Africa trade remains a valuable component. Despite European and North American markets dominating Egypt’s trade activities, we have proximity to African markets as well as trade agreements with African nations. The markets where Egypt has seen an increase in its trade include North Africa, specifically Morocco, East Africa, specifically Kenya, South Africa and Sudan.”
Heba Salama, head of RIA, highlighted the responsibility of the private sector to devise innovative solutions. “The private sector can play an important role in filling in the $93 billion infrastructure gap. Manufacturing is another important sector where private sector support is needed. McKinsey Global Institute estimates that Africa could double its manufacturing output in 10 years, which could ultimately create between six million and 14 million stable jobs and boost African GDP growth.”
The Forum holds from December 7 to 9, 2017. The event features some of Africa’s leading CEOs and policy makers, including Isabel dos Santos, Chairperson of Unitel Angola; Daniel Matjila, CEO, Public Investment Corporation; Dr. Ahmed Heikal, Founder of Qalaa Holdings; Tony Elumelu, Chairman of UBA; and Vera Songwe, Executive Secretary of UNECA.
Coalition of women organisations attending the ongoing 3rd United Nations Environmental Assembly (UNEA-3) on Tuesday, November 5, 2017 urged the global assembly to prioritise the protection of women human rights and environmental defenders.
Priscilla Achakpa of the Women’s Major Group. Photo credit: http://i.ytimg.com/
The women groups, under the umbrella of the Women’s Major Group (WMG), made the call at a side event on the challenges facing women’s environmental rights defenders.
“Since the effects of pollution outlive all of us, we want a fast-response civil society advisory committee and the strengthening of UNEP’s safeguards and human rights policies if really we are to leave no one behind,” the women groups said.
Identifying 2017 as the deadliest year for women’s environmental rights defenders, the women called for increased protection of their rights to indigenous land and resource ownership as they face increased crackdowns, violence, threats, intimidation and murder by state and non-state actors.
The women’s rights group also paid tributes to women who lost their lives this year while highlighting the important role of women rights defenders in creating a pollution-free future.
Helen Hakena, Leitana Nehan Women’s Development Agency, Papua New Guinea said, “We have suffered a 20-year war, which has had a terrible impact on Women.
“Sixty-two percent of the men confessed to having raped women. Even though the war has ended, women still face immense aggression from the conflict of resources on our land, where an international mining company operated the largest open pit mine in the world,” she said.
“The Panguna mine has destroyed and polluted our land, forest, rivers and food sources, and seeps all profits away,” Nehan added.
Priscilla Achakpa of the Women’s Major Group revealed that about 200 women’s environmental rights defenders have been assassinated within the past 12 months, mostly killed over land and forest conflicts.
“Only last week, we lost Elisa Badayos from the Philippines. But these conflicts are greatly aggravated by pollution,” Achakpa said.
“Pollution is not incidental but a deliberate and inevitable consequence of a profit-oriented economy of mass production of harmful plastics, pesticides, and fossil fuels,” Achakpa added.
Apart from this, the WMG chief said Nigerian women are exposed to hazardous chemicals every day.
“Samples of human breast milk obtained from Nigeria were found to have high levels of Persistent Organic Pollutants. A study found over 15,000 metric tonnes of pesticides per year were imported into the country between 1983 -1990,” Achakpa said.
In Kenya, some 5000 people are exposed to Mercury pollution in Artisanal Small-scale Gold Mining sites.
“Mercury is banned under the Minamata Convention, negotiated here at UNEP but in the impoverished community that I’m working with they don’t have much option,” says Griffins Ochieng from the Centre for Environmental Justice and Development (CEJAD), a Kenya based NGO.
“Mining gold and mixing it with mercury is the only knowledge they have and the main source of income. Communities do not have access to information about the hazards of using mercury. We need our government to stop mercury trade,” Ochieng added.
African women attending the ongoing 3rd UN environment assembly (UNEA-3) had cause to erupt in rapturous applause as the long-awaited energy entrepreneurship framework for women was launched.
