A new accounting of global climate action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions finds a broad spectrum of commitments from non-state and subnational actors with potential to support and ultimately outpace governments in their emissions reductions.
Erik Solheim, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The first COP to the Minamata Convention on Mercury will take place in September 2017 in Geneva, Switzerland. Photo credit: OECD/Michael Dean
The exhaustive review from UN Environment, released on Monday, September 10, 2018 ahead of the Global Climate Action Summit (GCAS), highlights the crucial role of non-state actors in reducing emissions and reaching climate targets.
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. As most national governments continue to come up short on their promises for better climate policy as pledged in the Paris Agreement, these efforts are increasingly recognised as a key element to achieving global emissions goals.
In total, the report finds these pledges represent a projected reduction of between 1.5 -2.2 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (GtCO2e) by 2030.
But where the assessment finds encouraging potential for scale, it also reveals challenges related to monitoring, reporting and coordination. A lack of participation and facilitation from government further limits the overall impact of these commitments on global CO2 reduction.
The aggregated review of global commitments shows the scope and pace of climate action from subnational entities has surged to historic proportions in the three years since the Paris agreement. In all, the study examines more than 183 international cooperative initiatives and thousands of non-state actors spread across 7,000 cities, 133 countries and carried out by over 6,000 private sector companies. Through an analysis of geographic, sectoral and functional distribution, the report reveals vast potential hindered by limited implementation.
“Cities, states, civil society and the private sector can be the resource that puts the world over the top in our fight to reduce CO2 emissions,” said head of UN Environment, Erik Solheim.
“For global governments and the policymakers who would support this momentum my message is this: The time for political rhetoric is over. The world urgently needs leaders with the political courage to act. Non-state actors are stepping up, but they need government engagement to bridge the emissions gap. The time is now to put it all together and finally address our new climate reality.”
In addition to directly reducing emissions, the study emphasises the growing role of non-state actors as incubators and accelerators for new low emissions strategies. The authors found that where the sector lacks coordinated structure, individual initiatives are increasingly seen as a proving ground for technology development and diffusion.
Non-state actors frequently implement climate action through a range of networks that collate individual climate pledges and inventories (For example, C40 Cities for Climate Leadership), or through broader coalitions at the national or international levels. Over the past two decades, the number of these coalitions has grown significantly, often in concurrence with key international climate events such as the UN Climate Action Summit convened in 2014, and the Paris climate conference in 2015.
The most common sectors addressed by such coalitions of non-state actors correspond with the sectors identified as having high mitigation potential, including the energy, industry, forestry, transport, agriculture and building sectors.
The report authors emphasised that for non-state actors to succeed and foster credibility, their pledges and the surrounding governance need to follow good practices in climate action: the participants need the capacity to deliver the goals, leadership needs to be effective, the funding sustainable, and the goals well-defined. Finally, transparency is crucial to allow for monitoring effectiveness, efficiency, and credibility.
Many people in the United States tend to see global warming as a distant threat even though it poses significant risks to public health.
With coal miners gathered around him, Trump signed an Executive Order rolling back a temporary ban on mining coal and a stream protection rule imposed by the Obama administration
In a study, the Centre for Climate Change Communication, George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, found that informing people about the health implications of global warming can increase public engagement with the issue and reduce differences in opinion across political lines.
The study also found that people view certain health impacts from global warming differently from others. Notably, participants viewed information about illnesses from contaminated food and water, and disease‐carrying organisms as more worrisome and novel compared to other types of health impacts from global warming.
The findings, according to the Centre, provide the most definitive evidence to date about the importance of raising awareness about the health impacts of global warming.
The researchers called for a more effective outreach about the entire range of health risks, against the backdrop of the seeming widespread lack of awareness about the public health implications of climate change among Americans.
Public health officials were urged to strengthen public engagement specifically about illnesses caused by contaminated food and water, and by disease-carrying pests.
