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Developing nations need finance to green power sectors, says study

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Developing nations need finance to green power sectors, says study

Countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean urgently need financial support to green their power sectors and thereby implement their national climate action plans under the Paris Climate Change Agreement.

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Greening the power sector: Wind turbines. Photo credit: theenergycollective.com

This is a key finding of a survey conducted by the secretariat of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) on behalf of the Nairobi Framework Partnership (NFP), which looks at what is required so that countries can implement the “Nationally Determined Contributions” (NDCs) they have submitted. A total of 79 countries replied to the survey, which was carried out by the UNFCCC secretariat through its Regional Collaboration Centres (RCCs) in East Africa, West Africa, Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean.

The RCCs collected information from Designated National Authorities, the organisations granted responsibility by their respective country to authorise and approve participation in CDM projects. The number of countries involved in the survey represents 77% of the countries supported by RCCs in the Asia, Africa and LAC regions.

 

Reform of Power Sector Crucial to Achieving Paris Agreement Goals

The central goal of the Paris Agreement is to limit the global average temperature rise to as close as possible to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Transitioning the power sector to low carbon is crucial to meet this goal, as generating power using coal, gas and oil is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions which cause climate change.

The survey also found that whilst many countries are receiving some form of support to increase transparency (Measurement, Reporting and Verification) from international organisations, in most cases this support is not enough.

The survey clearly indicates that countries believe that making use of the UN’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), Standardised Baselines and Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs) can help them to achieve their climate action commitments.

Under the CDM, projects in developing countries earn a saleable credit for each tonne of greenhouse gas they reduce or avoid, including through projects in the power sector. The incentive has led to the registration of more than 8,000 projects and programmes in 111 countries and the issuance of over1.7 billion CERs.

Survey participants said they believed the CDM to be a mechanism that has effectively driven private sector investment in the power sector in their countries.

Through NAMAs, developing countries can request concrete support climate action. Countries that are willing to support NAMA initiatives can enter the details of that support in a special registry run by the UNFCCC secretariat, thereby enabling developing countries in need of support to be matched with relevant offers.

 

Asian and African Countries Most in Need of Support

The Asian and African regions were found to be the ones requiring most urgent support for the development of carbon markets and economic instruments for mitigation action.

Latin America also indicated a high need; however the lower rating in comparison with the Asian and African countries could be due to the experience already developed in the country and their potential ability to move ahead without external support.

The Caribbean region, on the other hand, does not have vast experience in developing CDM pipelines and has limited potential for a generation of emission reductions. Therefore, this could be seen as a limitation to the future implementation of domestic carbon markets.

Finally, regional differences are also shown in terms of the level of support expected. For instance, the Latin America focus is on designing the strategies needed to achieve NDC objectives, whereas Africa and Caribbean regions are more interested in receiving technical and financial support for the implementation of specific measures to curb greenhouse gas emissions in priority sectors. The Asia-Pacific region considers that building resilience to climate change is a priority over curbing emissions.

 

About the Survey and the Nairobi Framework Partnership

The survey was carried out after partners of the Nairobi Framework Partnership, following the Paris Agreement, decided to embrace the new overarching purpose of maximising efficiency in the provision of support to developing countries in implementing their nationally determined contributions in the areas of climate finance, technology transfer and capacity-building for mitigation by creating enabling environments at national level, regulatory mechanisms and carbon markets, including the CDM.

The Nairobi Framework Partnership is comprised of UNFCCC, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP),World Bank (WB), African Development Bank (AfDB), United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), UNEP DTU Partnership, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), International Emissions Trading Association (IETA) and Asian Development Bank (ADB).

Coordinating organisations are Latin American Energy Organisation (OLADE), Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), LEDS Global Partnership (LEDS) and Development Bank of Latin America (CAF).

The long, winding, super-controversial superhighway

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The long, winding, super-controversial superhighway

The controversy surrounding the 260 km Superhighway proposed by the Cross River State government (CRSG) of Nigeria will not go away. Notably, the bulldozing of forests, farmlands and sundry properties commenced last year without an approved Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). Curiously, the government issued an edict dispossessing individuals and communities of lands lying within an incredible 10 km width on either side of the proposed superhighway.

