The 15th Session of the Committee of the Review of Implementation of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (CRIC 15) concluded its three-day meeting on Thursday in Nairobi, Kenya, with the adoption of an outcome that would ramp up global efforts to curb desertification and drought.
In northern Nigeria, farming is among efforts meant to curb desertification and drought
Two issues were deemed particularly important for CRIC 15.
First, the elaboration of a strong strategy for implementation from 2018-2030. The current strategy expires in 2018. Parties agreed that the 2008-2018 strategic objectives are still relevant and should be retained. But they differed on the reporting procedures and the weight that should be given to Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target 15.3, on land degradation neutrality. These changes would also affect the mandate of the CRIC itself.
Land degradation neutrality refers to the condition where a country maintains or enhances the health and productivity of its land resources. Through SDG target 15.3, all countries committed to strive to become land degradation neutral by 2030.
The CRIC 15 outcome document on the proposed strategy provides the Intergovernmental Working Group (IWG) with a clear idea of the issues that must be resolved before the Conference of the Parties meets in 2017, and the weaknesses of that need to be corrected.
The IWG is a small group of regional representatives that was chosen last year by the countries to draft the strategy, and is staying on in Nairobi for a further two days, to revise the text based on the CRIC 15 outcomes.
The second important issue CRIC 15 dealt with is an ongoing exercise where countries are setting their voluntary national targets on land degradation neutrality. At the start of CRIC 15, more than 100 countries had committed to set a national target, exceeding the ambition for at least 60 countries to do so within the first year of the adoption of the SDGs.
Some parties have expressed concern that the focus on land degradation neutrality could turn the limelight away from other issues mandated under the Convention, such as drought, drylands populations or building the capacity of developing countries to combat desertification and drought.
Monique Barbut, the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), reassured delegates that would not be the case.
“We are making progress on drought. The Africa Drought Conference hosted by Namibia in August 2016 was, I believe, a turning point. We will present you with options for a decision at COP next year. As requested by Parties, I am also driving forward a new agenda to enhance capacity for implementation at country level,” she said.
CRIC 15 delegates commended the commitment by countries to set voluntary national targets on land degradation neutrality and requested for UNCCD support to monitor, evaluate and report on these efforts. They also requested the UNCCD’s guidance on the methodologies to be used in the exercise, and to mobilise the participation of other relevant stakeholders, such as the private sector.
CRIC 15 also considered the issues of the financing of the activities mandated under the Convention, gathering and sharing of information and the lessons learned, and the mandate of the CRIC.
Regarding the outcomes of CRIC 15, Ms Barbut said: “We will have a bold exciting COP (Conference of the Parties) where the adoption of a revised strategy will be complemented with decisions on drought, sand and dust storms and capacity building, among others.”
CRIC 15 took place from 18-20 October at the United Nations Office in Nairobi. The Committee brings together governmental experts knowledgeable in land degradation and drought issues to prepare the ground for the decisions that are taken by the Conference when it meets.
The next UNCCD Conference of the Parties will meet in Fall 2017, in Ordos, Inner Mongolia, China.
The 2016 African Climate Change and Environmental Reporting (ACCER) Awards were feted in a ceremony held on the sidelines of the sixth conference on Climate Change and Development in Africa (CCDA-VI) that ended on Thursday in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Atayi Babs Opaluwah of Nigeria. One of the ACCER Award winners
The award ceremony, which was graced by key representatives from UN bodies, African group of Negotiators, IUCN, media fraternity, government and civil society, saw 13 journalists from across Africa awarded because of their outstanding reporting on climate change and environmental issues.
In his opening remarks James Murombedzi, Officer in Charge, African Climate Policy Centre said: “While many journalists and editors may be interested in covering climate change issues, competition for space with other topical issues such as politics combined with unwillingness of the commercial-oriented media owners makes up a huge obstacle. Therefore, the ACCER Awards is a great initiative aimed at improving the African Narrative on Climate Change which is key in ensuring that Climate Change is given the human face about vulnerabilities faced by the African people.”
