A volcano on the Indonesian resort island of Bali erupted days after authorities lowered its alert level one notch, an official said on Tuesday, February 13, 2018.
A volcanic eruption
The spokesman for the National Disaster Management Agency, Sutopo Nugroho, said Mount Agung spewed grey ash 1,500 metres into the atmosphere.
Nugroho, however, said that there were no casualties.
On Saturday, authorities lowered the volcano’s warning level one notch from the highest level after a steady decrease in activity.
The exclusion zone was reduced from 6 kilometres to 4 kilometres, allowing thousands of people who had stayed in temporary shelters to return home.
“But about 15,000 evacuees remained in the shelters, too afraid to return to their homes near the volcano,’’ Sutopo said.
Authorities raised the warning alert to the highest level on Nov. 22 and ordered the evacuation of people living nearby following two days of eruptions.
The 3,031-metre Mount Agung’s last deadly eruptions occurred in 1963 and 1964, during which 1,200 people were killed.
Report says Indonesia sits on the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, an area known for seismic upheavals and volcanic eruptions.
A bundle of initiatives aimed at ensuring prudent and sustainable development of the renewable energy sector in Nigeria have been unfolded.
Vice President of Nigeria, Prof Yemi Osinbajo, inaugurated the NiRER in 2017
Plagued by irregular power supply, the country sees a way out of the current imbroglio in renewable energy (RE). Indeed, the Federal Government says it aims to make reliable electricity available to 75% of the population by 2020, and 90% by 2030, with at least a 10% share of RE by 2025. Recent technological and institutional innovations and cost reductions, according to stakeholders, have made off-grid development a viable option for meeting the electricity demand in the country.
The Nigeria Renewable Energy Roundtable (NiRER), rolling out its activities and workplan for the year on Monday, February 12, 2018, said that it would immediately set up a regular RE Business Dialogue platform with RE companies and the Rural Electrification Agency (REA) to fine-tune the NiRER action plan.
The product of a collaboration involving the Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing; the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology (through the Energy Commission of Nigeria); and the National Economic Summit Group (NESG), the NiRER is an action-oriented partnership of relevant stakeholders, that are committed to resolving the issues and bottleneck to expand the renewable energy markets in Nigeria, both on-grid and off-grid.
NiRER noted that, besides designing an investment template with REA to attract high-quality solar companies to invest in off-grid projects, it likewise intends lining up five solar companies for commencement of installations of 500 SME solutions.
The body noted further that it would meeting with Bankers’ Committee and Banks’ Sustainability Group to agree process for Ease of Doing RE Business, agree on a RE investments training for banks to improve their risk assessment capacity, and agree financing instruments with national and international development banks, together with Renewable Energy Association of Nigeria (REAN).
NiRER also intends to mandate the DBN (Development Bank of Nigeria) to commit 25% of its lending to RE, while designing a template of how SMEs can replace generators with solar kit by accessing the MSME Fund from the Central Bank of Nigeria, using their assets as collateral and getting insurance from REEEP (USAID/Winrock).
NiRER further plans to:
agree with the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) to allow Mini Grids up to 5 MW to operate without licencing procedure, based on NERC’s capacity allocated by the Electric Power Sector Reform Act (EPSRA 2005)
agree with the Ministry of Finance to give Tax Breaks and Customs Facilitation given the role that RE plays in reviving local economies and thus increasing tax revenues from real economy
agree with Nigerian Investment Promotion Council (NIPC) to reinstate the RE sector under pioneer status for certain concessions and benefits
together with NESG, REA and REAN, to upscale donor support for large-scale training programme for RE technicians, based on the already existing plans developed by the Nigerian Energy Support Programme (NESG) supported by the GIZ
stop sub-standard RE products from proliferating in Nigeria
meet with the Nigerian Governors Forum to get states to adopt the new National Building Energy Efficiency Code (BEEC)
initially follow the recommendations of the Power Sector Recovery Plan 2017, for RE to increase on the grid
The NiRER was formally inaugurated on June 20, 2017 by the then Acting President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, at the State House, Abuja.