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Map showing the southern section of the proposed superhighway

The area so proposed for this land grab covers 5,200 square kilometres or an astonishing 25 percent of the landmass of Cross River State. The best argument presented by defenders of the proposal is that the massive land uptake of 10 km on either side of the superhighway is essential for the protection of the superhighway.If that argument is interpreted to mean that the government plans to keep the people away from the superhighway so as to protect it, we would like to know for whom the highway is meant.

To many observers, the fact that the highway starts from a proposed deep seaport and ends in a small Sahellian town suggests that the main intent may be the harvesting of timber from community and National Forests for export.

The promise by the government that it would replace each mowed tree with two or up to five saplings and that no one should worry about any deforestation ensuing from the bulldozing of existing forests is a brilliant narrative that is anchored on fiction. First, what species of trees would be planted? Secondly, what replaces the ecosystems that would be destroyed including the threatened endemic species in the five protected areas to be impacted by the project? The five protected areas to be directly damaged by the project include Cross River National Park, Ukpon River Forest Reserve and the Cross River South Forest Reserve, the Afi Mountain Wildlife Sanctuary and the Afi River Forest Reserve.

It is possible that the CRSG is not aware of what would be lost if the pristine forests are destroyed. We say so because the EIA presented by the state government to the Federal Ministry of Environment has a curious list of animals that are not found in the region in question, with some not even being found in Nigeria or Africa. This anomaly suggests that the EIA is a copy-and-paste document that is not site-specific and should be rejected outright.

In particular, the EIA lists small Indian and Chinese alligators among the species found in the Cross River forests. Other species that may have been created by the writers of the EIA include, black and white colobus monkey, Dent’s monkey, blue monkey and the roloway monkey. This is mind-boggling by any measure. The EIA lists 17 bird species whereas there are up to 400 species in the threatened forests. The consultants also repeatedly refer to the Cross River National Park as the Oban Group of Forests even though a name change took place in 1991.

Communities threatened by the project have repeatedly said that there was no free, prior informed consent of the people to this project. They insist that they need access roads and are not averse to such access being provided. What they cannot fathom is why a state that prides itself as being environment friendly and climate conscious would plan to decimate the last remaining pristine rainforests in Nigeria.

The latest protest has come from women and girls of Etara, Eyeyeng, Edondon, Okokori, Old Ekuri and New Ekuri, Iko Esai and Owai communities in Etung, Obubra and Akamkpa Local Government Areas in the state, under the aegis of the Wanel-Aedon Development Association (WANELDON).

In a protest letter dated 30th January 2017 tagged “Our Opposition to the Revocation of our Lands for a Superhighway” and sent by WALNELDON to President Buhari, the women proclaimed their “total opposition against Governor Ben Ayade’s revocation of swathe of all our lands for a superhighway.” They claim, among other things, that they were excluded from all decision-making processes related to the project and that the project is an affront to their social and economic rights. The women also insist that the project would negate key Sustainability Development Goals (SDG) 1 to 5: No Poverty; No Hunger; Good Health and Well-being; Quality Education and Gender Equality.

The women note that they are ethnic minorities that are being made to suffer multiple discrimination and deprivation including by being rendered internally displaced persons (IDPs) and subjected to heightened vulnerability in other ways. For this and many other reasons, they requested President Buhari to urge the governor to “de-revoke” (ownership) of all their “lands including settlements, farmlands and forests.”

The women also demand that the superhighway should be rerouted and that the wishy-washy EIA being presented to the Federal Ministry of Environment should not be approved. We could not agree more. If the 10km land grab has been reversed, as claimed by the state’s Commissioner for Climate Change at the 18th Bassey Andah Memorial Lecture held in Calabar recently, the CSRG should publish such a “de-revoking order” for avoidance of doubt.

By Nnimmo Bassey (Director, Health of Mother Earth Foundation – HOMEF)

Firm lauded for supplying affordable fertiliser to farmers

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Firm lauded for supplying affordable fertiliser to farmers

Indorama is said to have supplied about 250,000 metric tons of granular Urea fertiliser to farmers nationwide since June 2016 when it commenced production

Mohammed-Badaru-Abubakar
Mohammed Badaru Abubakar, chairman, Presidential Committee on Fertiliser Initiative and Governor of Jigawa State

The Presidential Committee on Fertiliser Initiative (PCFI) has expressed satisfaction with the participation of Indorama Eleme Fertiliser & Chemicals Limited (IEFCL), Port Harcourt, Rivers State, in the programme aimed at supplying NPK fertiliser to farmers nationwide at affordable price.