“We hope the results of this study will help to mobilise the public health community and catalyse additional research to figure out how to optimally target and tailor this information for a wide variety of audiences in order to reduce our collective vulnerability to the wide-ranging health threats from climate change,” says the Centre.
In the light of the fact that a small body of previous research suggests that information about the health implications of global warming may enhance public engagement with the issue, the Centre sought to extend those findings with a longitudinal study that examined how Americans react to information about eight specific categories of health impacts from global warming.
In winter 2017, the Centre conducted a two‐wave survey experiment using a quota sample of American adults (n=2254). Participants were randomly assigned to a treatment group which read eight brief essays about different categories of health impacts from global warming, or to a control group that received no information.
Participants answered questions before reading the essays, immediately after reading each essay and at the conclusion of all essays (treatment participants only), and two to three weeks later.
“Reading the information had small‐ to medium‐sized effects on multiple indicators of participants’ cognitive and affective engagement with global warming, especially among people who are politically moderate and somewhat conservative; some of these changes persisted two to three weeks later.
“Some impacts were seen as more novel and worrisome, including illnesses from contaminated food, water, and disease‐carrying organisms. Our findings provide the most definitive evidence to date about the importance of raising awareness about the health impacts of global warming. While participants believed all of the essays as offered valuable information, educational efforts might most productively focus on impacts that are relatively less familiar, and more emotionally engaging, such as food‐, water‐, and vector‐borne illnesses,” adds the Centre.
The African Innovation Foundation (AIF) on Thursday, September 13, 2018 announced its top 10 nominees for its prestigious Innovation Prize for Africa (IPA) 2018 awards. This year’s Call for Applications with its theme “African innovation: Investing in Inclusive Innovation Ecosystems” attracted more than 3,000 applications from 52 African countries. Building on the AIF mandate, submissions this year were said to have demonstrated significant breakthroughs in ICT, agri-business, public health and the environment/ energy sectors to improve the lives and economic prospects of Africans.
Dr. Diana Yousef’s iThrone portable toilet
Says Walter Fust, AIF Chairman: “Now in its seventh year running, we have witnessed multi-million-dollar businesses emerging from the IPA initiative, with health, environment/energy and agricultural innovations leaving imprints across the African continent and beyond. Our theme this year prompts the need for increased collaboration between government, business, industry, innovation enablers and the community to further realise African prosperity and economic freedom.”
The IPA initiative has reportedly grown from strengthen to strength mobilising, rewarding and honouring top African innovators whilst also building strategic partnerships with innovation enablers to strengthen innovation ecosystems in Africa. To date, AIF has supported 55 IPA winners/nominees with $1 million+ and mobilised 9,400+ innovators from all 55 African countries. AIF endorsement and exposure generated through IPA have seen past winners securing over $135 million worth of investments to grow and scale their businesses. IPA past winners and nominee company valuations amount to $200 million+.
Managing Director of AIF, Pauline Mujawamariya Koelbl, who has steered the IPA programme since its establishment in 2011, said: “We are proud of the impressive innovations that made it to the top 10 this year. They are evident examples of African ingenuity and each innovation is solving a real challenge in a key sector. Africa, and indeed the rest of the world, must keep an eye out – these innovations are ready to propel our continent’s global competitiveness in the market! Furthermore, these top 10 nominees are a great reminder that if given access to capital, Africans are capable of solving African challenges whilst also contributing to the rest of the world.”
The top 10 IPA nominees whose innovations are in the sectors of agri-business, public health and well-being, ICT, energy, environment and water are listed as follows:
A high-level meeting on controlling Fall Armyworm in west and central Africa has begun in Yaoundé, Cameroon.
Armyworm invasion
In attendance at the meeting, organised by the African Development Bank (AfDB) in collaboration with the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT), are ministers of agriculture from the sub-regions, focal points from the respective Agriculture ministries in the two sub-regions, scientists and experts from different organisations.