Mithika Mwenda, the Secretary General of the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA), stressed its efforts in telling the African narrative on climate change, saying: “PACJA will continue to play a catalytic role in nurturing innovative ideas necessary for the transformative society as we desire to effectively confront the main challenges of 21st century. These complex challenges, such as climate change, will require collaboration from various stakeholders to defeat. And that is the spirit the ACCER Awards exemplifies.”
In a keynote address, Dr. Justus Kabyemera of the African Development Bank (AfDB) laid emphasis on improving journalists reporting on climate change issues, noting: “It is important to devise strategies to bring journalists and media practitioners to the forefront, not as reporters, but as key partners and players in the ensuing engagements.
“We appreciate PACJA for initiating a very innovative award scheme, ACCER Awards, which will indeed improve the African Narrative on Climate Change.”
Other speakers who spoke during the Awards Ceremony include: Ms. Catherine Mungai of the Climate Change and Food Security Programme; Ms. Jennifer Mohamed-Katerere, the IUCN Africa Counsellor; and Dr. Estherine Lisinge-Fotabong, of the NEPAD, who stressed the need to simplify climate change information to enhance awareness among communities and help develop concrete interventions in addressing climate change in Africa.
In the Print Media English category, Andrew Mambondiyani (Zimbabwe) was announced the winner with Mugerwa (Uganda) as the first runners up and Atayi Babs Opaluwah (Nigeria).
In the Print Media French category, AddehMidadji Daniel (Togo) was announced the winner and Madafime Didier Hubert (Benin) as the first runners up.
In the Electronic Media English, TV English category, Mercy Adundo (Kenya) was announced the winner and Aaron YanchoKaah (Cameroon) as the first runners up.
In the Electronic Media, Radio English category, Diana Wanyonyi was announced the winner and Ngala Killian Chimtom (Cameroon) as the first runners up.
In the Electronic Media French, TV French, ZainaKereKere (Democratic Republic of Congo) was announced the winner. In the Electronic Media, Radio French category, SuyKahofi (Ivory Coast) was announced the winner and Fousseni SAIBOU (Togo) as the second runners up.
The Judges noted that few entries were received in the Photojournalism category and therefore stressed the need for journalists to improve their reporting in this category. Nicodemus Kioko Kivandi (Kenya) was announced the only winner under this category.
Andrew Mambondiyani (Zimbabwe) was celebrated as the Overall winner with a story titled: “Summer, a season of suffering in Mozambique’s Beira.” As part of the award package, he was awarded $1,000 and will be supported to participate in the upcoming 22nd Session of the Conference of the Parties (COP22) of the United Nations Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) scheduled to take place on 7th-18th November, 2016 in Marrakech, Morocco.
All the winners, as well as first and second runners up in the various categories up will be trained for six months under The ACCER Awards Finalists Academy (TAAFA) as part of the enhancing their capacity on climate change and environmental issues to facilitate their reporting.
ACCER Awards is a PACJA initiative aimed catalysing African media coverage on climate change and environment. It was initiated in response to creating awareness on climate change and environmental conservation by way of rewarding exemplary Environmental Journalists in Africa. The goal and inherent intention of ACCER is not only to reshape the African narrative as espoused in climate change and environment debates, but also to build a new culture of and consciousness on how we utilise biological resources in the environment and reduce carbon footprint.
Former Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), Prof Godwin Patrick Olu Obasi, has been described as Africa’s gift to the world of climate science. This was made know by experts at the Inaugural Prof. Godwin Olu Patrick Obasi Memorial Lecture which held recently on the side-lines of the sixth conference on Climate Change and Development in Africa that held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Former Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), Prof Godwin Patrick Olu Obasi
In a lead presentation on the life and times of the icon of meteorology, Prof. Laban Ogallo of the IGAD-UNDP Disaster Risk Reduction Project in Kenya recalled that Prof. Obasi was active in promoting global solutions to environmental issues, with special attention to the atmosphere, fresh water and the oceans.