Chairman of the committee, Alhaji Mohammed Badaru Abubakar, who is also the Governor of Jigawa State, made this statement on Saturday, 4th February, 2017 when he visited the Indorama fertiliser plant in the company of the President of the Fertiliser Producers & Suppliers Association of Nigeria (FEPSAN), Thomas Etuh, and the Managing Director of the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA), Uche Orji.

Alhaji Abubakar said he was impressed that Indorama has fully keyed into the Presidential Fertiliser Initiative whose goal is to help the Federal Government to achieve higher food production and food security in the country.

This is contained in a press release issued by the head of Corporate Communications of Indorama-Nigeria, Dr Jossy Nkwocha.

“In supporting the Federal Government’s Fertiliser Initiative, Indorama will this year supply 360,000 metric tons of Urea to Fertiliser blenders, who in turn will produce NPK fertilisers and supply at cheaper price to the farmers across the federation.”

According to him, Managing Director of Indorama-Nigeria operations, Mr Manish Mundra, received the team and conducted them round the Ammonia, Urea and Utilities plants which have capacity for 1.5 million metric tons of Urea fertiliser per annum and the largest single-line Urea plant in the world.

“At the Bagging section of the plant, the Presidential team inspected the specially packaged granular Urea bags meant for delivery to the blenders.”

Mr Mundra informed the team that the Ammonia section of the fertiliser plant is presently undergoing scheduled maintenance shutdown to optimise its ammonia production and reduce energy consumption, activities that will enhance Indorama’s participation in the Federal Government Fertiliser Initiative.

“The shutdown of the Ammonia plant is part of Indorama’s excellent maintenance culture and innovation, and the plant will be re-started on 24th February,” Mundra assured.

Governor Abubakar said he was quite impressed with Indorama’s operations especially in helping the Federal Government to achieve its agricultural transformation agenda. “I must say that I am impressed that Indorama is supporting the Federal Government initiative. This is one of the initiatives to bring down the cost of food items in the country,” he said.

President of FEPSAN, Mr Etuh, also commended Indorama for keying into the Federal Government Initiative and promised that members of the association, especially the blending plants, will make the best use of the opportunity to facilitate greater crop harvest this year.

Indorama has supplied about 250,000 metric tons of granular Urea fertiliser to farmers nationwide since June 2016 when it commenced production. Through import substitution, the company has helped the Federal Government to save foreign exchange and also earn scarce forex through the export of its surplus production after meeting domestic demand.

Africa: A continent of hope – Guterres

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Africa: A continent of hope – Guterres

António Guterres, the new Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN), fresh from the recently-held African Union Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia – his first major mission in office – expresses his belief in the continent, saying that the world has much to gain from African wisdom, ideas and solutions

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Antonio Guterres, UN Secretary General. He says Africa hosts some of the world’s fastest growing economies

Far too often, the world views Africa through the prism of problems. When I look to Africa, I see a continent of hope, promise and vast potential.

I am committed to building on those strengths and establishing a higher platform of cooperation between the United Nations and the leaders and people of Africa. This is essential to advancing inclusive and sustainable development and deepening cooperation for peace and security.

That is the message I carried to the recent African Union Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia – my first major mission as United Nations Secretary-General.

Above all, I came in a spirit of profound solidarity and respect. I am convinced that the world has much to gain from African wisdom, ideas and solutions.

I also brought with me a deep sense of gratitude.  Africa provides the majority of United Nations peacekeepers around the world.  African nations are among the world’s largest and most generous hosts of refugees. Africa includes some of the world’s fastest growing economies.

The recent resolution of the political crisis in the Gambia once again demonstrated the power of African leadership and unity to overcome governance challenges and uphold democracy, human rights and the rule of law.

I left the Summit more convinced than ever that all of humanity will benefit by listening, learning and working with the people of Africa.

