As an obligation by all Parties to the UNFCCC to organise the National Talanoa Dialogue towards taking stock of the progress on climate actions and report to the Convention, Nigeria obliged and is set to present the document at the upcoming climate talks in Poland. The report, following participation by numerous entities, represents their views and aspirations for a climate neutral society. Excerpts:

Where Are We?

Climate Change Awareness is increasing within government operational systems as well as among the public. The establishment of an Inter-ministerial committee on climate change provided an institutional pathway for mainstreaming climate change into the national government’s developmental agenda such as the Economic Recovery Growth Plan (ERGP).

Subnational governments like Cross River State has set up institutional framework to achieve the 1.5/2.0^oC target. The State has achieved 60 percent of the annual city capping project. The UNREDD plus programme to reduce emission through deforestation and forest degradation with social and livelihood benefits being piloted in the state has successfully completed the Readiness Phase. This is paving the way for two additional sub-national governments (Nassarawa and Ondo states) to also participate in the programme while other states key into it.

Lagos State Government is in the process of developing a climate action plan that is in line with the Paris Agreement 1.5-degree emission reduction target which was committed to in May 2018. The state has also invested in carbon emission reduction projects across the transportation and energy sector.

In Nigeria, many non-state actors have committed to and invested in delivering climate change awareness in mitigation among grassroot who are mostly vulnerable to climate change impact. This has led to the empowerment of indigenous communities to conserve 5,600 ha of forest alongside delivering to them other ecosystem services such as NTFP, flood regulation etc.

Mainstreaming climate change into Environmental Health Curriculum at tertiary education across Economic Community of West Africa State (ECOWAS) sub region has also led to reducing air pollution advocacy among relevant government MDAs.

Nationally, there is a commitment to increase the use of organic fertiliser specially to drive climate smart agriculture among farmers to 50%.

A large portion of the national intervention has been on afforestation and maintenance of sustainable forest management practice at rural and sub-national levels bringing a substantial increase into the number of degraded lands restored. Nursery development and the setting up of community forest laws have been used to sustain the afforestation effort.

Other areas of focus: Waste Management for Carbon Emission Reduction, Disaster Risk Management and Flood Control, Capacity Building, National Afforestation Programme, Promotion of Renewable Energy.

Where Do We Want To Go?

The vision of national actors and non-actors for future is to achieve a reduction in carbon emission as summarised in the Nigeria’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) of 20% reduction (conditional) and 45% reduction (unconditional) by 2030.

This vision when achieved will catalyse and accelerate the delivery of the NDC goals of ending gas flaring; building off-grid solar PV of 13GW (13,000MW); having efficient gas generators; achieving 2% per year energy efficiency (30% by 2030); switch from car to bus to rail; improved electricity grid; national scale adoption of climate smart agriculture and reforestation.

This will help drive a clean and safe environment for healthy living with a great reduction in air-borne diseases/infections, significant reduction in the destruction caused by flood; reduction in the rate of desert encroachment and desertification; improvement on the agricultural and food systems especially with effective land use management. Climate change impact such as drought fueling herdsmen-farmer crisis will be controlled and effectively managed thereby reducing climate-induced inter-city migration among pastoralist farmer and other climate refugees.

How Do We Get There?

Participants shared the following as strategies, models, and future opportunities that can be employed in successfully implementing the climate commitments/visions that will deliver climate action goals and transition to climate neutral society.

Partnership and Collaboration

All climate actors and non-actors must develop an effective platform of collaboration to share information and strategise jointly, advocate for environmental sustainability and implement development programmes, and coordinate engagement with Nigerian government at all levels and other development partners on climate change and sustainable development issues. Adopting community partnership models can also drive low emission pathway particularly as it ensures sustainability and ensures cost effectiveness.

Participants also demand for speedy Presidential assent to the already passed Climate Change Bill to further institutionalise climate change issues at national level having the required support from the government both financially and politically. Transitioning from a word era into an action era is of great demand especially at government level.

Technical and Capacity Development

Building capacity of local actors and other stakeholders in designing and implementing climate mitigation and adaptation projects while adopting proven technological innovations from developed countries that can help reduce carbon emission. Civil Society Organisations demands for training in climate advocacy, climate finance, and mainstreaming gender into the climate change issues.

Access to Climate Finance

Securing sustainable climate finance that is needed to drive climate action is a very difficult process. However, international donors and development partners should have a flexible and transparent funding structure for stakeholders to access finance that can also be monitored. Using various financial models that can help deliver scalable innovative climate projects are required for private sector and civil society organizations in delivering their climate commitment.

Institutionalising Climate Research and Development

The role of research and development in solving climate change issues is not negotiable. There is need for government investment in climate information and research such as waste to energy solutions that can further reduce dependency on fossil fuel-driven energy source. Establishment of such research institutions across the country and a commitment to implement their findings can further boost the delivery of climate commitments and actions.