“He was at the forefront in drawing the world’s attention to the issue of climate change, notably in convening the second World Climate Conference, held in Geneva in 1990,” Prof Ogallo said.
According to Prof Ogallo, Obasi played an important role in the negotiations leading to the establishment of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the World Climate Research Programme, the Global Climate Observing System and the Vienna Convention on the Protection of the Ozone Layer and its Montreal Protocol.
The panel of discussants at the memorial lecture which comprised Dr. Buruhani Nyenzi of the Southern Development Community-Climate Services Centre, South Africa; Dr. Ernest Afiesimama of the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), Geneva; and Dr. Degefu Workneh of the Ethiopian Meteorological Society, lauded Prof. Obasi’s outstanding contributions to the science of ozone depletion.
Dr. Nyenzi recalled that it was Prof Obasi, together with the then Executive Director of United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Dr. Tolba, who initiated the negotiations on the Vienna Convention and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and contributed to the establishment of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).
“Prof. Obasi gave his strong support to the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP), and exercised a key leadership role together with Dr. Tolba, in the establishment of the WMO/UNEP Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). He took the lead role in the organization of the Second World Climate Conference and in the establishment of the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS),” Dr. Workneh added.
For those who had the privilege of working with Professor Obasi, Dr. Afiesimama averred that “the memories of this great man who dedicated his whole life to meteorological sciences will forever be cherished.” Afiesimama further added that Prof Obasi was “a man of honour who was afraid of nothing – except God, as Prof. Obasi himself used to say.”
Professor Godwin Olu Patrick Obasi, a Nigerian, was the Secretary General of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) for five four-year terms (1984-2003). Within the WMO scope of competence, he has made major contributions to the implementation of the Vienna Convention and its Montreal Protocol.
Professor Obasi served the Nigerian Government in several capacities including that of an Adviser to the Federal Government of Nigeria in meteorological research and training. From 1967 to 1976, he was Professor of Meteorology, Chairman of the Department of Meteorology and Dean of the Faculty of Science at the University of Nairobi, Kenya. In 1978, he joined the WMO Secretariat as the Director of the Education and Training Department.
Before his death on the 3rd of March 2007 at age 74, Professor Obasi published over 150 scientific and technical papers and delivered hundreds of scientific and policy-related lectures to several high-level meetings, including at ministerial and Heads of State and Government levels.
African governments have been urged to ratify and implement the Paris Agreement on climate change to help manage effects of climate change.
Yasmine Fouad, Egypt’s Assistant Minister of Environment. She says the Paris Agreement is key to the development of Africa
Speaking at the sixth conference on Climate Change and Development in Africa (CCDA-V1) at the UN Complex in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia during the high-level session, experts and ministers said the pact is good for the continent.
They called on Africa to unite and speak with one voice to be able to reap maximum benefits by fully implementing the agreement.
“The Paris Agreement will benefit Africa as it has commitments on finance, green technology and capacity transfer. If successfully implemented, it will be the key to our development,” said Yasmine Fouad, Egypt’s Assistant Minister of Environment.
Reflecting the urgency and critical significance of climate change for the continent’s economic growth and sustainable development, the conference, convened under the theme ‘Paris Agreement on climate change: What next for Africa’, seeks to address seven key areas.
The conference offers governments to deepen their understanding of the Conference of Parties (COP21) where the pact was signed and identify strategies for implementing the agreement through Pan-African initiatives, public-private partnerships and state and non-state actors.
The forum also seeks to provide a solution space for innovation, facilitate, networking between climate and development partners, raise awareness of the importance of climate information services and explore new and evolving challenges related to climate change.
Dr Abdalla Hamdok, Deputy Executive Secretary for UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), urged African countries to ratify the agreement.
