As the world is confronted with the most threatened and complex challenges of climate change, developing countries are the most vulnerable and heavily impacted by climate variability, lacking the political and economic will to reduce and cope with the changes. These inadequacies often characterise the bloc’s negotiation setback among other world region in reaching a global climate agreement, though this is not the focus of this article.

A case in point is the most rapidly growing populous country in sub-Sahara Africa with about 180 million people and projected to over-double to 400 million by 2040, Nigeria is struggling with the everyday reality of climate-induced challenges. Most of these challenges are weather-pattern dependent cutting across the ecological zones of the country resulting in conflicts and insecurity, flooding, food shortage, environmental degradation and habitat loss of wildlife species, drought, rural-urban migration, disease and infection. These climate-induced challenges are exacerbated by the complex issue of poverty as Nigeria’s poverty level index worsened to 72% record-high in August 2016 from 60% in 2015 with an average citizen living on $.05 per day compared to $ 1.1 per day respectively within the last five years according to a 2016 Fitch International report.

One obvious victim of climate change that has impacted Nigeria’s ecological and socio-economic landscape is the Lake Chad Basin – a trans-boundary wetlands covering Cameroun, Chad, Niger, and Nigeria with extension to Central African Republic. The Lake Chad Basin is one of Africa’s largest closed sedimentary groundwater basins and encompasses three climate zones: the Saharan desert climate in the north, the Sahel in central Chad with its wet and dry seasons, and the Sudan zone in the south with a hot, wet-dry tropical climate. This results in marked regional and season variation in rainfall. A 2004 UNEP Global International Water Assessment report shows evidence of the shrinking of the surface area of Lake Chad Basin from an approximately 25,000 km2 in the 1960s to 1,350 km2 in the 2000s. The two major causes of this reduction are climate variability and increase use of inflows from tributaries for irrigation and household needs of the growing population of 17 million in 2005 to 34 million within the past five years.

In 2012, the United Nations alerted on the severe implication and current impact of the vanishing Lake Chad on the rural livelihood of Nigerians dwelling in the region, calling on actions to halt the “ecological catastrophe”. Regional terrorism has typified the entire cross-boundary countries resulting from the drying Lake Chad which used to be the irrigation source for agriculture in the region. Unfortunately, it cannot ensure continued provision of this ecosystem services making locals find alternative source of livelihood resorting to Boko Haram – the deadly terrorist group that operates in the north-eastern Nigeria, Cameroun and Chad with questionable links with other international terrorist group. Aside financial gratification which comes with joining the terrorist group, easy marriage, government neglect as a result of oil boom are factors that have contributed to the proliferation of the terrorist group as a result of the vacuum created by the drying lake chad National Social Violence Research project.

Pastoral farmers/herdsmen in this region and other part are also forced to migrate down south where they can access greener pasture for their herds usually on farm land, leading to severe crisis among smallholder farmers and herdsmen. This has been a daily occurrence in Nigeria’s agricultural space, claiming an alarming number of lives and properties as pastoralists now carry dangerous weapon/armoury purportedly as self-defence to inflict pain on harmless farmers who do not allow such act.

The climate variability impact on Lake Chad has also worsened the abundance and conservation status of biodiversity that utilise the wetlands as refugia for their ecological activities. The number of endemic and migrant birds on the lake continues to decrease over the year due to water loss in the lake leading to aqua-resource degradation.

Already there is a very high infestation of some channels that feed the lake with water, by an invasive plant – Typha. This phenomenon over the years have limited the fish catch affecting the rural economy of the community. The success of 17-year-old conservation and livelihood effort of Nigerian Conservation Foundation (NCF) and its international partners – WWF, IUCN and BirdLife International, in the Hadeija Nguru Wetlands – a section of the Lake Chad basin in Nigeria, have a significant positive impact on wildlife and people in the region. NCF re-afforestation and livelihood projects have contributed to reduce the pressure of climate change on migratory birds and poverty.

Sea level rise has resulted in flooding occurrence dotting the agricultural and built-environment landscape in Nigeria, and affecting people in thousands from rural to urban centres. Okun Alfa community in Lagos is at the verge of extinction and the authorities are considering the relocation of the people as sea level continues to rise in the area. Similarly, farmers are worried and uncertain about the future of their investment in agriculture as farmlands are destroyed by flooding events in most agrarian states in Nigeria causing displacement of people. This becomes a severe threat to food security, thereby limiting Nigeria’s production capacity to meet the national demands which is exhibited in high cost of food import.