The NiRER is structured around four working groups, to cover specific areas in the renewable energy value chain, such as Investment & Business Environment; Finance; Training, Quality Control & Utilisation; and Communication & Advocacy.
The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ilorin, Prof. Sulyman Abdulkareem, has decried the destruction of the university’s multi-million-naira research and training farms by cattle illegally grazing on the campus, and poisoning the dam with chemicals.
University of Ilorin, Kwara State, Nigeria
According to the university’s weekly bulletin issued on Monday, February 12, 2018, the management of the institution last Thursday held a security meeting with the leaders of the 11 Fulani settlements on the university land.
The publication quoted the vice-chancellor as saying that sundry economic trees’ plantations were destroyed by cattle illegally grazing on the vast land of the institution.
The meeting was attended by representatives of law enforcement agencies comprising of the Nigerian Police Force, the Department of State Security Services (DSS) and the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC).
At the meeting held at the institution’s Auditorium Basement, Prof. Abdulkareem disclosed that the university management would no longer tolerate illegal grazing of cows on its land.
He, therefore, told the illegal settlers, who have started building permanent structures, to vacate the university land in the interest of peace.
According to him, this was coming almost a year after the university authority first issued a quit notice to the illegal settlers.
The management recalls that the university management had on April 26, 2017 handed down a seven-day ultimatum to the Fulani herdsmen encroaching on the university land to quit the campus, but the quit notice was never complied with.
The institution also noted that, on May 11, 2017, 28 persons, comprising Fulani herdsmen, Yoruba and Hausa farmers, were dragged to an Ilorin Chief Magistrate’s Court for allegedly trespassing into the university land, destroying the school’s plantation and perpetrating other unauthorised activities on the university campus.
The management explained that the accused persons were alleged to have resorted to poisoning the institution’s dam with chemicals, while also engaging in illegal felling of economic trees from which they made charcoal.
However, at last Thursday’s meeting, the Vice-Chancellor clearly told the Fulani settlers that “enough is enough”.
The VC warned that the university could no longer condone the destructive activities of their grazing cattle on the university land, as this is becoming too costly for the institution to bear.
According to the institution’s publication, herdsmen from 11 communities took turns to speak at the meeting.
The Chairman of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association, Usman Adamu, told the university management that the herdsmen destroying the university farm land were not living in the community.
He said that there were other ethnic groups embarking on illegal activities like logging, and were not differentiated from the Fulanis.
The current and the upcoming presidencies of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP23 and COP24) have outlined in a message issued on February 8, 2018 a remarkable process to prepare the world to take the next steps towards higher climate action.
Prime Minister of Fiji and COP23 President, Voreqe Frank Bainimarama. Photo credit: Fijian Government
Called the Talanoa Dialogue, this will be an important international conversation in which countries and other key actors will check progress while seeking to increase global ambition to meet the goals of the Paris Climate Change Agreement.
The Paris Agreement’s central goal is to keep the global average temperature rise to below 2C degrees and as close as possible to 1.5C. The current national climate action plans known as Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) fall short of this aim.
Through the Talanoa Dialogue, nations and non-Party stakeholders – ranging from cities and regions to business, investors and civil society – will be contributing ideas, recommendations and information that can assist the world in taking the next steps towards higher ambition under not only the Paris Agreement but also in support of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The Dialogue was launched at the UN Climate Change Conference COP23 in Bonn in November 2017 and will run throughout 2018. The message outlines the preparatory phase of the Dialogue, previews what will be happening at the April/May sessions and how this and other Talanoa events will culminate in the political phase at COP24.
Preparatory Phase
The Talanoa Dialogue was launched at COP23 and is a yearlong process that will consist of a preparatory and political phase. The Preparatory phase will involve several mandated events and interactive processes. It will commence with the launch of this online platform which will share information about the Dialogue, its process and any other resources to facilitate Party and non-Party stakeholders’ full and effective participation in the process.
