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Mayors to G20: Build low-carbon world

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Mayors to G20: Build low-carbon world

Participants at the recently concluded Seoul Mayors Forum on Climate Change, which held recently in Seoul City Hall in Korea, presented an open letter to leaders at the G20 Summit that ended on Monday in Hangzhou, China. The mayors from the G20 country cities are calling on the leaders to build a low-carbon and non-violent world. Excerpts:

Makati Mayor Abby Binay presents the city's initiatives on climate change mitigation and adaptation during the Seoul Mayors Forum on Climate Change. Photo credit: makati.gov.ph
Makati Mayor Abby Binay presents the city’s initiatives on climate change mitigation and adaptation during the Seoul Mayors Forum on Climate Change. Photo credit: makati.gov.ph

We, mayors of the major cities within the G20, call on our national leaders to work with us to build a low carbon, climate safe world.

In December 2015, you showed vital leadership by adopting the ground-breaking Paris Agreement. This was an unprecedented display of global solidarity and commitment to action, and we commend your efforts in taking steps to ratify it as soon as possible, allowing its entry into force in the upcoming months.

However, this is only the first step along the road towards our low carbon, climate safe future. To limit the global temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, global greenhouse gas emissions need to peak by 2020. Achieving such a rapid shift is probably one of the greatest political, economic and practical challenges faced by every national leader, but you do have great allies in this task: we, the mayors of the megacities of the world.

As mayors, we are already dealing with the consequences of climate change on our cities, from floods to heat waves, and from water shortages to air pollution. Yet, we know that cities are a key part of the climate solution. From the rollout of fleets of electric buses in Chinese cities; the moves by European, South American and Indian cities to ban the most polluting cars from city centres; the retrofitting of tens of thousands of buildings across North American cities to deliver greater energy efficiency and dedicated low-carbon districts in cities worldwide, we are taking bold actions to cut emissions and prepare for the worst effects of a warming planet. In Paris, we collectively committed to deliver up to 3.7 gigatons of greenhouse gas emissions reductions annually by 2030.

We have also seen first-hand that our climate action brings significant co-benefits to our communities, from improved public health, cleaner air, faster economic growth and more equity.  There is no trade-off between climate action and development: delivering on the Paris Agreement will help us all implement the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, and vice-versa.

Many of us are also committed to the Compact of Mayors and the newly formed Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy which captures the commitments of more than 7,100 cities in 119 countries representing more than 600 million residents. By aligning our efforts, the Global Covenant allows us to collaborate on a greater scale, bridging gaps and building connections. Quantifying the collective scale and potential for cities to cut emissions and deliver low carbon societies serves to increase our collective impact in the fight against climate change.

For the major cities of the world it is already clear that the faster we move to a low carbon economy, the greater will be the improvement in urban citizens’ standards of living, and the stronger and more sustained will be the economic development that makes that possible. That is why we are all making a commitment, as part of the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group (C40), to set out concrete plans for how we will deliver the goals of the Paris Agreement in our cities. We want our citizens, markets and other political leaders to know that we are serious about making the Paris Agreement a reality. We call on the heads of states from our respective nation states to do the same.

As members of the C40 we understand the value of co-operation to drive ambition. Just as the G20 is the world’s premier forum for international economic cooperation, C40 has proven the power of the world’s megacities, both the Global North and Global South, working together to tackle the global threat of climate change.

Similarly, we must improve collaboration between national, regional and local governments, as we all work towards the shared objectives, of delivering a low carbon, sustainable world for the next generations. The ambition of the Paris Agreement, will require unprecedented collaboration and innovation. We stand ready for the challenge ahead.

 

Signatories:

 

Eduardo Paes, Mayor of Rio de Janeiro and Chair of C40

Steve Adler, Mayor of Austin

Bill de Blasio, Mayor of New York City

Muriel Bowser, Mayor of Washington D.C.