President of the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN) and Gabonese Minister of Forest, Sea and Environment, Pacôme Moubelet-Boubeya
President of the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN) and Gabonese Minister of Forest, Sea and Environment, Pacôme Moubelet-Boubeya, launched the African Women Energy Entrepreneurs Framework (AWEEF) on the side-lines of the Global Science Business Forum at the ongoing UNEA-3 holding at the UN office in Nairobi, Kenya.
The AMCEN President, who was represented by Alice Kaudia, Kenya’s environment secretary who stood in for Prof Judi Wakhungu, Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, said the launching was in fulfillment of the AMCEN decision on investing in innovative environmental solutions to accelerate the implementation of the SDGs and AU’s Agenda 2063.
According to the minister, the energy entrepreneurship framework will “empower women to engage in accessible, sustainable, affordable and clean energy development and use.”
“We the African ministers for environment are committed to finding innovative environment solutions and we pledge to provide the necessary support to this initiative,” she added.
Following the successful launch of the African Women Energy Entrepreneurs Framework (AWEEF), participants at the pre-UNEA-3 event committed themselves to promoting the interpretation of the Libreville outcome statement on Women entrepreneurs and sustainable energy in Nigeria.
The 10-point commitments, according to UNEP’s Meseret Zemedkun, commit the participants to integrating AWEEF’s vision and values into Africa’s energy stakeholders initiatives; developing programmes and projects in clean and sustainable energy and energy services that are inclusive; developing integrated approaches to creating, social, economic and environmental solutions that will facilitate the achievement of global and regional development frameworks, and deploying AWEEF’s framework to mobilise resources for the implementation of projects, and programmes identified at national and regional levels.
Other commitments include encouraging multilateral and financial institutions investments in Africa with a view to appropriating financial resources to women-led, decentralised renewable energy solutions with favourable access modalities; using AWEEF’s framework to coordinate the existing and potential initiatives to build strong partnerships and synergies; provide leadership and incentivise women to be actively involved in the whole energy chain; and promoting enabling policy mechanism informed by gender analysis and age disaggregated data to accelerate the sustainable growth of micro, medium and large women-led enterprises across the energy value chain.
The members of the framework which include representatives from African governments, private sector, civil society, research institutions, women entrepreneurs and youths further commit to move from commitment to implementation in the field, complemented by robust monitoring systems; and endorse the diversity of all stakeholders while integrating progressive opinions in to the implementation process of the Libreville outcome statement.
A pollution-free vehicle for African women
Against the backdrop of significant health and safety challenges African women face in their relentless quest for energy to meet household demands and the widespread energy poverty across the continent, AWEEF recognises women as powerful agents of change in the transition to clean energy.
The energy entrepreneurship platform seeks to empower women as essential drivers in the ride to reduce green house gas emissions and lower global warming.
According to Zemedkun, “AWEEF is the vehicle African women will use in playing the change agent role across the energy value chain.”
“AWEEF will address the challenges and barriers that hinder women empowerment in the energy sector as well as implement innovative solutions that will turn around Africa’s energy story,” she added.
Some of the biggest players in the oil and gas industry have launched an initiative to reduce methane emissions from natural gas, a major contributor to climate change. ExxonMobil, BP, Eni, Repsol, Shell, Statoil, Total and Wintershall have committed to both reduce methane and to improve the monitoring of methane emissions to measure progress and increase transparency.
Mark Radka, Head of UN Environment’s Energy and Climate Branch
Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas and is released into the atmosphere during the extraction and processing of natural gas. The latest initiative by major energy companies is part of wider global efforts of companies to respond to the climate challenge and reduce greenhouse gas emissions in order to limit the rise of global average temperature to well below two degrees Celsius and as close as possible to 1.5 degrees – the central goal of the Paris Climate Change Agreement.
The new initiative has been welcomed by the United Nations. “Numerous studies have shown the importance of quickly reducing methane emissions if we’re to meet growing energy demand and multiple environmental goals,” said Mark Radka, Head of UN Environment’s Energy and Climate Branch. “The Guiding Principles provide an excellent framework for doing so across the entire natural gas value chain, particularly if they’re linked to reporting on the emissions reduction achieved.”