“Out of the 81 out of 197 countries that have ratified the agreement, only 15 African countries have done so. This is a challenge,” Hamdock said.
Kenya is among 15 African countries that have ratified the agreement. The country now stands to benefit from the $100 billion pledged by developed countries to developing ones and that even larger sums be leveraged from investors, banks and the private sector that can build towards the $7 trillion needed to support a world-wide transformation on climate change.
Hamdock noted the significance of Paris Agreement coming into force lies in Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) which are the foundation of the agreement become legally binding as Nationally Determined Commitments (NDCs).
He observed that there are challenges with the INDC submissions of African countries due their vagueness in their mitigation ambitions and adaptation aspirations.
Other challenges include lack of cost estimates for achieving their adaptation and mitigation goals, absence of clarity on sources of funding and up to date national greenhouse gas emission records to inform the pledged emission reduction commitments.
Others are mitigation commitments that exceed current level of emissions and lack of coherence of the INDCs and national development goals.
“There is an urgent need for Africa to review and revise their INDCs to address the above issues,” Hamdok said.
James Murombedzi, officer in charge of Africa Climate Policy Centre said the agreement which aims to come into effect before the end of the year aims to limit the increase in the global average temperature to below 1.5 degrees centigrade above pre-industrial levels.
“Africa will benefit by implementing the agreement because it is the continent that will be severely impacted by the adverse impacts of weather variability and climate change,” Murombedzi said.
“The continent is already experiencing climate-induced impacts such as frequent and prolonged droughts and floods and environmental degradation and increased migration,” Murombedzi said.
He added, “The agreement heralds bold steps towards decarbonizing the global economy and reducing dependency on fossil fuels.”
Rhoda Tumisiime, Africa Union Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture said Africa need to industrialise but stop exporting its raw materials and promote sustainable production and consumption.
The African Development Bank (AfDB) has expressed its commitment to sustaining and extending ongoing collaboration with African countries with a view to deepening partnerships and investments that help in addressing the impacts of climate change and variability.
Acting Vice President of AfDB, Dr. Kapil Kapoor
Acting Vice President of the bank, Dr. Kapil Kapoor, stated this at the opening plenary of the 6th conference on Climate Change and Development in Africa (CCDA-VI) that held in the Ethiopian capital city, Addis Ababa.
Recalling the banks’ Climate Action Plan for the period 2011 -2015 which prioritised mitigation, adaptation and climate finance as key pillars, Dr. Kapoor stated that approximately 260 projects with climate relevant components were implemented and $12 billion was channeled as climate finance.
For the period 2016 -2020, Dr. Kapoor said AfDB will be even more ambitious. He added that the bank would explore modalities for achieving the adaptation goal, the adequacy and effectiveness of climate finance, capacity building and technology transfer – building technical skills so that African economies can realise their full potential for adaptation in high-technology sectors.
“Under this plan, the bank will nearly triple its annual climate financing to reach $5 billion a year by 2020,” the AfDB Vice President declared.
The bank will further examine the implication of the Paris Agreement on Africa’s future economic growth and sustainable development agenda while pursuing agriculture initiatives that complement investment actions and commitments of African countries expressed as national determined contributions (NDCs).
The AfDB however called on African countries to identify viable and transformative investment opportunities, reform institutions to make them more efficient, and build capacity to access and absorb climate finance – in readiness to take advantage of the opportunities presented by the Paris agreement, to leapfrog technologies and transition to low-carbon, climate-resilient development.
Organised by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) in collaboration with ClimDev Partner organisations, the CCDA-VI’s aim is to facilitate science-policy dialogue and provide a marketplace for innovative solutions that integrate climate change into development processes.
With “The Paris Agreement on climate change: What next for Africa” as the central theme, the CCDA-VI aspired to understand the implications, nuances, challenges and opportunities of implementing the Paris Agreement for Africa in the context of the continent’s development priorities.