We have the plans in place to build a better future. The international community has entered the second year of implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, an all-out effort to tackle global poverty, inequality, instability and injustice. Africa has adopted its own complementary and ambitious plan: Agenda 2063.

For the people of Africa to fully benefit from these important efforts, these two agendas need to be strategically aligned.

It starts with prevention. Our world needs to move from managing crises to preventing them in the first place. We need to break the cycle of responding too late and too little.

Most of today’s conflicts are internal, triggered by competition for power and resources, inequality, marginalisation and sectarian divides. Often, they are inflamed by violent extremism or provide the fuel for it.

The United Nations is committed to working hand-in-hand with partners wherever conflict or the threat of conflict endangers stability and well-being.

But prevention goes far beyond focusing solely on conflict. The best means of prevention and the surest path to durable peace is inclusive and sustainable development.

We can speed progress by doing more to provide opportunities and hope to young people.  More than three out of five Africans are under 35 years of age. Making the most of this tremendous asset means more investment in education, training, decent work, and engaging young people in shaping their future.

We must also do our utmost to empower women so they can play a full role in sustainable development and sustainable peace. I am pleased that the African Union has consistently placed a special focus on gender equality and women’s empowerment.

I have seen it again and again: When we empower women, we empower the world.

I travelled to Africa as a partner, friend and committed advocate for changing the narrative about this diverse and vital continent. Crises represent at best a partial view. But from a higher platform of cooperation, we can see the whole picture – one that spotlights the enormous potential and remarkable success stories in every corner of the African continent.

With that perspective, I have no doubt we can win the battle for sustainable and inclusive development which are also the best weapons to prevent conflict and suffering, allowing Africa to shine even more vibrantly and inspire the world.

New Global Centre of Excellence on climate adaptation upcoming

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New Global Centre of Excellence on climate adaptation upcoming

The Netherlands announced on Monday, 06 February 2017 that it will work with Japan and United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to establish a Global Centre of Excellence to help countries, institutions and businesses to adapt to a warming climate, which is increasing the frequency of natural disasters and causing economic disruptions.

Sharon-Dijksma
Dutch Minister for the Environment, Sharon Dijksma. The Global Centre of Excellence on Climate Adaptation is a joint initiative of The Netherlands, Japan and UNEP

The Global Centre of Excellence on Climate Adaptation will bring together international partners, including leading knowledge institutes, businesses, NGOs, local and national governments, international organisations and financial institutions.

The Dutch Minister for the Environment, Sharon Dijksma, says: “Many around the world are hit hard by global warming. The ground-breaking Paris Climate Change Agreement puts climate change adaptation on par with mitigation.

“Failure of dealing adequately with climate change will increase a multitude of risks such as natural disasters, social and economic disruptions and increasing political tensions. Many people are looking for good practices and guidance with regard to climate change adaptation. I am convinced the Global Centre of Excellence on Climate Adaptation can help addressing these challenges.”

“Even with the Paris Agreement on climate change, our planet is heading for a global warming of around 3°C,” said Ibrahim Thiaw, deputy chief of UN Environment.

“Our survival depends on learning to live on a hotter planet with more extreme weather, erratic rainfall and rising sea levels. This Centre is a welcome step, but other countries need to follow this example and urgently invest in climate adaptation.”

By signing the Paris Climate agreement countries have made climate change adaptation a top global priority and the Global Centre of Excellence on Climate Adaptation, a joint initiative of The Netherlands, Japan and UN Environment is an important step to deliver on that commitment.

The Centre will support countries around the world to effectively adapt to climate change. It will collect lessons from recently executed projects and use those to develop guidance to accelerate climate adaptation. The resulting pool of global knowledge and know-how to understand what works and what doesn’t will be used to support countries, communities and companies to successfully integrate climate adaptation into their investment decisions. In that way, every new road, every construction, every crop field becomes an opportunity to become more resilient.

China doubles solar power capacity in 2016

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China doubles solar power capacity in 2016

China’s installed photovoltaic (PV) capacity more than doubled last year, turning the country into the world’s biggest producer of solar energy by capacity, the National Energy Administration (NEA) said on Saturday, February 4, 2017.

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Solar panels. China more than doubled its capacity in 2016

Installed PV capacity rose to 77.42 gigawatts at the end of 2016, with the addition of 34.54 gigawatts over the course of the year, data from the energy agency showed.