Among the numerous international government-assisted adaptation programme for Lake Chad Basin is an on-going five-year Germany-funded “Adapting to Climate Change in Lake Chad Basin” led by the Lake Chad Basin Commission to incorporate climate smart agriculture practices into farming/harvesting practices, storage practices, and value chain diversification for smallholders farmers who largely practice rain-fed agriculture making them vulnerable to climate variability.

Building Resilience

In order to forestall difficult times for Nigeria as one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change impact, there is need for the implementation of climate actions at all levels. Nigeria is committed to reduce carbon emission by 20% unconditionally and 45% conditionally by 2030 as stated in the country’s Nationally Determined Commitment (NDC), which is one of the roadmaps to keeping temperature well below 2oC targeting 1.5oC.

As the world passes the 400ppm threshold of CO2e in September this year, Nigeria must pursue a low carbon development pathway without compromising its developmental priorities through the implementation of climate actions. Everyone has a responsibility to cool the earth with our lifestyle if we do not want to leave a destroyed planet for our future generation.

Just recently at the UN General Assembly in New York, nine African nations joined the front runners to ratify the Paris Agreement signalling a genuine commitment in the regional bloc to fight climate change.  This very commendable effort will engender Nigeria’s promptness to do the same as the Paris Agreement enters into force as 73 countries already deposited their ratification instruments representing about 57% of emission reduction commitment, and surpassing the required threshold of 55%.

The innovative financing approach of issuing green bond by the Federal Ministry of Environment to finance the $142 billion NDC could be a great start to this process but must also be planned carefully to reduce the risk of the current economic recession competing with reality of its achievement.

However private sector players must be ready to drive a low carbon pathway within their business operation to reduce their carbon emission with a larger effect on reducing global temperature.

A national Afforestation and forest regeneration effort that could nosedive the global temperature is one action among many others that will save Nigeria from current climate-induced disasters. NCF is ready to drive such with its greenery initiative which will bring back Nigeria’s forest cover from current 4% to the FAO-recommended 25% forest cover in the next few decades. It will accommodate current tree planting initiatives of most State government in Nigeria, thereby feeding the long term goal of this initiative.

By Solomon Adefolu, Climate Change Coordinator, Nigeria Conservation Foundation (NCF)

“Wild animals are confused, they see light for 24 hours and cannot understand what is going on. Children in Turkey are suffering from asthma as a result of pollution in the atmosphere. Ecosystems have changed and are still changing, glaciers are melting, sea levels are rising, the climate is obviously changing and at very rapid rate. Scientists have attributed all these changes majorly to the activities of fossil fuel companies that has brought upon the world climate change.”

This is just to mention a few of the negative impacts of the fossil fuel industries activities to mankind and the environment.

Investigations and reports have proven that the fossil fuel industry knew that their activities caused climate change more than three decades ago, but what did they do about it? Pay for campaigns to spread the wrong information. The technology of avoiding carbon dioxide emissions from entering the atmosphere by seizing it (carbon capture and storage) was discovered and used in the 1970s.

Instead of fossil fuel industries instilling it in all operations, to stop greenhouse gases from entering the atmosphere, it was mainly used to make profit while gas flaring continued. For many years the oil giants invested millions in watering down the fact that burning of fossil fuels is one of the major causes of climate change, depriving the world of the opportunity to take action earlier.

According to Inside Climate News, a presentation was made to Exxon’s top management in 1977 highlighting the fact that burning of fossil fuels released carbon dioxide into the atmosphere thereby tampering with the climate.

The big oil companies or the fossil fuel giants have often been likened to the tobacco industry, both powerful, with the same motive and history of concealing important information, that links and proves that their activities are very detrimental to human health and environment respectively.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission Filings for Exxon Mobil 1999-2005 Gross Annual Profit, stated: “Just as Big Tobacco lied about the risks of addiction and Cancer, Exxon orchestrated a campaign of doubt and deception, making hundreds making hundreds of billions at the cost of people’s lives- now it’s time for them to face the consequences.”