The conference examined the implications of the Paris Agreement for Africa’s future economic growth and sustainable development agenda; deepened an understanding of the nuances in the decisions of COP21, particularly with regard to the means of implementation (capacity, finance and technology transfer), as well as the domestication of the Agreement in Africa in alignment with the national development priorities of African countries; and identified strategies for implementing the Agreement especially through pan-African initiatives and institutions, public-private partnerships, and the engagement of State and non-State actors.
Over 300 participants representing various interest groups on the continent including governmental and non-governmental organisations, academic, media, women, lawyers and youths have underscored the need for African member-states to integrate the Paris Agreement into Africa’s development agenda and other global governance frameworks.
A group of participants at the CCDA-VI
This came out strongly on Thursday as the sixth conference on Climate Change Development in Africa (CCDA-VI) ended in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital.
The CCDA-VI, which began on the 17th of October 2016 on the premise of facilitating science-policy dialogue and providing a marketplace for innovative solutions that integrate climate change into Africa’s development processes, urged Africa to engage with and embrace the Paris Agreement within the framework of it’s development aspirations as underscored in Agenda 2063, which embodies the vision of the “Africa we want”, and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which sets global targets with a vision of “leaving no one behind”.
Participants were also of the view that most of the intended nationally determined contributions (INDCs) submitted by African states require urgent revision ahead of the coming into force of the Agreement as many of them were vague and inconsistent with national development priorities.
Abdallah Hamdok, Deputy Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), said: “Analyses by various institutions, including the African Climate Policy Center, have demonstrated that there are still several challenges with the INDC submissions of many developing countries.”
These, according to him, include vagueness in their mitigation ambitions and adaptation aspirations; lack of cost estimates for achieving their adaptation and mitigation goals, and absence of clarity on sources of funding (conditional, unconditional, private sector, and/or public) for both mitigation and adaptation.
In a similar vein, the Vice President of the African Development Bank, Dr. Kapil Kapoor, enjoined African states to ensure that the nuances in the Paris Agreement are clarified and contextualised in the run-up to COP22, especially in the case of Africa, whose greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions remain the lowest but which is already bearing the greatest burden from the adverse impacts of climate as evinced by the effects of the unusually strong El Niño of 2015 in East and Southern Africa.
Civil society groups under the auspices of the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA) cautioned along the same line, urging Africa to utilise the window of opportunity the ratification period provides to revise their INDCs and while identifying strategies for implementing the Agreement especially through pan-African initiatives and institutions, public-private partnerships, and the engagement of state and non-state actors.
“Tackling climate change is therefore paramount if Africa’s development objective as defined in Agenda 2063 is to be achieved,” Mithika Mwenda, head of PACJA, said.
To James Murombedzi, Officer in Charge of the Africa Climate Policy Centre, “the Paris Agreement is somewhat weak in terms of how African countries will attract the required investments to deal with the challenges of climate change.”
While it was hailed as a landmark global deal on climate change, there remains a feeling of impotence from the Africa group on certain nuances of the Agreement and its implications to the continent’s development agenda.
However, signing and ratifying the Agreement is not optional for Parties as it was universally agreed by the then 196 members to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Paris last year.
This therefore implies that Africa’s fears about the Agreement and its implications, would have to be dealt with at the negotiating table, and this is the point at which the Young African Lawyers (YAL) Programme becomes crucial.
Established under the ClimDev-Africa Programme, YAL has the overarching goal of strengthening Africa’s negotiating position and ensuring Africa gets the best at the UNFCCC processes.
“Signing and ratifying the Agreement is not optional for us as Africa,” says Natasha Banda, a young Legal Practitioner from Zambia, one of the mentees under the programme.
Being part of the legal advisory team for the Zambian negotiators through the UNFCCC country Focal point person, Banda believes ratifying the Agreement is not negotiable and the starting point “because the nature of international Agreements is that you cannot have bargaining power from outside,” and is certain that Zambia, which is yet to ratify, would do so once all necessary processes are complete.