Enforcement of Legal Framework on Climate Change

Having a policy or law is not enough to drive climate solutions but pushing for the enforcement of those policies can make a big difference. Government institutions responsible for law enforcement are to ensure public understanding and awareness of the laws while reinforcing on their enforcement across all sectors.

Disaster Risk and Resilience Management Advocacy and Awareness

The public and most vulnerable communities need a strong sensitization and awareness drive on disaster risk preparedness and management to further assist with coping with the impact of climate change. Demonstrating this with media campaigns and distribution of information education and communication materials can further assist with building resilience to climate change.

Subsidy or Tax Rebate on Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Equipment

To domesticate the popularism of renewable energy and to bring its cost to an average affordable price, stakeholders demand for a subsidy on renewable energy as it is currently done for Petroleum Motor Spirit and tax rebate or total withdrawal of tax on importation of renewable energy equipment such as Solar PV, Inverter and Wind Turbines, among others.

President Muhammadu Buhari will be joining over 80 Heads of State to attend the 24th Session of the Conference of the Parties (COP24) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

The conference will be held in Katowice, Poland from December 2 to 14, 2018. The conference is organised by the Bonn-based UNFCCC/UN Climate Change) and is presided over by Poland.

The key objective of the meeting is to adopt the implementation guidelines of the Paris Climate Change Agreement.

Climate experts say the meeting is crucial because it ensures the true potential of the Paris Agreement can be unleashed, including ramping up climate action so that the central goal of the agreement can be achieved, namely to hold the global average temperature to as close as possible to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

In May 9, 1992, countries adopted the UNFCCC as a framework for international cooperation to combat climate change by limiting average global temperature increases and the resulting climate change, and coping with impacts that were, by then, inevitable.

By 1995, countries launched negotiations to strengthen the global response to climate change, and, two years later, adopted the Kyoto Protocol, which legally binds developed country Parties to emission reduction targets. The Protocol’s first commitment period started in 2008 and ended in 2012. The second commitment period began on 1 January 2013 and will end in 2020.

There are now 197 Parties to the Convention and 192 Parties to the Kyoto Protocol. The 2015 Paris Agreement, adopted in Paris on December 12, 2015, marks the latest step in the evolution of the UN climate change regime and builds on the work undertaken under the Convention. The Paris Agreement charts a new course in the global effort to combat climate change.

In a related development, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has said that it will be present at COP24, albeit with a broad programme of its own events as well as taking part in the official activities of the meeting.

Co-Chairs of the three IPCC Working Groups will present the findings of the new IPCC report at a special event held with the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA) entitled “Unpacking the new scientific knowledge and key findings in the IPCC Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5ºC”, on Tuesday, December 4.

The report, says the IPCC, is the key scientific input into COP24, when Parties to the UNFCCC will review the goals and progress of the Paris Agreement in a process called the Talanoa Dialogue. Parties invited the IPCC to prepare the report at COP21 in 2015 when they adopted the Paris Agreement.

The Co-Chairs of the Task Force on National Greenhouse Gas Inventories will hold a side event on the “2019 Refinement to the 2006 Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories”, due to be released in May 2019, on Friday, December 7. The IPCC will also hold a side event on climate science and policy, together with the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) and United Nations Environment Programme, on Wednesday, December 5.

For the first time, the IPCC will have a pavilion (H3) at the climate conference, where it will present around 30 events showcasing the report on 1.5ºC, the Sixth Assessment Report work programme, and other IPCC activities. The pavilion is shared with the WMO.

Climate change experts from the ACT Alliance network have published a report assessing the threats posed by climate change on the sustainable development goals (SDG) and disaster risk reduction.

The report finds that warming of 1.5°C will severely impact climate-vulnerable developing countries and urges more ambitious climate action. The report also identifies policy recommendations to maintain the possibility of staying at 1.5°C global warming.

Titled “Enhanced Climate Action in Response to 1.5°C Global Warming: Scaling up Nationally Determined Contributions”, the research focuses on climate impacts in particularly climate-sensitive regions in which ACT members and partners are present. The report features case studies from the Marshall Islands, the Philippines, Bangladesh, Jordan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Central America (including El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua), and the European Union.

Bold climate commitments are needed by 2020 to respond to the risks of 1.5°C warming, as highlighted in the IPCC Special Report earlier this year. The authors state that climate change is affecting the most vulnerable populations and is hindering progress made towards the SDGs, particularly the goals related to poverty, health, water and sanitation.

“We are running out of time. As caretakers of creation, we need to hold governments to account and we must act to prevent any further risk to human life and dignity. Commitments and messages of solidarity must be transformed into concrete climate action so that support is provided to those most in need,” said Rudelmar Bueno de Faria, General Secretary of ACT Alliance.

Africa and Asia are projected to experience 75 per cent of the global risks associated with increased temperatures, putting a tremendous burden on governments to achieve the SDGs.