In the same vein, it is not out of place for the same punitive measures expended on the tobacco industry by the World Health Organisations (WHO) convention to be used for the fossil fuel industry by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The Framework Convention for Tobacco Control succeeded in not only restricting the tobacco industry from participating in the negotiations, but made them pay for the harm they had caused.  With the Paris Agreement entering into force just in time for the Conference of Parties in Marrakech, Morocco from the 7^th to 18^th of November 2016, the UNFCCC should start limiting the influence and participation of fossil fuel lobbyists.

They need to be brought to book, by starting to pay compensation to developing countries, and should be mandated to contribute to the climate finance goal (towards the mobilisation of $100 billion till 2025 by the UNFCCC). What happened in Paris should never happen again, where fossil fuel industries sponsored the conference, thereby influencing decisions. They should be restricted from being part of the climate negotiations. The UNFCCC should urge G7 countries and world leaders that are parties to the convention to stop funding fossil fuels and redirect that money to renewable energy.

By Chinma George (Climate finance consultant, @Chimz_green)

Two young climate activists from Tunisia and Vietnam who tell their inspiring stories of climate action and building public awareness have been selected as the winners of the 2016 Global Youth Video Competition on Climate Change.

The winners, chosen through online public voting, are Faouzia Bahloul from Tunisia and Phuong Vu Hoang from Vietnam. They will travel to the UN Climate Change Conference in Marrakech in Morocco in November and will work with the communications team of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in covering highlights of the meeting.

The video “Think Renewable” by the young Tunisian Faouzia Bahloul is about the need to increase the use of renewable energy, and explains the research she has been doing on biogas produced with the help of microalgea. In his video entry, Phuong Vu Hoang talks about the vulnerability of Vietnam to climate change explains how he deploys his graphic design skills to make posters to inform the public about more sustainable lifestyle choices.

UNFCCC Spokesperson Nick Nuttall said: “In Marrakech, countries will be celebrating the entry into force of the historic Paris Climate Change Agreement, and taking the next crucial steps towards low carbon and resilient societies. As they do so, they can be heartened by the enthusiasm and commitment of young people working on concrete ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to adapt to the impacts of climate change.

“The video contributions underscore the fact that governments are not alone in constructing a more sustainable world – civil society, cities, businesses, investors and not least young people around the world are intensely engaged in helping to construct greener, safer and more prosperous societies and envision a better world for their communities and for the globe.”

Young people between the ages of 18 and 30 took part in the competition, with entries submitted from young people in 77 different countries, from France to Fiji.

The competition was launched by the UNFCCC secretariat’s “Action for Climate Empowerment” initiative, in partnership with Television for the Environment (tve) and supported by the Global Environment Facility’s Small Grants Programme, which is implemented by the United Nations Development Programme.

Watch the video by Faouzia Bahloul: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZKf1d2670w

See the video by Phuong Vu Hoang: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyZ6L9W3Vxs

As Philippines hands over the presidency to Ethiopia, the Vulnerable 20 (V20) Group of Finance Ministers of the Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF) at the World Bank and IMF Fall meetings on Thursday in the US reacts to recent Paris Agreement developments

On the day after the Paris Agreement on climate change became law, finance ministers representing more than 40 emerging economies that form the Vulnerable Twenty (V20) Group met in Washington, DC to discuss how finance is key to driving the urgent action required at home. At the event, on the sideline of the Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank Group, Ethiopia assumed the Chair of the V20 Group, which was founded in 2015.

Carlos Dominguez, the Secretary of Finance of the Philippines, called for a clear roadmap towards the mobilisation of $100 billion in additional financing flows to help the most vulnerable countries deal protect themselves. He said V20 international cooperation would “provide our domestic economies with vital support and confidence we need to excel in fighting climate change”.

Abdulaziz Mohammed, the Minister of Finance and Economic Cooperation of Ethiopia, highlighted devastating effects and “lethal excesses caused by the world’s most gigantic externality”, adding that “we would like to express Ethiopia’s commitment for its candid leadership for the achievement of the V20 vision, and to work towards the fulfilment of the Paris climate agreement at large”.

