Following Cuba’s deposition of its instrument of accession to the Nagoya-Kuala Lumpur Supplementary Protocol on Liability and Redress to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety on Wednesday, April 26 2017, only three more ratifications are now required for the Supplementary Protocol to enter into force.
Cristiana Paşca Palmer, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). She has urged all Parties to the Biosafety Protocol that have yet to do so, to ratify the Supplementary Protocol as soon as possible
Adopted as a supplementary agreement to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety to the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Supplementary Protocol aims to contribute to the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity by providing international rules and procedures for response measures in the event of damage resulting from living modified organisms.
Dr. Cristiana Paşca Palmer, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), said: “I very much welcome the accession of Cuba to the Nagoya-Kuala Lumpur Supplementary Protocol. I urge all Parties to the Biosafety Protocol that have yet to do so, to ratify the Supplementary Protocol as soon as possible.
“I also urge Parties to the Biodiversity Convention that have not yet done so, to ratify the Biosafety Protocol so that they can also become Parties to the Supplementary Protocol.”
The Supplementary Protocol will enter into force on the 19th day after the deposit of the 40th instrument of ratification, accession, acceptance or approval.
To expedite the entry into force and implementation of the Supplementary Protocol, the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity is developing capacity building materials and undertaking a range of awareness-raising activities.
Delegates from around the world will converge at the United Nations Headquarters in Nairobi for the 26th Session of United Nations Human Settlements Programme’s (UN-Habitat) Governing Council from Monday 8 to Friday May 12, 2017. President of Kenya, Uhuru Kenyatta, will formally open the biennial gathering that is aimed at examining the UN body’s work plan.
Joan Clos, Executive Director, UN-Habitat. The New Urban Agenda was adopted at the the Habitat III Conference last October in Quito, Ecuador
The Governing Council meeting is a high-level forum of governments at the ministerial level during which policy guidelines and the organisation’s budget are established for the next two-year period.
Following the United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development in Quito in October last year, the theme of this Governing Council reflects opportunities for the effective implementation of the New Urban Agenda.
The New Urban Agenda, which was signed by member states at Habitat III, is an action-oriented document which sets global standards of achievement in sustainable urban development, rethinking the way mankind builds, manages, and lives in cities. Through drawing together cooperation with committed partners, relevant stakeholders, and urban actors, including at all levels of government as well as the private sector, UN-Habitat is applying its technical expertise, normative work and capacity development to implement the New Urban Agenda and Sustainable Development Goal 11 – to make cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.
The Governing Council will be attended by government ministers, senior officials and other representatives of governments making up the Council as well as UN-Habitat partners who will deliberate on these issues as well as climate change and its impact on cities.
An intergovernmental decision-making body for the UN-Habitat, the Governing Council meets biennially and reports to the General Assembly of the United Nations through the Economic and Social Council, particularly on programmatic issues.
According to the UN-Habitat, “Rapidly growing cities need to be strategically guided for longer-term sustainability. Thirty percent of people globally live in slums and informal settlements due to inappropriate or inadequate land policy, administration and management. This percentage is even higher in post-conflict countries.
“Land policies need to be developed to facilitate land governance that enhances gender equality, a flexible land recording system, recognition of the range of land rights, decentralised land management and grassroots participation, urban equity, efficiency and sustainability.”
Another round of the United Nations climate change negotiations commences on Monday, May 8, 2017 in Bonn, Germany. Observers have underlined the need for the 10-day international conference to advance substantive progress on the rules and processes that will fully operationalise the Paris Agreement. The session marks the half-way point to the finalisation of this process by 2018.
Chair of the Least Developed Countries (LDC) Group, Gebru Jember Endalew
Chair of the Least Developed Countries (LDC) Group, Gebru Jember Endalew, in statement, said: “Climate change is costing lives and livelihoods, particularly in poor and vulnerable countries so there is a need for urgent action by all countries. The LDC Group will continue to push for fair and ambitious action by all.”
The LDC Group had convened in Bonn for preparatory meetings from May 1 to 2, to consolidate its positions and strategies ahead of the upcoming negotiations.
The group believes that significant pollution cuts and the transfer of finance and technology are needed in order to limit global warming to well below 1.5C, the limit identified by many scientists and social movements across the world.
Endalew added: “For many of our countries, keeping the global temperature rise below 1.5 degrees Celsius is a matter of survival. Therefore, we all have to work towards a cleaner, greener, low-carbon global society as soon as possible.