Eyebe Ayissi, Cameroonian minister for agriculture, in his remarks while declaring the meeting open, welcomed the sub-regional approach to tackling the fall armyworm menace whose invasion according to him, is a threat to the resilience of cereal cropping systems in Africa.
“Sustainable management of this pest needs a multi-stakeholder approach with the cereal growers in the middle of such an approach. While efforts to build the natural regulatory factors of the pest (biological control, building resistance among host plants etc.) are undertaken, farmers need advice, tools, resources, risk management options and a conducive environment to sustainably manage Fall armyworm,” Ayissi added.
In a similar vein, Gaston Cossi Dossouhoui, the Beninese minister for agriculture, livestock and fishery, commended the organisers for the initiative which he described as timely.
“In Benin, more than 33,000 hectares have been reportedly destroyed by Fall Armyworms which amounts to 44,500 tons of production lost, about 3.4% of the forecast national production for 2016-17,” Dossouhoi said.
The Deputy Director General, Partnerships for Development at IITA, Dr Kenton Dashiel, in his remarks, called for an integrated approach against the rampaging insect in Africa. He stressed the need for a coherent policy framework and a combination of chemical and biological control measures in the aggregated efforts against the caterpillar.
Also present at the meeting were representatives of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA), African Development Bank (AfDB), Syngenta, and DVA Agro.
The impact of Fall armywormin Africa
Fall Armyworm (FAW), or Spodoptera frugiperda, is an insect that is native to tropical and subtropical regions of the Americas. In its larva stage, it can cause significant damage to crop, if not well managed.
It prefers maize but can feed on more than 80 additional species of plants including rice, sorghum, millet, sugarcane, vegetable crops and cotton.
Fall Armyworm was first detected in Central and Western Africa in early 2016 and since then has been reported and confirmed in all of mainland Southern Africa (except Lesotho), Madagascar, and Seychelles (Island State).
To-date, Fall Armyworm has been detected and reported in almost all of Sub-Saharan Africa, except in Djibouti, Eritrea, and Lesotho.
In Southern Africa, the outbreak of the pest in the 2016-2017 crop season came at a time when households in the region were still reeling from the impact of the El Nino induced drought in 2015-2016, which affected an estimated 40 million people.
Fall Armyworm is a dangerous transboundary pest with a high potential to continually spread due to its natural migratory capacity and trade.
Fall Armyworm has a wide host range of over 80 plants, with high preference for cereal crops such as maize, sorghum and other crops such as sugarcane including wild grasses.
Apart from the danger to human food security, Fall Armyworm has been shown to causes losses in livestock.
Speculations as to the causes of death include high cyanide levels caused by armyworm damage in some types of grasses, and ingestion of caterpillars or fungal mycotoxins on armyworm faeces.
The Director General/CEO, National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA), Dr Rufus Ebegba, has said that Nigeria’s quest for economic diversification must be hinged on safe technologies.
Director General/CEO, National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA), Dr Rufus Ebegba (third from left, in white); Country Coordinator, Programme for Biosafety Systems (PBS), Dr Mathew Dore (second from left); with other delegates during the opening of the conference
Ebegba made the submission on Wednesday, September 12, 2018 at the opening of the 4th National Biosafety Conference, hosted by the Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, Edo State. According to him, the nation needs a combination of tools, processes and safe technologies, albeit in a complementary way, to provide a form of economic diversification, which would bring with it a new set of skills thereby expanding job opportunities.
He said that the opportunities in the adoption of safe technologies are endless and their borders seamless. This, he noted, is however determined by the strength of its regulation which in turn determines its safety.
“The presence of National Biosafety Management Act 2015 and the National Biosafety Management Agency are assuring enough. This is therefore not the time to get bogged down with fears, inconsistencies or lethargy. Nigeria cannot afford to stand aloof or left behind in this fast-growing world.