Shandong, Xinjiang, Henan were among the provinces that saw the most capacity increase, while Xinjiang, Gansu, Qinghai and Inner Mongolia had the greatest overall capacity at the end of last year, according to the data.

China will add more than 110 gigawatts of capacity in the 2016-2020 period, according to the NEA’s solar power development plan.

Solar plants generated 66.2 billion kilowatt-hours of power last year, accounting for 1 percent of China’s total power generation, the NEA said.

The country aims to boost the mix of non-fossil fuel generated power to 20 percent by 2030 from 11 percent today.

China plans to plough 2.5 trillion yuan ($364 billion) into renewable power generation by 2020.

Courtesy: Reuters

Indigenous women oppose Cross River superhighway project

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Indigenous women oppose Cross River superhighway project

The Federal Government has been told not to approve the final Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) submitted to it last month by the Cross River State Government in respect of the proposed superhighway.

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Ekuri people kicking against the super highway project that threatens hectares of forests

According to a group of women and girls of Etara, Eyeyeng, Edondon, Okokori, Old Ekuri and New Ekuri, Iko Esai and Owai communities in Etung, Obubra and Akamkpa Local Government Areas in the state, under the aegis of the Wanel-aedon Development Association, approval for the EIA should not be granted because, besides threatening their source of livelihood, lands earmarked for the project were unfairly taken from them by the authorities.

In a petition written to President Muhammadu Buhari, the women urged Mr President to direct Governor Ben Ayade of Cross River State to de-revoke all their lands, settlements, farmlands and forests, as well as re-route the superhighway out of the forests so as to “conserve biodiversity and ecosystem services for the wellbeing of humanity”.

In a petition titled: “Our opposition to the revocation of our lands for a superhighway” and signed by nearly a thousand persons, the group likewise wants President Buhari to “protect our rights as minorities to our ancestral lands and direct Governor Ayade to pay adequate compensation for our property, farms, sacred sites and forests destroyed during clearance of the superhighway that went without prior evaluation of the above and in the absence an EIA.”

They peaded: “Help us to protect our means of daily livelihoods, food security and support and support us to conserve the forest to protect endangered species and their habitats in consonant with the Endangered Species Laws that you assented to on 30th December 2016. Help us in our resolve to conserve the forest, a practice we are customarily used to for several centuries to reduce the release of carbon dioxide, improve carbon sequestration and lessen climate change in line with the Paris Agreement which Nigeria endorsed.”

The women said that they are also opposing the proposed project because the governor excluded them from all decision-making processes “because we are regarded as ‘back-benchers’, good-to-be-seen-and-not-to-be-heard and, at best, ‘surbodinates’ in power and development.”

They added: “Our rights as indigenous women and girls has been systematically excluded from the process of governance hence this inhuman revocation for a superhighway; our free, prior and informed consent has not been sought and even throughout the EIAs (twice)  for our meaningful participation.

“We, as underpriviledged and minority populations, depend on farming and forest gathering activities for daily sustenance. The revocation of all our lands is a repression and socio-economic marginalisation against us by the government of Cross River State as well as an abuse of our social and economic rights protected under the constitution of Nigeria, ECOWAS, AU and international laws.

“We recognise the sancity of our citizenship rights, mobility rights to own property, the right to work and the right to food, but the revocation of all our farmlands and forests – two critical resource base that alow our rightd and economic liberty – is a threat or failure for us to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).”

NEITI seeks partnership with NDDC on anti-corruption

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NEITI seeks partnership with NDDC on anti-corruption

The Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency  Initiative (NEITI) has said that it will partner with the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) to enthrone transparency and accountability in the operations of the agency.

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Executive Secretary of NEITI, Waziri Adio

Executive Secretary of NEITI, Waziri Adio, gave the assessment in his presentation to the Retreat of the Commission held in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

Mr. Adio noted that the NDDC and NEITI were set up with similar mandates targeted at addressing the syndrome of resource curse, a situation where countries like Nigeria blessed with abundant natural resources find their larger population living in abject poverty as a result of over-dependence on the natural resource and mismanagement of revenues accruing from the resource.