Robert Doyle, Mayor of Melbourne

Rahm Emanuel, Mayor of Chicago

Gustavo Fruet, Mayor of Curitiba

Eric Garcetti, Mayor of Los Angeles

Fumiko Hayashi, Mayor of Yokohama

Charlie Hales, Mayor of Portland

Anne Hidalgo, Mayor of Paris

Sadiq Khan, Mayor of London

Yuriko Koike, Governor of Tokyo

Mitch Landrieu, Mayor of New Orleans

Ed Lee, Mayor of San Francisco

Patricia de Lille, Mayor of the City of Cape Town

Miguel Ángel Mancera, Mayor of Mexico City

Clover Moore, Lord Mayor of Sydney

Michael Müller, Governing Mayor of Berlin

Ed Murray, Mayor of Seattle

Antônio Neto, Mayor of Salvador

Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, Governor of Jakarta

Virginia Raggi, Mayor of Rome

Gregor Robertson, Mayor of Vancouver

Horacio Rodríguez-Larreta, Mayor of Buenos Aires

Giuseppe Sala, Mayor of Milan

Wong Kam Sing, Secretary for the Environment of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government

John Tory, Mayor of Toronto

Marty Walsh, Mayor of Boston

Park Won-soon, Mayor of Seoul

New Regional Master Plan for Ikorodu underway

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New Regional Master Plan for Ikorodu underway

The upgrade of Ikorodu township, a rapidly expanding settlement in Lagos State, to a contemporary eco-city development is in top gear as the government’s consultant has unveiled a new and ambitious programme to review the city’s spatial dynamics.

Ikorodu, Lagos
Ikorodu, Lagos

The coming master plan hopes to cover a period of 20 years from 2016 to 2036. So far, the State’s Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development has completed and published six model city plans of Alimosho, Apapa, Agege/Ifako, Mainland, Ikoyi-Victoria Island, Badagry and Lekki for the use of professionals in the built environment and the public.

A week ago, consultant to the project, Messrs City Scape Planning Services, met with major stakeholders representing various interest groups from the town’s roughly two million population. They included several sole administrators of the affected Local Council Development Authorities (LCDAs) comprising Agboyi – Ketu, Isheri North, Ikosi, Gberigbe, Agbowa, Imota, Ibeshe, Ijede, amongst others, Lagos State House of Assembly members including the majority leader, Mr. Sanai Agunbiade, representatives of the Ministry of Physical Planning, Lands Bureau, former state commissioners, academia, state agencies such as LAMATA, Lagos State Water Ways, as well as professional planning practitioners.

The CEO, CityScape, Mr. Niyi Odetoye, shedding light on the project, stated that stakeholder input was paramount to the planning process. Hence, the first level of execution will be the data collection drive.

“The job we had was to prepare a master plan for the region. Ikorodu plays a major part in the entire Lagos. The plan envisions a development, which will utilise the sub-region’s undeveloped green fields, waterways and lagoon front potentials to make it a viable investment destination in Lagos State,” he stated.

An analysis of the facts on ground shows that there has been rapid spatial growth in Ikorodu at the rate of 118.3 per cent annual urban growth between 1990 to 2011 increasing to an eye-popping rate of 1171.6 per cent annually by 2015.

He added that recent studies have also shown that Ikorodu interconnects with the Lagos metropolis with over 40 per cent of the residents / home owners working in the metropolitan Lagos according to a functional urban area survey. Thus to prepare a sub-regional plan in accordance with the provisions of the Lagos State regional plan for a sustainable city requires an all inclusive approach.

He said the underpinnings of the project is to ensure that it aligns with global and regional development agenda through a bottom – up approach that will ensure the issue of poverty is dealt with.

Odetoye equally proposes a project that will be situated within the local regional development framework and that would be driven by technology to ensure proper coverage of all the relevant sectors as well as incorporate the local interests of the stakeholders with environmental sustainability placed high on the ladder of priorities.

“Our proposals align with local culture, with capacity development strategies for all the actors such as community leaders, residents, the market men and women and so forth. We don’t want it to end up being an academic exercise. We are placing a lot of emphasis on environmental sustainability by leveraging natural resource potentials and mitigating possible threats and risk prone areas,” he added.

The method is based on global best practices, benchmarking with United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT) Protocol for Urban and Territorial Planning.