The Guiding Principles are focused on cutting methane emissions from the natural gas assets the companies operate around the world. Developed in collaboration with the Environmental Defense Fund, the International Energy Agency, the International Gas Union, the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative, Climate Investments, the Rocky Mountain, the Sustainable Gas Institute, the Energy and Resources Institute, and United Nations Environment.
The main objective of the Guiding Principles is to:
Continually reduce methane emissions
Advance strong performance across gas value chains
Improve accuracy of methane emissions data
Advocate sound policy and regulations on methane emissions
Increase transparency by providing information in external reports
The companies recognise that improved data and transparency as well as a significant reduction in methane emissions will be key to ensuring that natural gas continues to play a critical role in helping meet future energy demand, and at the same time address climate change.
To achieve structural transformation on the continent, Africa must look for homegrown solutions and learn from its own experience, participants at the 12th African Economic Conference (AEC) heard on Monday, December 4, 2017 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
A session at the AEC-12 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
This, according to high-level speakers from the African Development Bank (AfDB), the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), is key to unlocking Africa’s potential and advancing its prosperity.
The three agencies, therefore, pledged their readiness to support the continent’s pursuit of an African agenda for stronger democratic states and rapid structural transformation that positively impacts on human development.
In his official opening address, the Prime Minister of the Federal Republic of Ethiopia, Hailemariam Desalegn, advocated for strong democratic states with zero tolerance for corruption and mechanisms for wealth-sharing.
“Conferences such as this are important in order to learn from experience and adapt practices to each country’s socio-economic conditions. There are no specific policy templates that work everywhere,” he stressed.
Executive Secretary of ECA, Vera Songwe, called on leaders, economists and policy-makers to “look beyond the standard indicators of good governance.
“There is a growing consensus that African countries require a more conducive governance environment for them to be able to pursue better public policies and ultimately to achieve better outcomes, including structural transformation and inclusive development,” she said.
Célestin Monga, Vice-President, Economic Governance and Knowledge Management, at the African Development Bank, called for greater focus on addressing the economic loss caused by institutional inefficiencies and incompetence.
Monga stressed how corruption endangers economic growth, but pointed to the hidden loss due to lack of strong institutions, noting how difficult it is to address this when people are hungry.
“A lot of governance work has not been very helpful to Africa as it is often seen as a precondition,” Monga continued. “We cannot expect a country with US $300 GDP per capita to have the same governance system as a country with US $78,000. You cannot compare Burundi to Switzerland.”
This is why the AfDB is rethinking governance in Africa, Monga said, stressing that good governance is also about learning.
Experts agree that notwithstanding overall improvement in governance especially in human development and political participation, the African region’s performance still lags behind other regions and hampers the successful reorientation of its economic activities.
“Maintaining growth of 5% should be seen as a favourable development. There have been setbacks, but Africa is gradually getting governance right,” said Lamin M. Manneh, Director of the UNDP Regional Service Center for Africa, on behalf of Abdoulaye Mar Dieye, UN Assistant Secretary-General and Director of the UNDP Regional Bureau for Africa.
Co-organized by the African Development Bank (AfDB), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) under the theme “Governance for structural transformation”, this year’s conference focuses on the achievement of structural transformation in Africa with an emphasis on developmental governance.
About 500 researchers, policy-makers and development practitioners attended Day 1 of the conference.
The AEC provides an opportunity for participants to assess the impact of current economic and political governance strategies on economic transformation, poverty, inequality and human development in Africa.
Delivering the keynote address, Richard Joseph, Professor at Northwestern University, underscored why bold policy interventions must emanate from Africa.
“In Africa, this is the time for relative autonomy in dealing with policy issues,” he said.
The AEC offers in-depth presentations of policy-oriented research by both established academics and emerging researchers from the continent and beyond, who debate and recommend policy options on how governance in Africa can better support the continent’s structural transformation.