The online platform will be the portal through which Party and non-Party stakeholders will be able to make submissions along the three overarching questions of the Dialogue: where are we?; where do we want to go?; how do we get there? The questions provide a space for pre-2020 and post-2020 inputs and discussions. Online submissions will be collated twice – after April 2nd 2018, and October 29th 2018. The submissions will allow Party and non-Party stakeholders to frame the contours of the aforementioned questions.
The first set of submissions will be summarised into a report which will inform the Dialogue in the May inter-sessional which will be held from April 30 to May 11, 2018. Throughout 2018, the Presidencies will socialise/discuss the Dialogue with Party and non-Party stakeholders via a range of avenues, including workshops, webinars, forums, and relevant meetings. At the same time, Party and non-Party stakeholders are encouraged to have their own meetings on the Talanoa Dialogue to organise, strategise, and consolidate their input.
May Inter-Sessional
The May inter-sessional Talanoa Dialogue will be the first opportunity for Party and non-Party stakeholders to interact in a Dialogue which is constructive, non-judgemental and engage in story telling with a purpose. It will include: an opening plenary of the Talanoa Dialogue; a day of working groups (organised into three consecutive sessions) addressing the three overarching questions of the Dialogue; back to plenary reporting; and a closing plenary.
Well in advance of the May inter-sessional Talanoa Dialogue, the Presidencies will have an instructional note published on the Talanoa Dialogue online platform detailing the methodology, agenda and any supporting material for May. The online platform will also have videos on how a Talanoa Dialogue is conducted.
Synthesis Report
The discussions during the May inter-sessional Talanoa Dialogue will be summarised along with the totality of submissions and inputs received throughout the year. This summary will lead to a Synthesis Report which will take the pulse of the journey we have embarked on together to understand where we are, our vision for a future for our common good, and how we will collectively get there.
Political Phase
The Synthesis Report will inform the Political phase of the Talanoa Dialogue which will take place at COP24 in Poland. This phase will build on the momentum of conversations and stories exchanged throughout the year through the dynamic interactions via the Talanoa Dialogue.
It will bring together Heads of States and high-level representatives of Parties to take stock of the collective efforts of Parties in relation to progress towards the long-term goals of the Paris Agreement and to inform the preparation of nationally determined contributions.
A suspected poacher has been mauled to death and eaten by a pack of lions near a national park in South Africa.
A pack of hungry lions feeding on a zebra
The man’s head and other remains were found in a private game park close to the Kruger National Park, near the northern town of Hoedspruit, on Saturday morning.
Police, who are working to establish the identity of the victim, discovered a loaded hunting rifle nearby.
“It seems the victim was poaching in the game park when he was attacked and killed by lions,” police spokesman Moatshe Ngoepe said.
“They ate his body, nearly all of it, and just left his head and some remains.”
Animals in the game park have been poached in increasing numbers over recent years.
Lions are popular targets, with their body parts used in traditional South African medicines.
Several of the big cats were found poisoned near a farm in the same region last year, with their heads and paws having been sawn off.
WWF estimates that there are just 20,000 African lions left in the wild, and that 75% of the species’ populations are in decline.
It means they are officially classed as “vulnerable”.
Other animals regularly targeted by poachers in South Africa’s game parks are rhino, to satisfy a booming demand for their horn in China, Vietnam and other Asian countries.
Public and private sector organisations and companies have been called upon to help shape and drive climate action at the first Africa Climate Week, scheduled to hold from April 9 to 13, 2018, in Nairobi, Kenya.
Nairobi, Kenya will host the Africa Climate Week
“To meet the goals of the Paris Agreement, we need to scale up global climate action and ambition across sectors, public and private,” said Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary, UN Climate Change. “Africa Climate Week can be an important means to drive that action and ambition.”
For more than a decade, the Nairobi Framework Partnership has been bringing together stakeholders – in Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Africa – around the common goal of addressing climate change, with a focus on market-based mechanisms and finance. In 2017 it began broadening regional carbon forums to create Climate Weeks to strengthen and support implementation of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement.