“Through a go along method of data collection, policy stakeholders’ forum and community consultative forums, it will ensure involvement of the community by the time we move to site. We have put together a comprehensive community participation plan. Lastly there will be a validation exercise to ensure that data collected is authentic and everyone is on the same page.”

Also speaking on the potentials of the project and the policy challenges /gaps in past planning policies and processes, Prof. Leke Oduwaye of the University of Lagos, Akoka identified urbanisation, development being faster than projections of master plans and that generic models did not consider local peculiarities.

He explained: “Urbanisation is the biggest challenge to Ikorodu. How inclusive have previous master plans been? The location of Ikorodu is very strategic – it is highly accessible to other parts of Lagos. Existing plans did not envisage the rate of growth in Ikorodu. The models were not culturally rooted – they come from abroad thus cannot address our local needs. Development plans ordinarily should be able to absorb shocks.”

Stakeholders at the event highlighted aspects of Ikorodu’s potentials and necessary infrastructure to be kept in focus in the planning of the new master plan.

Majority Leader of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Mr. S. O. B. Agunbiade, stressed the tourism potentials and cultural heritage of Ikorodu and revealed that the town celebrates no less than 200 cultural festivals yearly. He cited the various locations of pre-colonial and early independence justice system of Ikorodu as places to be preserved and developed into tourism destinations.

Other infrastructural needs as noted by the participants included a modern e-library, fire station, a sea port to serve as supporting infrastructure for the Apapa port, water transportation for both inter-Lagos and intra-Ikorodu routes, health facilities, as well as the proper distribution and rehabilitation of road networks in the region to connect the communities within the sub-region, among others.

Courtesy: The Guardian

Nigeria reports third polio case

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Nigeria reports third polio case

Nigeria has reported its third polio case in the northeastern state of Borno, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Monday, September 5, warning more cases could appear in a major health setback.

Victims of polio. The WHO reveals that Nigeria reported its third polio case in the northeastern state of Borno
Victims of polio. The WHO reveals that Nigeria reported its third polio case in the northeastern state of Borno

Two other polio cases were reported in August.

Nigeria was on track to be certified free of the virus next year.

“A third child has been paralysed by wild poliovirus type one in Borno state,” WHO said in a statement.

“It’s all linked to the same outbreak,” WHO said, adding: “detection of new cases is not unexpected and can be anticipated, particularly as disease surveillance is being strengthened including by conducting retrospective case searches.”

The three cases appear to come from the same strain of the disease circulating in the northeast for years, said Stephanie Mucznik, spokesperson for Rotary International, which is working with the Nigerian government to eradicate polio.

Mucznik said the latest case concerned a two-year-old boy suffering from the onset of paralysis on August 6 in the Monguno area.

“Genetic sequencing of the isolated viruses suggests they are most closely linked to WPV1 last detected in Borno in 2011, indicating the strain has been circulating without detection since that time,” Mucznik said.

Polio is a highly infectious viral disease which mainly affects young children and can result in permanent paralysis. There is no cure and it can only be prevented through immunisation.

Nigeria’s outbreak response, which includes a large immunisation campaign, is expected to continue until November and includes the neighbouring areas of Chad, Cameroon and Niger.

Nigerian Health Minister Isaac Adewole warned in August that the affected areas “have had their health facilities destroyed by insurgents” and “accessibility was a barrier to service provision.”

Since taking up arms in 2009, Boko Haram Islamist militants have captured swathes of territory in the northeast, cutting off health services to millions of people.

In the past year, the Nigerian military has recorded a series of successes against Boko Haram.

But the northeast has been devastated by the fighting, with the United Nations estimating that this year seven million people are in need of humanitarian assistance.

Manila climate forum focuses on Loss and Damage

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Manila climate forum focuses on Loss and Damage

Beginning from Monday and all through Tuesday (5-6 September) in Manila, capital of the Philippines, experts are discussing the issue of loss and damage associated with the unavoidable impacts of climate change, and focus on financial instruments that address the risks of loss and damage in helping affected communities.