He lamented that, over the years, public perception of NDDC was more of an agency with huge revenue resources but with little impact on the lives of the people of the Niger Delta.

The Executive Secretary, who was represented by NEITI’s Director, Communications, Dr. Orji Ogbonnaya Orji, urged the new team at the NDDC to carry out a corruption risk assessment that will enable the agency develop a framework to strengthen its operations.

The NEITI Reports presented to the Commission’s Retreat disclosed that a total of $1.98 billion was remitted to the NDDC between 2007 and 2014.

This was in addition to the sum of N594 billion paid to the Commission in local currency during the same period.

The breakdown of the remittances show that NDDC received N594 billion from 2007 to 2011 while $559 million was paid to the Commission in 2012.

NEITI Report findings also show that, in 2013, the NDDC received $563 million while in 2014, the sum of $865 million was remitted to the Commission.

NEITI also told the NDDC Management Retreat that, from its Fiscal Allocation and Statutory Disbursement Audit Report covering 2007-2011, the sum of N7.4 billion allocated to member states of the Commission for grass root development projects in the respective states could not be accounted for while 22 of such projects valued at N1.19 billion were duplicated.

The NEITI Executive Secretary urged the new Board and Management of the NDDC to carry out an independent project implementation audit, commit to good corporate governance and the principles of the global extractive industries transparency initiative.

Managing Director of the NDDC, Nsima Ekere, welcomed the emerging partnership between NEITI and the NDDC and pledged to use the NEITI Reports as major tools to enthrone accountability and corporate governance.

He gave the assurance that the NDDC under the new Board and management would fully embrace the principles of the global Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) to reverse the resource curse syndrome in the Niger Delta, through efficient resource utilisation, corporate governance and project delivery.

Liechtenstein, Togo ratify Minamata Convention

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Liechtenstein, Togo ratify Minamata Convention

The West African, French-speaking country of Togo and the Central Europe, German-speaking Liechtenstein are the latest countries to endorse the Minamata Convention on Mercury.

Faure-Essozimna-Gnassingbé
Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé, president of Togo

While the Government of Liechtenstein on 1 February 2017, deposited its instrument of accession, the Togolese Government two days later followed suit on 3 February 2017, thereby bringing to 38 the total number of future Parties to the Minamata Convention.

Costa Rica on 19 January, 2017 became the 36th Future Party to the Minamata Convention when it deposited its instrument of accession to that effect.

A minimum of 50 nations are required to ratify the Minamata Convention to make it legally binding.

The Minamata Convention on Mercury, a global treaty aimed at protecting human health and the environment from the adverse effects of mercury, was agreed at the fifth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) in Geneva, Switzerland on Saturday, 19 January 2013 – some four years ago.

Nigeria is one of the 128 signatories to the global treaty, but she is yet to ratify it. There are indications that Nigeria will soon ratify the global treaty, as the Ministry of Environment will next week in Lagos convene a national workshop for non-governmental organisations (NGOs) for the Minamata Convention Initial Assessment (MIA) of the Minamata Convention.

Ratification by Nigeria automatically makes her a Party to the Convention with the duty to domesticate its content.

The signing of the Convention would enable Nigeria to:

  • Develop a National Implementation Strategy (NIS)/Action Plan to holistically address challenges relating to the reduction and elimination of Mercury;
  • Undertake a comprehensive inventory as a basis to develop and implement a more robust Mercury preventive programme which will include the identification and location, contaminated sites and extent of contamination, storage, handling and disposal to ensure that mercury related activities do not result in further damage to health and the environment;
  • Enhance national capacities with respect to human resources development and institutional strengthening, towards addressing concerns about the long-term effects of Mercury on both human health and the environment and also to ensure the effective domestication of the instrument that will be implementable at national level;
  • Sensitise the populace and policy makers on the hazards of mercury;
  • Develop and implement Mercury Release Minimisation Projects; and,
  • Control mercury supply and trade.

Nations that have ratified the Convention include: Antigua and Barbuda, Benin, Bolivia, Botswana, Chad, China, Costa Rica, Djibouti, Ecuador, Gabon, Gambia, Guinea, Gayana, Japan, Jordan, Kuwait, Lesotho Liechtenstein, Madagascar, Mali and Mauritania.