Noting that climate-induced impacts like frequent and prolonged droughts and floods, as well as environmental degradation, have created uncertainties that make livelihoods unattainable for rural and urban communities, key speakers at the conference also identified migration as a trigger and amplifying factor.
The conference further recommended that the causal linkages between climate change and migration be better understood to take appropriate climate response measures to stabilise communities and improve livelihoods.
Examining the implications of the Paris Agreement for Africa’s future economic growth and sustainable development agenda; the conference called on African countries to identify viable and transformative investment opportunities, reform institutions to make them more efficient, and build capacity to access and absorb climate finance – in readiness to take advantage of the opportunities presented by the Paris agreement, to leapfrog technologies and transition to low-carbon, climate-resilient development.
In addressing and responding to the impacts of climate change on socioeconomic development and environmental degradation in Africa, several key regional initiatives have been developed and adopted across multiple countries through partnerships and joint implementation.
Pan-African initiatives such as the Africa Renewable Energy Initiative (AREI), the Africa Adaptation Initiative (AAI), the ClimDev-Africa programme and the Africa Great Green Wall) were identified as key pillars supporting the implementation of the Paris Agreement. Similarly, the Agreement provides a unique opportunity to synergise these initiatives for maximum impact and efficient management and use of resources.
The place of the youth and the future of developmental frameworks in Africa was also put on the front-burner at the conference as Youth leaders linked the success of any development agenda on the continent to the extent of its anchorage on young people.
“In terms of leadership transition, we are still lugging behind because our leaders don’t trust young people, they see them as a threat, they see young people as naïve…but we will rise and fight for climate justice and ensure that 2063 is a reality,” said Ibrahim Cessay of the Africa Youth Initiative on Climate Change (AYICC), a network of African youth organisations and individuals working on climate change & sustainable development.
And Abel Musumali of the ClimDev Youth Platform agrees with Cessay on the need to engage young people saying “climate change is about both short and long term planning, under for Agenda 2063 to be achieved, we should be involved now in solving the climate change problem which has a bearing on our future, otherwise, we are doomed.”
Agenda 2063 heralds Africa’s dream for development in the next 50 years. And Dr. Seth Osafo, former legal advisor at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) secretariat, would like to see investments in scientific research especially for young scientists.
“We need to develop young people’s expertise at the highest level to contribute positively in their country processes. There are already some experts in all the other areas but we need a lot of research scientists, and I look forward to having a programme soon that could be mentoring young scientists for Africa to be much involved in the climate scientific governance framework considering that climate change threatens to hinder Africa’s aspirations as enshrined in the Agenda 2063,” concludes Osafo.
As the sixth session of the Climate Change and Development for Africa (CCDA-VI) ended on Thursday, Justus Kabyemera, Coordinator, ClimDev Africa Special Fund at the African Development Bank (AfDB), has called on Africa to resolve the issue of gender and its inclusion in climate change and development.
Justus Kabyemera, Coordinator, ClimDev Africa Special Fund at the African Development Bank (AfDB). He wants issues of gender and inclusivity for climate change and development resolved
“Of course there are issues that remain to be sorted out, but as most of you highlighted during the discussions, we need to be more strategic and assertive in our decisions. Issues of gender and inclusivity for climate change and development are some of the gaps that we need to resolve sooner than later,” he said.
He pointed out that, throughout the discussions, it became clear that there was need of a coordinated and programmatic approach to climate change initiatives across the continent.
“Working in silos or doing business as usual is no longer tenable especially as we grapple with the meager resources at our disposal,” he told the conference, which was attended by different government representatives, members of parliament, and civil society operatives.
“We need to leverage and compliment the resources and build on the capacities of all players in the climate change arena. There is need to scale up the various initiatives, including climate services, loss and damage mechanism/models, early warning systems; but also, domesticated approaches as the countries brace to implement their NDC within the framework of the Paris Agreement,” said Kabyemera.