“This is where modern biotechnology comes in and hence Biosafety. This conference is expected to enable scientists, line-government institutions, NGOs and other stakeholders, within and outside the country, to cross- fertilize ideas which foster holistic biosafety management in Nigeria. The outcome would assist in the strengthening of our national biosafety system in its contribution to the diversification of the Nigerian economy.
The NBMA Director General said that this year’s conference is designed with sub-themes carved out to discuss specific areas of Biosafety Management in a diversifying economy and how they relate to pertinent socio-economic issues and economic sustainability.
Director General/CEO, National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA), Dr Rufus Ebegba (in white), in the company of other delegates at the conference
He said that the NBMA Act 2015 remained the only safety valve for the adoption of modern biotechnology and the deployment and use of GMOs for socio-economic development in Nigeria.
According to him, the Act seeks, among other aims, to provide derived benefits from safe modern biotechnology under a legal framework for economic growth, improved agriculture, job and wealth creation, industrial growth and a sustainable environment.
Other aims include to minimise risks to human health, harness the potentials of modern biotechnology, guard against any socio-economic consequences, give confidence in the practice of modern biotechnology, use and handling of GMOs and GM products, and reaffirm Nigeria’s commitment to the principles of International Agreements and Treaties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (CPB).
Dr Ebegba noted that the Act would not only allow proper regulation for imported GM products but ensure that Nigeria will not be a dumping ground for GMOs and products.
Dr Mathew Dore, Country Coordinator, Programme for Biosafety Systems (PBS), during his opening remarks said that issues of biosafety were gaining prime attention in the country following the victory of NBMA over anti-GMOs crusaders.
He charged scientists and stakeholders attending the conference to articulate their voices in strong support of the technology as its potentials to provide solution to the food crisis and challenges faced by farmers is no longer in doubt.
Chairperson, NGO Coalition working with the Federal Ministry of the Environment, Chike Chikwendu, delivering a goodwill message
In a keynote address, the Vice-Chancellor, Ambrose Ali University, Prof Ignatius A. Onimawo, said that as the nation continues to search for solutions to hunger, the ability of genetically modified crops to produce more than their conventional counterparts is not in doubt.
He said that the nation must rely on science for evidence inspite of the controversies surroundings the adoption of GMOs in the agricultural sector. “The technology has been tested over the years and we are still yet to find verifiable fact or evidence of its harm to environment or human health,” he said.
In a goodwill message, Prof. Benjamin Ubi, who is President, Biotechnology Society of Nigeria (BSN), opined that the Bt cotton recent approval for commercial release would ensure the revival of the hitherto moribund textile industry “in efforts towards diversifying the economy via the mass cultivation of this superior cotton type possessing inherent resistance in Nigeria”.
His words: “The success story of biosafety in Nigeria with particular reference to the upturned court case and approval of Bt cotton for commercial release stemmed from the courageous efforts of NBMA in galvanising all the stakeholders to provide a strong scientific voice to convincingly enlighten the general public of the accuable benefits of modern biotechnology and the safety of its products after their certification by the NBMA which is the competent authority on biosafety in Nigeria.”
Ubi, a Professor of Plant Breeding & Biotechnology at the Ebonyi State University in Abakaliki, went further: “The years ahead will need even more robust activities as we continue to enlighten the decision makers and members of the general public who may still be sceptical (or even apprehensive) about biosafety. And we hope that other products needed for food and nutrition security (such as Bt cowpea and biofortified sorghum) will come on board as soon as possible with their economic impact so glaring for all to see and believe.
“AS earlier indicated, GMOs should be seen beyond GM foods/crops alone but considered on a case-by-case basis including GM feed, GM feedstock / GM algae for biofuels, GM microorganisms for bioremediation and improved fermentation technology, GM mosquitoes for possible control of zika disease and malaria and GM animals, among others, in line with the national biosafety regulatory framework.”