“Without effectively aligning 1.5°C-consistent national mitigation and adaptation action with SDGs and disaster risk reduction goals, sustainable development will remain an illusion, leaving behind hundreds of millions of people,” the report reads.

ACT’s call for action is further rooted in the experiences of ACT members who note that climate change is depriving poor and vulnerable people of their fundamental human right to be free from hunger and extreme poverty. The report notes that scaled-up climate action to reduce climate impacts around the world is a humanitarian, human rights, development and justice imperative.

The report provides a ten-step plan of action for all governments to respond to the risks of 1.5°C global warming including; undertaking a gap analysis; ratcheting up mitigation; fostering climate resilience and scaling up climate finance to name a few.

The next round of climate negotiations (COP24) is less than one week away and provides governments with another opportunity to increase their climate commitments towards the 1.5°C temperature target. ACT Alliance will present the report to government and civil society alike at a side event at COP24.

“Enhanced Climate Action in Response to 1.5°C Global Warming” was commissioned by the ACT Alliance Secretariat under its Global Climate Justice Project. To date, the report has been launched in Bangladesh for the Asia region and San Salvador for the Latin America and Caribbean region.

Global emissions are on the rise as national commitments to combat climate change come up short. But surging momentum from the private sector and untapped potential from innovation and green-financing offer pathways to bridge the emissions gap. Those findings along with a sweeping review of climate action and the latest measurements of global emissions were presented by authors of the 2018 Emissions Gap Report during a launch event in Paris, France on Tuesday, November 27, 2018.

The flagship report from UN Environment annually presents a definitive assessment of the so-called “emissions gap” – the gap between anticipated emission levels in 2030, compared to levels consistent with a 2°C / 1.5°C target.

The findings presented offer the latest accounting of national mitigation efforts and the ambitions countries have presented in their Nationally Determined Contributions, which form the foundation of the Paris Agreement.

Evidence outlined in Paris, just days before the start of the 24th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP24), show global emissions have reached historic levels at 53.5 GtCO2e, with no signs of peaking – the point when emissions switch from increasing to decreasing. Authors assessed that only 57 countries (representing 60 percent of global emissions) are on track to do so by 2030.

That analysis and a review of progress against national commitments under the Paris Agreement makes clear that the current pace of national action is insufficient to meet the Paris targets. Increased emissions and lagging action mean the gap number in this year’s report is larger than ever. Translated into climate action, the authors conclude nations must raise their ambition by 3x to meet the 2°C and 5x to meet 1.5°C.

“If the IPCC report represented a global fire alarm, this report is the arson investigation,” said UN Environment Acting Executive Director, Joyce Msuya. “The science is clear; for all the ambitious climate action we’ve seen – governments need to move faster and with greater urgency. We’re feeding this fire while the means to extinguish it are within reach,” she said.

A continuation of current trends will likely result in global warming of around 3°C by the end of the century, with continued temperature rises after that, according to the report findings.

While the authors highlight that there is still a possibility for bridging the emissions gap and keeping global warming below 2°C, the assessment issues a clear warning: The kind of drastic, large-scale action we urgently need has yet to been seen.

To fill this void, the 2018 Emissions Gap Report offers new insight into what meaningful climate action will look like. Through new analysis of global emissions in the context of fiscal policy, the current pace of innovation and an exhaustive review of climate action from the private sector and sub-national level, authors gathered here offered a roadmap for implementing the type of transformative action required to maximise potential in each of these sectors.

Ranging from city, state and regional governments to companies, investors, higher education institutions and civil society organisations, non-state actors are increasingly committing to bold climate action. These institutions are increasingly recognised as a key element in achieving the global emissions goals. Although estimates on the emission reduction potential vary widely, some mention 19 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (GtCO2e) by 2030. This is enough to close the 2°C gap.

Complimented by carefully designed fiscal policy, the potential is even greater.

“When governments embrace fiscal policy measures to subsidize low-emission alternatives and tax fossil fuels, they can stimulate the right investments in the energy sector and significantly reduce carbon emissions.” said Jian Liu, UN Environment’s Chief Scientist. “Thankfully, the potential of using fiscal policy as an incentive is increasingly recognised, with 51 carbon pricing initiatives now in place or scheduled, covering roughly 15 percent of global emissions. If all fossil fuel subsidies were phased out, global carbon emissions could be reduced by up to 10 percent by 2030. Setting the right carbon price is also essential. At $70 per ton of CO2, emission reductions of up to 40 percent are possible in some countries.”

These established pathways are further enhanced when policy makers embrace innovative solutions. Authors here outlined five key principles that should be considered to accelerate low-carbon innovation. Including risk-acceptance commercial scalability, holistic economic alignment, mission-oriented approaches and a long term-horizon to increase financial uptake.

The ninth Emissions Gap Report has been prepared by an international team of leading scientists, assessing all available information, including that published in the context of the IPCC Special Report, as well as in other recent scientific studies.