He promised that AfDB, within the framework of ClimDev Africa and more so the Climate Change Action Plan for the period 2016-2020 and the Feed Africa Strategy, will enhance its financial and technical support to the cause of climate change across the continent.
“AfDB will continue to support the African Group of Negotiators to strengthen the African voice at international climate forums for affirmative action. We pledge to assist and facilitate countries in the implementation of their NDCs,” he said.
The bank seeks to collaborate with other partners in the implementation of both the Adaptation for African Agriculture – Triple A and Africa Adaptation Initiative (AAI) which, he hopes, will be closely linked for the creation of synergies between them.
Kabyemera pointed out that the CCDA-VI had set the pace not only for COP22, but also for CCDA-VII, which is expected to be a trend setter for the implementation of the Paris Agreement on the continent.
“It is our hope that all African countries would have ratified their NDCs with well guided and articulate policy frameworks at the country level to guide the implementation process. This is one aspect that we all need to collaborate to accomplish. We look forward to collaborating with you all in the implementation of the Paris Agreement in a well-coordinated and programmatic manner,” he said.
A charge has been made for the need to enhance the use of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) in the health sector.
Participants at the WaterAid WASH forum
This charge was made by the Advocacy Manager, WaterAid Nigeria (WANG), Saheed Mustafa, on Thursday at a One Day Assessment of WASH Facilities in Primary Health Care Centres Stakeholders’ Validation Workshop, held in Makurdi, the Benue State capital, in commemoration of the Global Handwashing Day 2016.
He maintained that there is a need to raise awareness and start taking actions on how important WASH is in the health sector, especially in Primary Health Care Centres.
“We need to understand the challenges and gaps that affect the practice of WASH in Primary Health Care Centres as a lot of work still needs to be done in getting us to the target of making water accessible to everyone, everywhere by 2030,” he added.
Also speaking, the Executive Director of WANG’s Civil Society Organisation (CSO) partner in Benue State, First Step, Mrs Rosemary Hua, who reiterated the need to provide WASH in Primary Health Care Centres, noted that Benue is a high burden disease state.
To this end, she called on all stakeholders to close ranks in enhancing operations in the WASH sector to improve health in the community stating that a healthy society is a wealthy one.
“Poverty eradication starts with being healthy, because when you don’t fall ill, you save cost,” she said.
Earlier, the Executive Secretary of the State Primary Health Care Board, Dr Ben Adega, who spoke through the Board’s Director of Primary Health Care, Dr Alex Aida, extolled the intervention of WANG in the water sector of the state, noting that the government can not implement all projects in the sector alone.
Adding that WASH is a component of Primary Health Care (PHC), the Executive Secretary sued for the Board’s partnership with WANG in enhancing primary health in the state.
Commenting at the end of the workshop, a participant and State Coordinator of NEWSAN, Mrs Elizabeth Jeiyol, who was represented by Mr Tersoo Agera, submitted that it was good that the workshop initiative was sought to identify gaps in WASH, adding that if issues of development are addressed through such a forum, many of such issues would be addressed.
The New development bank set up by the BRICS will lend $2.5 billion in 2017, the President of the new lender told the leaders of the bloc who last weekend gathered in the Indian state of Goa for the annual summit.
Right to left: South African President Jacob Zuma, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Brazilian President Michel Temer, at the BRICS Summit in Goa, India on 16 October 2016. Photo credit: BRICS2016
BRICS is the acronym for an association of five major emerging national economies: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
“Broadly, in the coming year we will look at lending another 2.5 billion dollars. We also said that in the coming year we would cooperate with other business groups in our member countries and BRICS Business Council to create a platform for sharing knowledge,” Kundapur Kamath, the President of the NDB told the BRICS leaders on Sunday.
Earlier this year, the BRICS Bank approved loans amounting to $900 million to green projects in each member state.