Speaking at the V20 Ministerial, Helen Clark, UNDP Administrator, recognised the role of the vulnerable countries in the Paris Agreement through convincing the international community that a world where warming does not exceed 1.5 degrees was worth fighting for.

“UNDP, and the entire UN development system, will work to support you in accomplishing your mission,” she said.

Evidence is increasing that climate change is taking the largest toll on poor and vulnerable people, and these impacts are largely caused by inequalities that increase the risks from climate hazards, according to a new report launched by the United Nations on Tuesday.

“Sadly, the people at greater risk from climate hazards are the poor, the vulnerable and the marginalised who, in many cases, have been excluded from socioeconomic progress,” noted UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in the World Economic and Social Survey 2016: Climate Change Resilience, produced by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA).

“We have no time to waste – and a great deal to gain – when it comes to addressing the socioeconomic inequalities that deepen poverty and leave people behind,” he added.

Speaking to reporters at UN Headquarters in New York on the launch of the report, the UN Assistant Secretary-General for Economic Development, Lenni Montiel, said: “Persistent inequalities in access to assets, opportunities, political voice and participation, and in some cases, outright discriminations leave large group of people and community disproportionally exposed and vulnerable to climate hazards.”

He added that through transformative policies, the government can “address the root causes of inequalities, to reduce the vulnerabilities of people to climate hazards, building their longer term resilience.”

On transformative policies, the Chief of Development Strategy and Policy at UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Diana Alarcon, said such policies could help build climate change resilience, close inequality gaps, provide access to financial services, to diversification of the livelihoods, to quality education and health and social security. She added: “it is that kind of transformation that leads to development.”

While there is considerable anecdotal evidence that the poor and the vulnerable suffer greater harm from climate-related disasters, the report determined that much of the harm is not by accident, but that it is due to the failure of governments to close the development gaps that leave large population groups at risk.

In the past 20 years, 4.2 billion people have been affected by weather-related disasters, including a significant loss of lives. Developing countries are the most affected by climate change impacts. Low-income countries suffered the greatest losses, including economic costs estimated at five per cent of gross domestic product.

The report argues that while climate adaptation and resilience are overshadowed by mitigation in climate discussions, they are vital for addressing climate change and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.

Specifically, the report found that families living in poverty systematically occupy the least desirable land to damage from climate hazards, such as mud slides, periods of abnormally hot water, water contamination and flooding. Climate change has the potential to worsen their situation and thereby worsen pre-existent inequalities. The report shows that structural inequalities increase the exposure of vulnerable groups to climate hazards.

According to the latest data, 11 per cent of the world’s population lived in a low-elevation coastal zone in 2000. Many of them were poor and compelled to live in floodplains because they lacked the resources to live in safer areas. The data also underscore that in many countries in South and East Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean, many people have no other option than to erect their dwellings on precarious hill slopes.

The report also found a larger concentration of poor and marginalised groups in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid aridity zones which cover about 40 per cent of the Earth’s land surface. About 29 per cent of the world’s population live in those areas and are facing additional challenges owing to climate change.

Transformative policies for addressing root causes

According to the report, building resilience to climate change provides an opportunity to focus resources on reducing long entrenched inequalities that make people disproportionately vulnerable to climate hazards. The best climate adaptation policies, the report states, are good development policies that strengthen people’s capacity to cope with and adapt to climate hazards in the present and in the medium term.

Looking ahead, the report recommends the use of improved access to climate projections, modern information and communications technologies, and geographical information systems to strengthen national capacity to assess impacts of climate hazards and policy options statistically.

The report voices a concern that international resources to support climate change resilience are insufficient. At last year’s Paris climate conference, informally known as COP21, countries committed to setting a goal of at least $100 billion per year for climate change mitigation and adaptation activities in developing countries. However, adaptation costs alone range from $70 billion to $100 billion per year by 2050 in the developing countries, and these figures are likely to underestimate real costs, according to the report.

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development calls for transformative policies to deliver on our collective promise to build a life of dignity for all on a cleaner, greener planet.

“The challenges are enormous, but the world possesses the know-how, tools and wealth needed to build a climate-resilient future – a future free from poverty, hunger, discrimination and injustice,” the Secretary-General stressed in the report, noting the importance of the enabling policy environment as well as the support of the international community.