“Protecting people, livelihoods and economies also requires adapting to the impacts of climate change that are already devastating communities, erasing hard-won development gains and forcing mass migration. In this regard, I am deeply concerned about the lack of available support for adaptation, leaving the poorest and most vulnerable in society to weather the worst impacts of climate change with the least means to cope. Meanwhile the Least Developed Countries Fund, a key source of support for adaptation planning and implementation, sits empty.
“Many LDCs have made ambitious commitments under the Paris Agreement. However, these commitments cannot be implemented without substantial support, including technological and financial support. Many estimates suggest that more than $100 trillion is needed to transition to a global low-carbon society. The financial support committed by developing countries to date falls far short of this figure and is therefore woefully inadequate.
“The little that has nominally been made available through various funds and institutions continues to be inaccessible for our countries that the lack individual and institutional capacity to readily access those funds. In short, climate finance must begin to actually flow to the countries that need it and be scaled up drastically if we are to limit global warming to safe levels and avoid the most catastrophic impacts of climate change across the globe.
“Despite the challenges LDCs face, we are leading through action, for example by building on the successful launch of the LDC Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Initiative at COP22. Through this initiative, LDCs are taking charge of their energy future and security and empowering our poorest communities to pursue sustainable development through equitable access to clean, sustainable and low-carbon energy.”
The Green Climate Fund (GCF) is currently exploring ways to help countries keep their forests intact while also dealing with climate change following a “ground-breaking” workshop held in Bali, Indonesia at the end of last month.
Yolando Velasco, climate finance and capacity building manager, UNFCCC
Sixty participants from developing and developed countries shared their experiences in REDD+ implementation during the workshop on 21 to 24 April. They advised the Fund how to capitalise on international progress in paying developing countries to address climate change by protecting their forests.
Advice by REDD+ experts at the workshop is feeding into GCF’s current preparation of Request for Proposals (RFP) on REDD+ results-based payments. The Fund issues RFPs on an ad hoc basis to seek project ideas for niche areas seen to require climate financing.
Many participants shared the view that workshop discussions not only helped open new GCF funding possibilities, but helped to progress the realisation of the REDD+ idea itself.
“The workshop was ground breaking as it has provided clarity on issues in REDD+ finance that have not been explored before,” said Yolando Velasco, a climate finance and capacity building manager with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
Mr Velasco pointed to the key role REDD+ is now playing globally in the new landscape of climate cooperation under the Paris Agreement.
“What is interesting about REDD+ is not just in terms of financing, but in the way REDD+ plays a big part in how many developing countries will achieve their low greenhouse gas emissions development in the context of NDCs,” he said.
The Paris Agreement marks the first time that both developed and developing countries have agreed to reduce their emissions, according to their individual National Determined Contributions (NDCs). REDD+ results-based finance was also included as a key element of the Paris Agreement (article 5).
REDD+ refers to a UN-moderated process which provides developing countries with payments for “achieving emissions reductions from deforestation and forest degradation and to conserve and enhance carbon sinks.”
The workshop explored how GCF can provide REDD+ support to countries that is results-based. It also sought guidance from participants on how to support efforts by National Designated Authorities and focal points in developing countries to engage with GCF in these countries’ early phases of REDD+ implementation.
“I am now convinced that REDD+ is primed to assist the GCF in achieving a paradigm shift,” said Caroline Leclerc, Director General for Food Security and Environment at Global Affairs Canada, who is also a GCF Board member and a GCF REDD+ Champion. She explained that she entered the discussions with concern about the complexities of REDD+ that may have made progress difficult, but that she was impressed with the constructive attitude of participants.
Ms Leclerc and other workshop leaders will summarise results of the discussions to feed into GCF’s current consideration of how it will use a results-based approach to REDD+ to support countries.
“We need to recognise that partners are operating across a spectrum of preparation for REDD+, and GCF is looking to assist all countries to progress along this spectrum,” Ms Leclerc said.
Several workshop participants pointed to the key role of REDD+ in their countries’ climate plans.
“It is hard to take climate action in my country and other neighbouring countries if we don’t deal with forests,” said Tosi Mpanu-Mpanu, who works in the Prime Minister’s office of the Democratic Republic of Congo, and who is also a GCF Board member and GCF REDD+ Champion.
“But a lack of funding certainty is a killer when it comes to REDD+,” Mr Mpanu-Mpanu stated. “If we don’t have certainty, how can we embark on a long-term endeavour such as REDD+, when there are other development areas demanding attention such as health, infrastructure and security?”
The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has directed all its affiliate bodies to send to the National Integrity office, six copies of resignation letters of officials who are playing multiple roles in the administration of football in the country.
NFF President, Amanju Pinnick
NFF Integrity Officer, Dr Chris Emeruo, said that, for football to be more credible in the country, the concerned officers must resign before the 12th of this month, May 2017.