Chairperson, NGO Coalition working with the Federal Ministry of the Environment, Chike Chikwendu, described the conference theme as apt because, according to him, science and technology have since been used by crop developers and industry practitioners in boosting globsl food supply and as such to diversify Nigeria’s economy requires investments in sustainable and safe agricultural practices.
“So, Nigeria’s agriculture cannot continue to rely on the current self-sustenance agriculture,” he stated, adding:
“One of the things that could propel agricultural productivity is biotechnology. Introducing vast modern agricultural methods with high productivity would effectively guarantee our food security while exporting surpluses could earn us foreign exchange. As a food insecure nation, the Nigerian CSO community, as critical stakeholders, is in support of policy measures that will ensure modern biotechnology applications in the diversification of Nigeria’s economy under a sound biosafety regulatory framework.”
Edo State Commissioner for Agriculture and Natural Resources, Mr. Monday Osaigbovo, disclosed that in the realisation of the fact that biotechnology has become a quintessential part of the nation’s development efforts that the state government established a School of Biotechnology and Forestry to be in Uromi as part of the restructures Edo State College of Agriculture and Natural Resources.
“Expectedly, the school will train middle manpower to harness our agricultural resources and implement our agricultural programmes,” he said, adding that the ministry upholds the protocol on strict adherence to rational pesticide and additives use by farmers, and ensuring that pesticide residues in crops and additives in livestock are kept at the prescribed levels.
On regulations and facilitation, Osaigbovo called on the NBMA to look into areas such as GMO labelling, environmental release and movement of genetically engineered crops, and establishment of state offices of the NBMA.
The two-day conference, which has “Biosafety management in diversified economy” as its theme, attracted over 300 participants from universities, research institutions, government agencies, private sector operators and civil society groups.
The Fadama III AFII says it has supported rain-fed farmers with agricultural inputs in eight communities in Yobe State to boost food production.
Farmers on the FADAMA project
The Project Coordinator, Musa Garba, made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.
He mentioned the communities as Buduwa, Daklam, Guyik and Zabudum in Jakusko Local Government Area.
Others, he added, are: Balanguwa, Baganari and Maja-kura villages in Nguru Local Government Area, including Fika in Bade Local Government Area of the state.
Garba said that the tour of the communities was meant to interact with farmers who benefited from the rain-fed support project, to determine the performance crops.
He said that the visit to the affected areas was also to ensure that the farmers comply with the directive on demarcating of the 0.5-hectare farm size, as supported by the project.
“It is important to maintain the 0.5- hectare farm, clearly separated from the main farm so that we may determine crop yield after harvest.
“If farmers respect the directive on planting on 0.5-hectare, we will know why yield varies from farm to farm.
“It will also afford us the opportunity to determine whether some farmers adopt best practices and others ignored them.’’ Garba said.
He urged farmers to count their normal walking steps, using legs to measure 0.5-hectare farm size before planting, to ensure exact measurement for them to record the desired yield.
The project coordinator promised to link farmers with service providers who would find solution the problems confronting them.
He told NAN he also inspected rice, millet, sorghum, sesame, tomato, pepper and cow pea in the communities concerned to ascertain the impact of the agricultural inputs on farming activities in the communities.
Climate Change is among the leading causes of rising global hunger according to a new report released by the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) on Tuesday, September 11, 2018.
A flooded farmland. Photo credit: FAO
Pointing to extreme weather events, land degradation and desertification, water scarcity and rising sea levels, the authors show how climate change already undermines global efforts to eradicate hunger.
Overall, the number of hungry people grew for the third year in row in 2017, reaching a total of 821 million worldwide. The paper warns that this number will continue to rise if countries fail to tackle climate change and to build resilience to its unavoidable impacts.
In a joint foreword to the report, the heads of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the World Food Programme (WFP) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) call for an integrated approach to counter the adverse effects of climate change on food production systems:
“If we are to achieve a world without hunger and malnutrition in all its forms by 2030, it is imperative that we accelerate and scale up actions to strengthen the resilience and adaptive capacity of food systems and people’s livelihoods in response to climate variability and extremes,” the leaders said.