Manila, capital of the Philippines, hosts the 2016 Forum of the Standing Committee on Finance (SCF)
Manila, capital of the Philippines, hosts the 2016 Forum of the Standing Committee on Finance (SCF)

Loss and Damage relates specifically to developing countries that are particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change. It refers to adverse effects of climate variability and climate change that occur despite global mitigation and local adaptation efforts.

Such impacts include extreme events such as hurricanes and heat waves, and slow onset events such as sea level rise and desertification.

During the 2016 Forum of the Standing Committee on Finance (SCF) in Manila, experts are discussing and sharing information on financial instruments that address the risks of loss and damage at local, national, regional and international levels.

The meeting is interactive, generating practical insights incorporating both plenary and breakout group sessions and panel discussions facilitated by experts.

Participants are exploring the limits, gaps, benefits and good practices of existing financial instruments used to address the risks of loss and damage and identify further actions that can be taken to scale up, replicate or innovate these initiatives to provide protection to those vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.

The theme of this year’s annual SCF forum in Manila is based on the invitation of the Executive Committee of the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage at its eleventh meeting.

The Forum is organised in collaboration with the Asian Development Bank and the Government of the Philippines.

More than 100 representatives from governments, financial institutions, the private sector and civil society are attending the two-day event.

Eko Atlantic City to address nation’s housing deficit

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Eko Atlantic City to address nation’s housing deficit

Real estate investor and developers of the Eko Atlantic City Project on Victoria Island in Lagos, South Energyx Nigeria Limited (SENL), has restated its commitment to reduce the country’s huge housing deficit over the next few years through the development of a wide range of affordable and luxurious residential buildings.

Ronald Chagoury Jr., Vice Chairman of South Energyx Nigeria Limited, developers of Eko Atlantic City
Ronald Chagoury Jr., Vice Chairman of South Energyx Nigeria Limited, developers of Eko Atlantic City

Making the pledge recently in Lagos was Mr. Ronald Chagoury Jr., Vice Chairman of South Energyx Nigeria Limited, a subsidiary of the Chagoury Group. He described the Eko Atlantic City as a unique and ambitious project developed by the company as part of its efforts at solving the country’s housing problem.

According to statistics, Nigeria’s housing shortage is estimated at 17 million, of which five million exist in Lagos alone. When completed, the new Eko Atlantic City will reduce this by providing homes to about 450,000 residents, with additional office space for another 300,000 people, according to the developers.

“At the moment, we are working hard with our partners to ensure that the project is completed on schedule. In fact, the first residential building should be ready before the end of the year and the second by mid-2017, with the first office block set to be ready by October, 2016,” he stated.

“One common misperception about Eko Atlantic City is that all of its properties are priced above the market. This is hardly the truth, for while the city will naturally feature a range of high-end luxury apartments, it will also provide many opportunities for more competitively priced accommodation,” he said, even as he described the project as a “vital answer to the housing shortage in Lagos.”

According to data released by Residential Auctions Company (RAC), there are already over 1,000 units of apartments of various room sizes ranging from one-bedroom to four-bedroom apartments already under construction at Eko Atlantic City.

Chagoury expressed the belief that ambitious projects such as the Eko Atlantic City will not only help alleviate Nigeria’s housing problems, but also help put Lagos on the global map as one of the emerging smartest cities in the world, thereby boosting its business and tourism potentials and revenue.

He called for concerted efforts by stakeholders, including local and international investors in solving the country’s housing problems. “South Energyx has taken it upon itself to reduce Lagos’ accommodation deficits with the Eko Atlantic City. However, to totally overcome the problem, all hands must be on deck,” he said.

When UNEP’s Erik Solheim visited Côte d’Ivoire

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When UNEP’s Erik Solheim visited Côte d’Ivoire

“I’ve seen Côte d’Ivoire rapidly develop in the last five years. I want to see it continue to build and improve its economy long into the future. For it to do so, economic development must not come at the expense of the environment,” says Solheim, who during the two-day visit discussed lagoon clean-up, air pollution, wildlife protection, and marine erosion with the Côte d’Ivoire Prime Minister

Head of UNEP, Erik Solheim, with Ivorian officials during the visit in Abidjan
Head of UNEP, Erik Solheim, with Ivorian officials during the visit in Abidjan

Erik Solheim a week ago concluded a two-day visit to Abidjan, a first for a Head of United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in Côte d’Ivoire. The visit provided an opportunity to present the priorities of his mandate and discuss key environmental challenges constraining the country’s development process as it aspires to lift thousands out of poverty.