“For those who have not taken it as a responsibility to transmit to us officially their decision to either leave or other positions they are holding by now, we are now officially requesting that they should all transmit to us this decision that we have reached, so that we can identify those that have complied and then subsequently also identify those that are yet to comply.
“We are hoping that others who have not turned theirs in would also do that before the expiration of the seven working days that have been given.”
Emeruo further stated that the directive was part of efforts of the NFF to meet the international best practices.
Meanwhile, Nigeria’s foe enroute the African Cup of Nations, South Africa, have signed former national coach, Stuart Baxter, for the second time.
According to a release by the country’s football association, SAFA, reached an agreement with Baxter’s present club, Super Sport United, for the 63-year-old to continue with them until July.
Baxter replaces Shakes Mashaba, who was sacked in December, last year. Baxter who has previously coached South Africa giant Kaiser Chief, would also be given time away from club duties to prepare Bafana Bafana for their opening 2019 African Cup of Nations qualifier in Nigeria at the weekend of June 9th – 11th.
South Africa’s all-time leading goal scorer, Benni Marcathy, who was consulted during the selection process for the coach, said the appointment boosts the country’s chances of qualifying for big tournaments.
Baxter’s first string in charge of South Africa began in 2004, but he quit a year later after failing to lead the Bafana Bafana to the 2004 World Cup finals.
The Ikebiri community from Bayelsa State in Nigeria on Friday, May 5, 2017 launched a legal case against the Italian oil giant ENI, seeking clean up and compensation for damages from an oil spill which has affected their community in the Niger Delta.
An oil spill impacted site in the Niger Delta region in Nigeria. Photo credit: Dandy Mgbenwa
Supported by Friends of the Earth Europe and Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria, members of the Ikebiri community are calling for adequate compensation and clean-up of an oil spill dating back to 2010, which has yet to be addressed.The Italian oil giant ENI, which operates in Nigeria through its subsidiary Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC), is responsible for the spill, which was caused by equipment failure.
Godwin Ojo, head of the Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria, said: “The spill which could have been managed spread to a huge expanse of the Ikebiri swampland due to the nonchalant attitude of the ENI/NAOC over oil spill clean-up and remediation. This case, which is the first of its kind against ENI and in Italy, could have been avoided were ENI/NAOC to have behaved responsibly. This act of impunity and recklessness of the oil companies against the environment and people of the Niger Delta of Nigeria must come to an end.”
The leak was closed in 2010, and NAOC claims to have cleaned up the site. However, according to the community, the leaked oil in the surrounding area was simply burned, without their consent. To date, no adequate compensation has been offered, or clean-up completed.
Chief Francis Temi Ododo, the King of the Ikebiri community, said: “Our community cannot wait any longer. We have had the ENI’s pollution for too long, damaging our fishing, our farming and our lives. We are now looking to the Italian courts for justice for our people.”
The communities of the Niger Delta have had to live for decades with the effects of continuous oil spills on their health, the welfare and their livelihoods. Thousands of oil spills have blighted the communities across the Niger Delta to feed the profits of ENI, Shell and other oil and gas companies, according to the organisations.
Colin Roche, extractive industries campaigner for Friends of the Earth Europe, said: “For far too long the communities of the Niger Delta have had to live with the pollution of their land, their water, and their air by oil companies who’ve put profit before their lives. ENI should now live up to its responsibility and clean up the mess it has made and compensate the community for having to live with their destruction?”
Ojo says: “To date, eleven million barrels of oil have been spilled in the Delta, twice the amount spilled during the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, and new spills still occur weekly. Environmental Rights Action (Friends of the Earth Nigeria) and Friends of the Earth Europe continue to campaign for the clean-up of the region.”
In a next round of UN climate change negotiations, nations are meeting in Bonn, Germany from Monday, May 8 to Thursday, May 18, 2017 to further develop the guidelines needed to fully implement the landmark 2015 Paris Climate Change Agreement now and over the decades to come.
A view of the atrium in the World Conference Centre Bonn (WCCB) in Germany, venue of COP23
Issues under discussion range from ensuring transparency on the reporting of climate action by nations to the provision of climate finance.
Next to the negotiations on the operational rules of the Agreement, which are scheduled to be completed in 2018, governments will also prepare the budget of the Bonn-based secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
The budget is designed to support governments implement the Paris Agreement and provide a range of assistance to developing countries to help them meet their climate action plans or Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).
“The May meeting provides governments with the opportunity to clearly advance on the implementation guidelines for making the Paris Agreement fully operational while advancing preparations for the assessment, to take place next year, on progress since Paris,” said Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC.