The number of extreme climate-related disasters, including extreme heat, droughts, floods and storms, has doubled since the early 1990s, with an average of 213 of these events occurring every year during the period of 1990-2016. These disasters harm agricultural productivity of major crops such as wheat, rice and maize causing food price hikes and income losses that reduce people’s access to food.
Data in the FAO study adds further evidence to this trend, showing that prevalence and number of undernourished people tends to be higher in countries highly exposed to climate extremes. Undernourishment is higher again when exposure to climate extremes is compounded by a high proportion of the population depending on agricultural systems that are highly sensitive to rainfall and temperature variability.
To better illustrate the link between climate change and food insecurity the UN’s World Food Programme, in a collaboration with the UK met office, has developed an interactive map that outlines different scenarios for the future. By altering the level of emissions and adaption measures, users can explore how vulnerability to food insecurity could play out in different regions over time.
Landmark agreements such as the Paris Agreement and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development have already acknowledged the link between hunger and climate change as well as the need for urgent action to protect the most vulnerable communities.
In December, the climate change conference COP24 in Poland will see the international community come together to finalise the rulebook of the Paris Agreement and to deliver on its promises.
The Pulitzer Centre on Wednesday, September 12, 2018 announced the launch of the Rainforest Journalism Fund, a five-year, $5.5 million initiative focused on raising public awareness of the pressing environmental issues facing the world’s tropical forests.
The Amazon rainforest
Supported by a grant from the Norwegian Ministry of Climate and Environment through the Norwegian International Climate and Forest Initiative (NICFI), the Rainforest Journalism Fund represents a major investment in international environmental and climate reporting, with plans to support nearly 200 original reporting projects along with annual regional conferences designed to raise the level of reporting on global rainforest issues such as deforestation and climate change. The Fund will also provide hostile-environment and first-aid training to 75 journalists operating in rainforest regions during the course of the grant.
The idea gained momentum when a group of reporters in South America proposed an Amazon Journalism Fund to widen coverage of this important topic. Tropical forests are among the major battlegrounds of climate change – and also one of the most promising ways of mitigating, and reversing, its adverse environmental and public-health consequences. News-media outlets are said to increasingly lack the resources to support the kind of sustained reporting that is required to bring these issues to light; journalists reporting on these issues often face heightened security risks. This kind of reporting is described an essential public good that requires outside support to successfully reach audiences at both local and international levels, support that the Rainforest Journalism Fund will provide.
NICFI, the Pulitzer Centre and the journalists involved are committed to the editorial independence of the Fund’s grantees. One of the Pulitzer Centre’s key roles in administering the Fund is to ensure that the Fund’s grantees are free to conduct their reporting within the highest standards of journalism.
“Forest loss is often driven by hidden, illegal activities and executed with impunity,” said Ola Elvestuen, Norway’s Minister of Climate and Environment. “Global supply chains often provide the cash flows behind these activities. To counter the detrimental ongoing deforestation, we need more transparency and we need quality journalism.
“I am thankful that Pulitzer Centre, a renowned institution with a long track record of supporting state-of-the-art journalism on under-covered issues, will have full editorial control over funds and allocations, supported by advisory committees consisting of distinguished journalists,” Elvestuen said.
“Sunshine is the best disinfectant,” said Per Fredrik Ilsaas Pharo, director of NICFI. “There is no stronger sunshine than professional journalism.”
“No issue is as important to our future as climate change and understanding the role of rainforests is absolutely key to solving the challenges we face,” said Jon Sawyer, executive director of the Pulitzer Centre. “We are grateful for this opportunity to work with some of the world’s leading environmental journalists.”
As part of the Fund’s support for local reporters with regional expertise, the Pulitzer Centre will work with journalism advisory committees and coordinators with expertise on each of the world’s major rainforest regions – in the Amazon, central Africa and southeast Asia.