The new lender also sold 3 billion yuan ($449 million) of yuan-denominated, green bonds in China’s interbank market in July.
Leslie Maasdorp, NDB’s vice president and chief financial officer, has said the bank is also planning to sell bonds in Russia and India to fund green projects in these countries.
BRICS members, China, India and Russia are also the three largest shareholders in the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).
Both the BRICS Bank and the AIIB will extend China’s financial reach and compete not only with the World Bank, but also with the Asian Development Bank, which is heavily dominated by Japan.
101 countries consider carbon pricing as part of their Paris Agreement commitments
John Roome, Senior Director for Climate Change at the World Bank. He insists that carbon pricing policies must be coordinated with other energy and environmental policies. Photo credit: devfinance.net
Greater cooperation through carbon trading could reduce the cost of climate change mitigation by 32 percent by 2030, according to a World Bank report released on Tuesday at an international carbon event in Hanoi, Vietnam.
New modelling analysis undertaken for the State and Trends of Carbon Pricing 2016 report shows that increased international carbon trading could enable large-scale emissions reductions at much lower cost than at present, based on the carbon mitigation goals spelled out in countries’ national climate plans under the Paris Agreement – the Nationally Determined Contributions, or NDCs. By the middle of the century, an international market has the potential to reduce global mitigation costs by more than 50 percent.
The goal of limiting emission reductions to meet a 2°C or lower target will be difficult to achieve cost-efficiently without more carbon trading, according to the report, prepared by the World Bank and launched at the 15th Assembly of the Partnership for Market Readiness.
“The more we cooperate through carbon trading, the larger the savings and the greater the potential to increase ambition by countries in the short term,” said John Roome, Senior Director for Climate Change at the World Bank. “To be effective, carbon pricing policies must be coordinated with other energy and environmental policies – this will require collaboration within and between countries.”
The Paris Agreement, reached at COP21 in Paris in late 2015, sets up a framework for global cooperation through carbon markets. Over 100 countries consider carbon pricing initiatives as part of their NDCs, through emissions trading within or across borders, international crediting, carbon taxation and other measures.
Under this new cooperative framework, one country can benefit from mitigation activities resulting in emission reductions in another country to fulfill its NDC. The report indicates that financial flows of 2–5 percent of gross domestic product in countries with lower-cost mitigation activities could be realised for investments that will reduce emissions by 2050.
The report also shows that momentum on carbon pricing has continued to grow. In 2016, 40 national jurisdictions and over 20 cities, states, and regions are putting a price on carbon, including seven out of 10 of the world’s largest economies. The coverage of carbon pricing initiatives on global emissions has increased threefold over the past decade, translating to the equivalent of around 7 gigatons of carbon dioxide (GtCO2e), or about 13 percent of global GHG emissions. In addition, governments raised about $26 billion in revenues from carbon pricing initiatives in 2015. This represents a 60 percent increase compared to the revenues raised in 2014.
This year saw the launch of two new carbon pricing initiatives: British Columbia put a price on emissions from liquefied natural gas plants alongside its carbon tax, and Australia implemented a safeguard mechanism to the Emissions Reduction Fund, requiring large emitters that exceed their set limit to offset excess emissions.
Looking ahead, next year could see the largest ever increase in the share of global emissions covered by carbon pricing initiatives in a single year. If the Chinese national Emissions Trading System (ETS) is implemented in 2017 as planned, it would become the largest carbon pricing initiative in the world, surpassing the EU ETS. Initial estimates show that emissions covered by carbon pricing initiatives could increase from 13 percent to between 20 and 25 percent of global GHG emissions.
In April, the High Level Panel on Carbon Pricing called upon the international community to double the percentage of global emissions covered by explicit carbon prices to 25% by 2020 and to double it again to 50% within a decade. Heads of State from Canada, Chile, Ethiopia, France, Germany and Mexico are among the leaders calling for this increased commitment.
The report was prepared with the technical support of Ecofys and Vivid Economics.