“The May meeting will also prepare the next budget for the secretariat that governments will need to take forward the implementation of their Paris Agreement,” she added.
The May meeting is a staging-post for the annual climate change conference – COP23 – which will be held in November 2017 and the preparation of its key outcomes. The final budget is also set to be agreed at COP23.
Given that immediate and accelerated climate action is required for governments to reach their climate goals, another key focus in Bonn will be on activities which have a high potential to curb and reduce emissions.
Specifically, they will focus on efforts to mobilise diverse groups of stakeholders, including the private sector, for urban services and agriculture, forestry and other land use activities with high emission reduction potential and sustainable development benefits.
The Climate Action Fair is taking place against the backdrop of continuing global momentum including a growing wealth of policy-making that promises to embed the transition to a low carbon, resilient and sustainable world.
At the May meeting, the Grantham Institute, which is part of the London School of Economics, will unveil findings spotlighting the world-wide growth in climate or climate-related laws pre-and post-Paris 2015.
“I look forward to these findings,” said Ms. Espinosa. “In many ways, they are the proverbial ‘proof in the pudding’ as the implementation of both the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals hinges on solid national policies that set a clear direction for action,” she added.
Ms. Espinosa said the secretariat was also looking forward to welcoming members of the Fijian Government including the Prime Minister at the May sessions. Fiji will be the COP23 president at the November conference.
The May meeting will also see the first meeting of the newly established Paris Committee on Capacity Building (PCCB). Established by the Paris Agreement, this new and critically important institution will boost capacity building for climate action in developing countries.
Momentum has continued to grow daily within the administration of U.S. president, Donald Trump, which is considering the idea of withdrawing the country from the Paris Climate Agreement.
May Boeve, Executive Director of 350.org. Photo credit: shifttheclimate.org
Reactions are however trailing the much-talked-about development, whose outcome observers consider crucial to the future of the global treaty that has so far been ratified by 144 countries.
U.S.-based not-for-profit environmental organisation, 350.org, has expressed reservations over the possibility of U.S. dumping the pact.
Executive Director of 350.org, May Boeve, states: “Withdrawing from the Paris Agreement would be a crime against the future. With the climate crisis unfolding all around us, it’s almost unfathomable to imagine an administration so warped by climate denial that they would trade away the future of our planet to protect a few fossil fuel billionaires.
“The Trump Administration doesn’t represent the vast majority of the U.S. public that supports Paris, nor the cities, states and institutions that will continue to push our economy away from fossil fuels and towards a 100% clean energy future that works for all. Hundreds of thousands of people took part in the Peoples Climate March last weekend to call for climate, jobs and justice. Those are the voices in the United States that the rest of the world should listen to and their message is clear: keep moving.”
Global Programme Director of 350.org, Payal Parekh, adds: “If the United States exits the agreement, it will be up to the rest of the world to fill the gap. That means that not only other countries will need to step up, but also cities, institutions, and all of us.
“Efforts like this month’s Global Divestment Mobilisation, which is pushing institutions to cut their ties with the fossil fuel industry, are now more important than ever. The rest of the world can’t be dragged back by a fossil fuel industry puppet in the White House, we must move forward with the transition to 100% clean and renewable energy for all.”
Representatives of civil society groups that converged on Abuja on Thursday, May 4, 2017 have demanded expedited process in the implementation of the National Tobacco Control Act.
According to scientists, tobacco smoking is dangerous to health
The Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN), Campaign for Tobacco-free Kids, Gatefield, National Tobacco Control Research Group and the Nigeria Tobacco Control Alliance (NTCA) were among groups that urged the Ministry of Health to fast-track the regulations for implementing the Act to thwart tobacco industry activities that they alerted the public to.
Akinbode Oluwafemi, deputy executive director of ERA/FoEN, while addressing the media, said that, just like in Kenya and Uruguay, the tobacco industry is laying the groundwork to a major subversion of policy, even as he revealed that they do this by coercing government officials to advocate on their behalf, interfering in policymaking through trade committees and third parties, and aggressively lobbying and bribing policymakers.
He revealed that the first attempt to thwart the implementation of the policy was a public notice by tobacco industry front group – Initiative for Public Policy Analysis (IPPA) – casting doubt on the integrity of members of the National Tobacco Control Committee (NATOCC), which is an advisory body to the health minister on how to implement the Act.
He revealed that the latest is an Amendment Bill by a member of the House of Representatives which seeks to vest the implementation of the NTC Act with the National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC).