During his visit, Mr. Solheim met with Prime Minister Daniel Kablan Duncan, and Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development, Remi Allah-Kouadio. He also helped launch the Integrated Ecosystem Management Project to rehabilitate the Banco National Park within the city of Abidjan.

In 2011 as Norway’s Minister of Environment and International Development, Erik Solheim witnessed the bloody political upheaval that cost the lives of thousands of Ivorians and displaced many more. He was impressed by the progress made in the five short years since the end of the conflict.

“Many of the countries that were disrupted are still in crisis. Côte d’Ivoire is not. It’s a testament to the will and optimism of Ivorians and to the leadership of President Ouattara that they have put their country back on track. With a steady eight per cent, the country now boasts one of the strongest economic growth rates in the world, and is a West African powerhouse,” he said.

“I’ve seen Côte d’Ivoire rapidly develop in the last five years. I want to see it continue to build and improve its economy long into the future. For it to do so, economic development must not come at the expense of the environment. Any development that is unsustainable can only take the country so far. To grow the economy past the short-term, Côte d’Ivoire will need to integrate nature and development in an inclusive way,” he added.

The political crisis has generated a lot of social and environmental problems, particularly in the city of Abidjan. The conflict had a dramatic impact both on the process of urbanisation and on the infrastructure of Côte d’Ivoire. The population of Abidjan is reported to have doubled between 2002 and 2006 due to large-scale migration from villages and towns.

In a post-conflict environmental assessment report produced by UNEP in 2015, experts recommended that an alternative urban policy be developed to reduce the burden on Abidjan and its overwhelmed capacity.

Top environmental challenges for the country include the clean-up of the Abidjan Lagoon, air pollution, deforestation and wildlife conservation, marine erosion and the need to undertake an audit of the mining sector and remediation.

Most of these issues, according to Solheim, can better be tackled through partnerships, bringing together different stakeholders including the UN system, the private sector and development partners under the leadership of the government.

“Côte d’Ivoire has exhibited a great recovery from the height of its difficulties. Five years ago, supporting the country in its rehabilitation was a priority for me as Minister. Today, in my new role as head of UN Environment, I look forward to helping Côte d’Ivoire build on its recent growth and success in a sustainable way,” he said.

How ocean warming is impacting species, ecosystems

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How ocean warming is impacting species, ecosystems

Ocean warming is affecting humans in direct ways and the impacts are already being felt, including effects on fish stocks and crop yields, more extreme weather events and increased risk from water-borne diseases, according to what has been called the most comprehensive review available on the issue, launched on Tuesday by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) at the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Hawai‘i.

The World Ocean is by far the largest part of the climate system. Oceans hold 80% of all life. According to the IUCN, ocean warming is affecting humans in direct ways and the impacts are already being felt. Photo credit: www.climateemergencyinstitute.com
The World Ocean is by far the largest part of the climate system. Oceans hold 80% of all life. According to the IUCN, ocean warming is affecting humans in direct ways and the impacts are already being felt. Photo credit: www.climateemergencyinstitute.com

The report, titled “Explaining ocean warming: Causes, scale, effects and consequences”, reviews the effects of ocean warming on species, ecosystems and on the benefits oceans provide to humans. Compiled by 80 scientists from 12 countries, it highlights detectable scientific evidence of impacts on marine life, from microorganisms to mammals, which are likely to increase significantly even under a low emissions scenario.

“Ocean warming is one of this generation’s greatest hidden challenges – and one for which we are completely unprepared,” says IUCN Director General Inger Andersen. “The only way to preserve the rich diversity of marine life, and to safeguard the protection and resources the ocean provides us with, is to cut greenhouse gas emissions rapidly and substantially.”

Ocean warming is already affecting ecosystems from polar to tropical regions, driving entire groups of species such as plankton, jellyfish, turtles and seabirds up to 10 degrees of latitude towards the poles, causing the loss of breeding grounds for turtles and seabirds, and affecting the breeding success of marine mammals, according to the report.