The events, including the first in 2018 being organised for Africa, include workshops, panel discussions, exhibits, and meetings. They also include high-level segments to capture regional concerns and feed them back into the formal negotiations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), through the Talanoa Dialogue launched this year.
The events of Africa Climate Week will focus on NDC support and implementation, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, Global Climate Action, and include:
High-level sessions with the Champions of the Marrakech Partnership for Global Climate Action
High-level ministerial session
Talanoa Dialogue
LEDS – Low Emissions Development Strategy – Workshop
Climate Technology Centre and Network Workshop
Technical Expert Meeting under UNFCCC
NDC Partnership Workshop
Emissions Trading System Simulation.
Countries agreed in Paris in 2015 that they would limit the rise of global average temperatures to well below 2 degrees Celsius and as close as possible to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels. Countries submit NDCs describing their contributions to achieving that goal.
Africa Climate Week will have as its cornerstone the long-running Africa Carbon Forum, with its programme of plenary sessions, side events and exhibitions focused on market-based approaches, economic instruments and climate-aligned finance to drive investment in climate action.
An ecologist, Mr Abdullahi Aremu, on Monday, February 12, 2018 urged Nigerians to desist from throwing waste or chemicals into water channels to aid the government’s efforts to check water pollution.
Inadequate refuse disposal and the habit of throwing waste into water channels have led to clogged drainage routes that contribute to flooding
Aremu, who is the Director-General, Advocacy for Environmental and Sanitation Integrity, an NGO, gave the advice in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.
“If we do our part by not throwing trash or chemicals into our water channels and drains, we can contribute to the improvement of aquatic life and our health in general,” he said.
The ecologist said that water covered over 70 per cent of the earth’s surface and made up over 60 per cent of the human body.
Aremu noted that the accumulation of solid waste and sediments in streams and rivers were part of the factors that caused water pollution and flooding across the country.
“Human litter such as plastic bags and six-pack rings can get aquatic animals caught or killed by suffocation.
“Industrial chemicals and agricultural pesticides that end up in aquatic environments can accumulate in fishes which are later eaten by humans.
“Fishes, which are poisoned by certain metals, can be consumed by humans. Mercury is particularly poisonous to small children and women,” he said.
Aremu said that mercury had been found to interfere with the development of the nervous system in foetuses and young children.
He stressed that water pollution affected marine ecosystems, wildlife health and human well-being.
“The panacea to the menace of water pollution is to make changes in our daily habits and pay more attention to the types of products we consume,” he said.
The Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) has urged the Federal Government to come up with a five-year work plan on the clean-up of Ogoniland if it is serious in assuaging the frustration of the people after decades of waiting for justice and salvaging their environment.
Norwegian Ambassador to Nigeria, Jens Petter Kjemprud, with local officials and activists during the visit
ERA/FoEN made the demand following the pledge of the Norwegian government to support the cleanup process when its Ambassador to Nigeria, Jens Petter Kjemprud, visited impacted sites in Ogoniland in the company of local activists last week.
Kjemprud had remarked that the world was interested in the ongoing clean-up of Ogoni, and that Norway, as one of the biggest donors of the United Nations, was also committed to the safety of Ogoni People.
ERA/FoEN in a statement issued in Lagos on Monday February 12, 2018 and made available to EnviroNews, said that the Norwegian government had made a bold and commendable move, urging other countries and institutions to support the Ogoni clean-up and remove it from the control of Shell, which is part of the Governing Council responsible for oversight functions for the exercise.
ERA/FoEN Executive Director, Godwin Uyi Ojo, said: “The Norwegian government support is a signal to the Nigerian government that the global community is frustrated with mere talk, and is really interested in this process gathering momentum. The continued delay in the clean-up is testing the patience of the Ogoni people whose lives and environment have been violated by Shell.”