Others are Mexico, Monaco, Mongolia, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Samoa, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Swaziland, Switzerland, Togo, United Arab Emirates, United States of America, Uruguay and Zambia.

Major highlights of the Minamata Convention include a ban on new mercury mines, the phase-out of existing ones, the phase out and phase down of mercury use in a number of products and processes, control measures on emissions to air and on releases to land and water, and the regulation of the informal sector of artisanal and small-scale gold mining. The Convention also addresses interim storage of mercury and its disposal once it becomes waste, sites contaminated by mercury as well as health issues.

Biennial Update Report: Consultants urged to synergise operations

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Biennial Update Report: Consultants urged to synergise operations

Consultants preparing Nigeria’s First Biennial Update Report (BUR) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) have been asked to work more closely together in other to produce a quality report and meet the deadline for its submission.

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Dr Peter Tarfa, Director, Department of Climate Change in the Federal Ministry of Environment. Nigeria is in the process of developing its First Biennial Update Report (BUR)

At a daylong forum in Abuja on Friday, January 3, 2017 titled: “Stakeholders workshop on the progress so far made on development of Nigeria’s First Biennial Update Report (BUR)”, participants also suggested that the Department of Climate Change (DCC) of the Federal Ministry of Environment should appoint a consultant to harmonise the three reports being produced by the three consultants, as there may be points of disagreement along the line.

Participants further suggested that there should be more physical meetings involving the consultants – who appear to be based in different cities in the federation – to ensure synergy in the course of their endeavour.

The consultants are: Triple “E” Systems (writing on “National Green House Gas Inventory”), E & Y (“Mitigation Analysis”) and Millcon & Millcon (“Domestic Measurement, Reporting and Verification System”).

The BUR is being prepared, taking into account the greenhouse gas (GHG) emission level of sectors of the economy, such as energy, oil and gas, transportation and agricultural sectors, among others. It is undertaken in order to improve transparency during the process of tracking mitigation progress of national GHG emission of countries who are parties to the Convention (UNFCCC), thereby reinforcing ambition at a global level and providing the information basis for planning and implementing mitigation action.

At the workshop, consultants presented respective progress made on the thematic area they are working on, even as stakeholders identified gaps and made comments and contributions towards enriching the document, taking into account data and information from respective organisation.

While the BUR project manager, James Okeuhie, did an overview as well as summary of progress on the country’s flagship BUR, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Environment, Dr Bukar Hassan, disclosed that the scope of the BUR covers information on natural circumstances, institutional arrangements, Greenhouse Gas Inventory Reports (NIR), information on mitigation actions and their effects – methodologies and assumptions, constraints and gaps, and related financial, technical capacity needs, information on the levels of support received for BURs preparation and submission, information on domestic measurement and reporting and verification.

“We are grateful for the selfless service and immeasurable support of our development partner, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), for their commitment towards the partnership, especially the preparation of this report,” he said.

Dr Jare Adejuwon, former head of the DCC, in a presentation titled: Essentials of Biennial Update Reports (BURs), traced the genesis of the BUR, saying that it was adopted in 2010 at COP16 in Cancun, Mexico for the purpose of enhancing reporting of mitigation actions, their effects and support received in the National Communication.

“In 2011 at COP17 in South-Africa, Non-Annex1 Parties under the UNFCCC adopted the guidelines for BUR and the submission of BURs every two years was decided. The COP decided that non-Annex I Parties, consistent with their capabilities and the level of support provided for reporting, should submit their first BUR by December 2014,” added Adejuwon, who is presently chief executive officer at the Abuja-based Digital Environmental Management System.

According to him, Nigeria was granted approval and financial support by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) to develop its BUR, even as the Local Project Appraisal Committee (LPAC), which is a subcommittee of the National Coordinating Technical Committee on the preparation of National Communication, was constituted in 2015 for the preparation of the BUR.

Prior to last week’s workshop, a meeting of the Local Project Appraisal Committee (LPAC) was held on April 9 2015, followed by a project initiation workshop on October 5, 2015. On August 18-19 2016, a Technical Inception Workshop was held to bring together the inter-ministerial committee, NGOs, academia, state representatives and the selected consultants for the BUR thematic sectors.

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