By damaging fish habitats and causing fish species to move to cooler waters, warming oceans are affecting fish stocks in some areas and are expected to lead to reduced catches in tropical regions, the report states.

In East Africa and the Western Indian Ocean, for example, ocean warming has reduced the abundance of some fish species by killing parts of the coral reefs they depend on, adding to losses caused by overfishing and destructive fishing techniques. In South-East Asia, harvests from marine fisheries are expected to fall by between 10% and 30% by 2050 relative to 1970-2000, as the distributions of fish species shift, under a high “business as usual” greenhouse gas emission scenario, the report states.

“Most of the heat from human-induced warming since the 1970s – a staggering 93% – has been absorbed by the ocean, which acts as a buffer against climate change, but this comes at a price. We were astounded by the scale and extent of ocean warming effects on entire ecosystems made clear by this report,” says Dan Laffoley, Marine Vice Chair of the World Commission on Protected Areas at IUCN, and one of the lead authors.

The report also highlights evidence that ocean warming is causing increased disease in plant and animal populations, and impacting human health as pathogens spread more easily in warmer waters, including cholera-bearing bacteria and harmful algal blooms that cause neurological diseases like ciguatera.

Warming oceans are also affecting the weather, with a range of knock-on effects on humans. The number of severe hurricanes has increased at a rate of around 25-30% per degree of global warming, the report states.

Ocean warming has led to increased rainfall in mid-latitudes and monsoon areas, and less rain in various sub-tropical regions. These changes will have impacts on crop yields in important food-producing regions such as North America and India, according to the report.

The protection against climate change offered to us by oceans and their ecosystems – such as absorbing large amounts of CO2 and sheltering us from storms and erosion – is also likely to reduce as the ocean warms, according to the report.

The report’s recommendations include recognising the severity of ocean warming impacts on ocean ecosystems and the benefits they provide to humans, expanding marine protected areas, introducing legal protection for the high seas, better evaluating the social and economic risks associated with warming oceans and continuing to fill gaps in scientific knowledge, as well as cutting greenhouse gas emissions rapidly and substantially.

Ocean conservation is one of the major themes addressed by the ongoing IUCN Congress, where IUCN Members will vote on motions related to protecting the high seas and protected areas in Antarctica, among several others.

Ki-moon, Espinosa hail China, US for ratifying Paris Agreement

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Ki-moon, Espinosa hail China, US for ratifying Paris Agreement

Visiting the southeastern city of Hangzhou in China on Saturday, United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon commended the leaders of that country and the United States for formally joining the Paris Agreement on climate change.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon shakes hands with China’s President Xi Jinping and United States President Barack Obama at a climate pact ratification ceremony in Hangzhou, China, on 3 September 2016. China and the US deposited their legal instruments for formally joining the Paris Agreement. Photo credit: UN/Eskinder
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon shakes hands with China’s President Xi Jinping and United States President Barack Obama at a climate pact ratification ceremony in Hangzhou, China, on 3 September 2016. China and the US deposited their legal instruments for formally joining the Paris Agreement. Photo credit: UN/Eskinder

“Now, by formally joining the Paris Agreement, you have added powerful momentum to the drive for the Agreement to enter into force this year,” the UN chief said in a ceremony, in which he received the legal instruments for joining the Paris Agreement from the world’s two largest greenhouse gas emitters.

“With China and the United States making this historic step, we now have 26 countries who have ratified and 39 per cent of global emissions accounted for, to be exact,” he added. China and the US together account for nearly 38 per cent.

In a related development, Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), on Saturday thanked the two countries for the ratification.

“I would like today to thank China and the United States for ratifying this landmark agreement – an agreement on which rests the opportunity for a sustainable future for every nation and every person,” she said, adding: “The earlier that Paris is ratified and implemented in full, the more secure that future will become.”

The UN climate chief went further: “Bringing the Paris Agreement into force underlines that the momentum and international solidarity witnessed in 2015 continues into 2016 among big and small nations and among rich and poorer countries.