Ojo explained that the government is yet to present the Ogonis and the world a realistic work-plan to show commitment to the exercise, adding that an announced N20 million Ogoni clean-up support in the 2018 budget was grossly inadequate and shows weak financial commitment that does not encourage stakeholders interested in moving the process forward.
He recommended a five-year plan that should be subject to stakeholders input and agreed upon before commencement of clean-up, with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) acting as technical partner.
The ERA/FoEN boss also argued that the last two years has been fraught with talk and more talk and nothing concrete, yet the Ogonis have kept faith alive in anticipation of the commencement of clean-up hence must not be taken for granted.
“This is a crucial year that the Ogonis and Nigerians expect the first drop of oil to be cleaned up properly so that restoration work can commence. The federal government cannot afford to fail the people in its legacy project. The time for concrete actions is now,” he stressed.
The sun might be unusually cool by 2050, according to a new study.
The sun
Based on the cooling spiral of recent solar cycles, scientists from University of California, San Diego believe the next “grand-minimum” is just decades away, during which the sun will be seven per cent cooler.
A grand-minimum, according to the study, is a period of very low solar activity, which will lead to lower temperature on earth.
During the grand-minimum in the mid-17th century, named Maunder Minimum, the temperature dropped low enough to freeze the Thames River.
However, the cooling is not uniform around the globe.
In spite of the chilling weather in Europe during the Maunder Minimum, other areas such as Alaska and southern Greenland warmed.
The phenomenon appears to offer a natural solution to global warming, but scientists invalidated that idea.
They explained that the cooling effect of the grand minimum could merely slow down global warming, but cannot stop it.
Scientists estimate that the grand minimum would probably only result in cooling the earth by about 0.25 per cent between 2020 and 2070.
The finding has been published in the Chicago-based journal Astrophysical Journal Letters.
International agricultural organisation, HarvestPlus, says it will reach 1.2 million households in Nigeria in 2018 with vitamin A cassava and maize, with increased delivery activities in expansion states.
Cassava farming
The HarvestPlus Country Manager, Dr Paul Ilona, who made this known on Monday, February 12, 2018 in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Ibadan, said the expansion states included the northeast, northwest and northcentral.
Ilona said the organisation planned to deliver about three million bundles of vitamin A cassava, 2,000 metric tonnes of vitamin A maize, and bring over 50,000ha of land under cultivation to bio-fortified seeds.
“This delivery target is in addition to the awareness and demand creation, platforms, partnerships, policies and linkages that HarvestPlus Nigeria needs to push to support investors and actors in the bio-fortification value chain,” he said.
He emphasised that agriculture could undoubtedly be a sustainable source of income generation, especially for Nigeria with her teeming population and favourable climatic conditions.
The Country Manager, however, expressed dissatisfaction that farmers, many investors in the sector were still unable to grow their production and investment scales.
He said to curb the problem of access to finance, HarvestPlus Nigeria channelled efforts to help investors and farmers cultivating and processing bio-fortified maize and cassava varieties to access the finance they need to grow their trade.
“Specifically, the plan is to link them to the Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing system for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL).
“NIRSAL is a CBN endorsed initiative that basically guarantees loans, guides and provides certified inputs for viable agricultural related businesses.
“The NIRSAL management is already very happy to work with us, so work is now underway to develop a formal agreement to kick start the partnership,” he said.
Ilona also disclosed that the Chairman, House of Representative Committee on Agricultural Production and Services, Mohammed Monguno, has pledged to support the development and passage of bills that will create an enabling environment, especially for maize producers in Nigeria.
This, he said, would help boost business of importing maize and other related products as Africa’s largest maize producer.
The Country Manager further urged government and policy makers to create the enabling environment to support investments and address nutrition in the country.
He also called on the media to help reinforce the message that “the foods people eat play key role in the development of the country.”
NAN reports that Harvestplus improves nutrition and public health by developing and promoting bio-fortified food crops that are rich in vitamins and minerals.
It provides global leadership on bio-fortification evidence and technology; the staple crops are naturally bio-fortified and not genetically modified.