In reporting from the Amazon region, the Pulitzer Centre will work closely with the Amazon Advisory Committee, which will play a key role in deciding on the allocation of grants. The members are as follows:
Jonathan Watts, chair (global environment editor, The Guardian)
Eliane Brum (Altamira, Brazil / journalist, filmmaker and El Pais columnist)
Daniela Chiaretti, environment correspondent, Valor Economico(São Paulo)
Simon Romero (national correspondent, The New York Times)
Thomas Fischermann (Die ZEIT, South America)
Adriana León (Perú, IPYS and Los Angeles TimesPeru)
Fabiano Maisonnave (Amazon correspondent / Folha de São Paulo)
“The Rainforest Journalism Fund is the initiative of reporters in South America who want wider support for local and international media coverage of the Amazon,” Watts said. “We know from experience that reporting in this region is difficult and expensive, but crucially important if humanity is to understand and respond to the existential threats of deforestation, biodiversity loss and climate change.
“Our seven-member advisory committee – which is independent and predominantly comprised of journalists in Amazon nations – is grateful to the Norwegian government for providing substantial financial resources and to the Pulitzer Centre for adding media expertise, education and administration. We hope and expect that more grants and training will mean stronger stories and better governance.”
Over the next few months the Pulitzer Centre will be recruiting similar advisory committees, and regional coordinators, for Africa and Asia. It will also issue a call for proposals on its website, pulitzercenter.org, for rainforest reporting around the globe.
The United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) says it is collaborating with the Edo State Government to evolve a policy that will address the environmental challenges in the state.
Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State
The National Programme Officer, UNIDO, Mr Reuben Bamidele, stated this at a one-day validation workshop for “Edo Environment Policy” in Benin City, the state capital, on Wednesday, September 12, 2018.
Bamidele said that the environment policy when developed would curb the activities that caused environmental degradation in the state.
He said human activities had continued to pose threat to the sustainability of environment.
“Edo is currently facing challenges in the areas of water erosion and deforestation, especially with the furniture business in the state; the forest is gradually being eroded.
“In the area of agriculture, the effect of bush burning and use of agrochemicals also pose problems to the environment; these are challenges the state has to tackle.
“The environmental policy is necessary to mitigate these changes,” he said.
The Permanent Secretary, Edo Ministry of Environment and Sustainability, Mr Brai Emoedume, said the essence of the workshop was to validate the input of stakeholders in the policy formulation.
Emoedume said, “Environment is key to human existence hence the need to have a framework to coordinate activities happening within it.
“We should consider the environment as something we are holding in trust for our children and protect it.”
Dr Felix Iyalumhe, the Senior Special Assistant to the Edo Governor on Environment, said the state was working with critical stakeholders on the policy formulation.
Iyalumhe said this was with a view to having a document that would help create a safer and cleaner state.
He added that the residents would benefit from the implementation of the policy as it would help address flooding and other environmental challenges faced in the state.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will consider the Special Report on “Global Warming of 1.5 °C” from October 1 to 5, 2018 at its 48th Session to be held in Incheon, Republic of Korea.
The report, whose full title is “Global Warming of 1.5 °C, an IPCC special report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels and related global greenhouse gas emission pathways, in the context of strengthening the global response to the threat of climate change, sustainable development, and efforts to eradicate poverty (SR15)”, was requested by governments when they adopted the Paris Agreement in December 2015 at the 21st Conference of the Parties (COP21) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
Formally, the draft Summary for Policymakers will be considered by the First Joint Session of IPCC Working Groups I, II and III. The 48th Session of the IPCC will then accept their work.
A media session to present the Summary for Policymakers of the Special Report on “Global Warming of 1.5 °C” will be held after the meeting, subject to approval of the Summary for Policymakers.
IPCC Chair Hoesung Lee will address the opening session, along with senior officials from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the World Meteorological Organisations (WMO), and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and senior officials of the Republic of Korea.