“The UN Secretary General’s special event in New York on 21 September offers a further, focused opportunity for others to join this wave of ambition and optimism towards a better and sustainable world.”

The Paris Agreement, adopted by 195 parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) last December in Paris, calls on countries to combat climate change and to accelerate and intensify the actions and investments needed for a sustainable low carbon future.

The agreement will enter into force 30 days after at least 55 countries, accounting for 55 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, deposit their instruments of ratification or acceptance with the Secretary-General.

During Saturday’s ceremony, which was also attended by China’s President Xi Jinping and US President Barack Obama, Mr. Ban noted: “We need another 29 countries representing 16 per cent of global emissions to bring this Paris Agreement into force.

“I am hopeful and optimistic that we can do it before the end of this year and before my term as Secretary-General of the United Nations ends.”

The UN chief will convene a special event on 21 September at the UN Headquarters in New York for the deposit of instruments of ratification, acceptance, approval or accession to the Paris Agreement on climate change. The event will also provide an opportunity to other countries to publicly commit to the agreement before the end of 2016. President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria is expected to sign the agreement at the event.

“I urge all leaders, particularly G20 countries, to accelerate their domestic ratification processes so we can turn the aspirations of Paris into the transformative climate action the world so urgently needs,” Mr. Ban said. He is scheduled to attend the G20 summit in China on Sunday.

With the Paris Agreement, the world has an equitable, durable yet flexible global framework for reducing emissions, strengthening climate resilience and providing support to developing countries to build low-carbon economies and adapt to inevitable climate impacts, the Secretary-General said.

This global climate agreement will accelerate the growth of clean energy and help us achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and will strengthen international stability and security, save lives and improve human well-being, he added.

“And now, with these two big countries joining the Paris Agreement, I am sure that we can really set a very ambitious dynamic step forward,” he concluded.

In a statement, Mogens Lykketoft, the President of the UN General Assembly, said that he was “pleased to hear this very good news coming out of Hangzhou just before the opening of the G20 meeting.”

China’s own ambitious action plan is now rolling with announcement of guidelines for establishing a Green Financial System and a goal for green projects of $600 billion each year, he noted.

“The China-US ratification and the great Chinese initiatives put useful pressure on those UN-members that have not yet ratified or made their own national action plans,” he said.

Bassey to explore COP22 issues at webinar

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Bassey to explore COP22 issues at webinar

Nigerian architect, environmentalist and activist, Nnimmo Bassey, will be special guest at a webinar scheduled to hold this month at the instance of the Internews’ Earth Journalism Network (EJN) and EnviroNews Nigeria.

Nnimmo Bassey will speak at the EJN/EnviroNews webinar
Nnimmo Bassey will speak at the EJN/EnviroNews webinar

Titled: “Nigeria and Climate Change: Preparing for COP22 with Nnimmo Bassey”, the webinar will hold on Tuesday, September 20, 2016 from 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM (WAT/BST).

During the session, Bassey will brief the media, civil society and other interested persons on some notable trending topics.

Indeed, he will be focusing on the missing issues in the Paris Agreement, as well as expected outcomes at COP22 in Morocco, such as:

  • The agreement generally – between commitment and voluntary pledges (INDCs)
  • Unrealistic targets (1.5 – 2 degrees)
  • The great omission: Fossil fuels, etc
  • False solutions post COP21 – Net Zero, techno-fixes – including possibilities of CCS and geo-engineering

Intending participants can register for the upcoming webinar here: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/8424850994687588100 via GoToWebinar.

Bassey, who chaired Friends of the Earth International (FoEI) from 2008 through 2012, was Executive Director, Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) for two decades.

He is presently Director, Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF). He was recently named by the Federal Government of Nigeria as a Member of the 12-member Board of Trustees (BoT) of the Ogoniland, Niger Delta region Clean-up Project.

Africa, Asia, Latin America face health risk from water pollution

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Africa, Asia, Latin America face health risk from water pollution

Water pollution has risen across three continents, placing hundreds of millions of people at risk of contracting life-threatening diseases like cholera and typhoid, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) warned last week.