The bill, which he described as suspicious, removes all powers of the Minister of Health and vests same with the Director General of the National Agency for Food Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC), putting Tobacco Control absolutely under NAFDAC.
He also alerted on the tobacco industry’s planting of moles in government to ensure the implementing guidelines of the NTC Act are thwarted, linking this development to a similar occurrence at the seventh session of the Conference of Parties to the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) in November 2016, when an official of the Minisry of Justice and another from Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) advanced tobacco industry-laced arguments that shocked the world at the talks.
Hilda Ochefu of the Campaign for Tobacco-free Kids also spoke about recent trends in the global tobacco control community, including a new report that showed that there was significant reduction in tobacco-induced smoking in countries implementing the global treaty on tobacco measures while West Africa where implementation is low is experiencing increase.
Ochefu explained that Nigeria, as a leader in the African region, needs to lead others to ensure implementation of tobacco control policies as the whole world was watching Nigeria to take on that leadership role.
She insisted that Nigeria cannot afford to continue to delay implementation of the NTC Act and the adoption of strong, effective regulations.
Adewunmi Emoruma of Gatefield spoke on the tobacco industrys’ marketing of tobacco products to the youths and the allure in tobacco products coming in flavours.
Director General of Nigerian Building and Road Research Institute (NBRRI), Professor Danladi Matawal, has said that using locally-sourced building materials not only saves money for the builder, but can be more environmentally-suited to the particular locality.
Director General of Nigerian Building and Road Research Institute (NBRRI), Professor Danladi Matawal
The professor of Civil Engineering was speaking at the Lagos Airport Hotel, Ikeja, venue of the 17th Lagos International Housing Fair on Friday, May 5.
The event, which held from Tuesday, May 2, to Friday, May 5, has the theme, “Quality Management in Housing Delivery”. It was organised by Beachland Resources Limited.
The Housing Fair aspires “to make Nigeria and indeed Africa deliver quality houses and be self-sufficient in the production of building materials, and thereby enhance [Nigeria’s] and Africa’s capacity in the export of products and services in the sector”, according to the organisers.
In his welcome address on the first day of the fair, the Chairman of Lagos International Housing Fair Committee, Moses Ogunleye, said the organisers remain committed to the aspiration.
Represented by Special Adviser to Ogun State Governor, Nureen Sulaiman, the NBRRI DG presented a paper on “High Costs of Building Construction: The Need for Alternative and Sustainable Building Materials for Housing Development”.
According to him, the builder can save up to 30 per cent cost on material when using locally-sourced materials because building materials take up to 70 per cent of building cost.
“Construction materials alone constitute over 70 per cent of the cost of housing delivery, especially where low income households are concerned. It is, therefore, expected that any cost reduction strategy targeted at construction materials will considerably bring down cost of project delivery, thereby creating opportunity for provision of more facilities.
“It is generally expected that locally-sourced materials and the technologies for its application in the above-mentioned areas will not only be more climatically and environmentally suited to the particular locality, but also cheaper and more affordable. It is in the light of this that there has been a call to look inwards in the sourcing of materials, especially those for construction, used in the country,” he said.
Noting that experts at NBRRI International Conference on Housing Summit in 2014 estimated that Nigeria requires about 850,000 housing units annually for the next 20 years to solve her housing needs, a deficit estimated at 17 million units, he added that an estimated N120 trillion is required to fund this housing deficit.
His words: “In response to this challenge, some individuals and organisations have ventured into the development of locally-sourced materials and technologies for construction purposes. Unfortunately, impact of such ventures has not been felt in the country due to the harsh environment and non-acceptability of the technologies developed.”
Describing locally-sourced building materials as components which are manufactured or assembled in the country, he classified them into three: conventional building materials, traditional building materials and alternative building materials.
NBRRI’s efforts in promoting alternative construction materials
NBRRI, a public institution involved in research and development in the country, was established in 1978 to conduct integrated research and development in the broad areas of building and road.
Over the years, however, the institute’s mandate has been expanded to include research and development in the engineering materials sector, the DG said.
In line with her mandate, he added, “the institute has made and is still making significant achievements by pioneering the development of various local construction materials and the equipment required for their use”. These include: improved sun-dried bricks (adobe), cement stabilised bricks/blocks, interlocking laterite blocks, burnt clay blocks, clay roofing tiles, and NBRRI brick/block making machines.
He said sustainable building materials technologies can greatly curtail economic and resource inputs, improve labour productivity of building inhabitants, and reduce environmental impact.
“This promise presents large opportunities for research institutes such as NBRRI, chemicals and local building materials companies to carve out early entry and incumbent positions in the buildings and infrastructural space for housing development in Nigeria,” he added.