Hundreds of millions face health risk as water pollution rises across Africa, Asia and Latin America
Hundreds of millions face health risk as water pollution rises across Africa, Asia and Latin America

The worrying rise in the pollution of surface waters in Asia, Africa and Latin America also threatens to damage vital sources of food and harm the continents’ economies, says UNEP in its latest report titled: “Snapshot of the World’s Water Quality.”

By making access to quality water even more difficult, water pollution also threatens to breed further inequality, hitting the most vulnerable – women, children and the poor – the hardest.

Jacqueline McGlade, the UNEP Chief Scientist, said, “The increasing amount of wastewater being dumped into our surface waters is deeply troubling. Access to quality water is essential for human health and human development. Both are at risk if we fail to stop the pollution.

“Luckily it is possible to begin restoring rivers that have already been heavily polluted and there is clearly still time to prevent even more rivers from becoming contaminated. It is vital the world works together to combat this growing menace.”

Population growth, increased economic activity, the expansion and intensification of agriculture, and an increase in the amount of untreated sewage discharged into rivers and lakes are the main reasons behind the troubling rise in surface water pollution in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

Pathogen pollution and organic pollution rose in more than 50 per cent of river stretches from 1990 2010 on all three continents, while salinity pollution has risen in nearly one third, the UN report finds.

 

Pathogen pollution

Severe pathogen pollution, the rise of which is largely down to the expansion of sewer systems that discharge untreated wastewater into surface waters, is estimated to affect around a quarter of Latin American river stretches, around 10 to 25 per cent of African river stretches and up to one-half of Asian river stretches.

In some countries, more than 90 per cent of the population relies on surface waters as their source of drinking water. These waters – which are also used to prepare food, to irrigate crops and for recreation – pose a major threat to human health when contaminated.

About 3.4 million people die each year from diseases associated with pathogens in water, like cholera, typhoid, infectious hepatitis, polio, cryptosporidiosis, ascariasis and diarrheal diseases. Many of these diseases are due to the presence of human waste in water.

UN Environment estimates that up to 25 million people are at risk of infection from these diseases in Latin America, up to 164 million in Africa and up to 134 million in Asia.

The solution is not only to build more sewers but to treat wastewater.

 

Organic pollution

Severe organic pollution, which is caused when large amounts of decomposable organic compounds are released into water bodies, now affects around one out of every seven kilometres of all river stretches in Latin America, Africa and Asia. This type of pollution can lead to the complete deoxygenation of water bodies, posing a major threat to freshwater fisheries that provide humans with the sixth most important source of animal protein and, in developing countries, employ 21 million fishermen and create 38.5 million related jobs.

 

Salinity

Severe and moderate salinity pollution already affects around one-tenth of all river stretches in Latin America, Africa and Asia. High salinity levels, which occur when humans dump salty wastewater from mines, irrigation systems and homes into rivers and lakes, make it even harder for the world’s poorest farmers to irrigate their crops. Salinity pollution has increased between 1990 and 2010 in almost one-third of all rivers on the three continents.

 

Eutrophication

Agriculture has intensified and expanded as the world seeks to meet the growing food demands of a booming population. This has led to an increase in the amount of phosphorus from fertilisers and pesticides that pollute waterbodies. The resulting eutrophication can lead to a boom in nuisance plants and algal blooms, as well as changes in ecosystem structure and fish species.

More than half of the total phosphorus loads in 23 out of 25 major lakes worldwide are from human sources – inorganic fertiliser, livestock waste, human sewage. Most of the major lakes in Latin America and Africa now have higher levels of phosphorus than in 1990.

 

Solutions to the water quality challenge

There is still time to tackle water pollution. Better water monitoring, especially in developing countries, is needed to understand the scale of the challenge around the world and to identify key hotspots. Once in-depth assessments have been done there are a raft of new and old methods that can help to reduce the pollution at source, treat polluted water before it enters waterbodies, recycle wastewater for irrigation and protect ecosystems by, for example, restoring wetlands to remove pollutants from urban or agricultural run-off.

“There is no doubt that we have the tools needed to tackle this growing problem,” said McGlade. “It is now time to use these tools to combat what is slowly becoming one of the greatest threats to human health and development around the world.”

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