Today, nearly 3.9 billion people – half of the world’s population – live in urban areas. By 2050 that number is expected to nearly double. According to report title “Can a City Be Sustainable?”, the latest edition of the annual State of the World report series from the Worldwatch Institute, there is no question cities will continue to grow; the only debate is over how.
Eduardo da Costa Paes, Mayor of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
“Cities are at a crossroads, confronting historic challenges posed by rising populations, accelerating climate change, increasing inequity, and – all too often – faltering liveability,” writes Eduardo da Costa Paes, Mayor of Rio de Janeiro.
Cities have voracious appetites for energy, accounting for about three-quarters of the world’s direct final energy use in 2005 – far more than their 49 percent share of global population that year. Cities today must also deal with growing stress on raw material supplies. Extraction of metals, minerals, and fuels is increasingly complex now that the easiest sources have been tapped. A city’s food system – the production, processing, distribution, consumption, and waste of its food – has impacts that extend to a city’s host region and country, and often to other countries as well.
“As rural migrants to cities adopt city-based lifestyles, they tend to use more resources as their incomes rise and as their diets shift from starchy staples to a greater share of animal products and processed foods,” writes Tom Prugh, author and co-director of the report. This, in turn, puts natural systems – either in the migrants’ own countries or in other countries that export products or their inputs – under strain.
However, cities today are also in an exciting position to take leadership on the effort to build sustainable economies.
“People care about their cities and often are motivated to protect and improve their urban homes,” says Gary Gardner, author and co-director of State of the World. “Cities can harness that passion to help advance a sustainability agenda, perhaps more easily than national governments or corporations can.”
Perhaps the biggest single step that cities can take toward a sustainable future is to create economies that greatly reduce materials use, (re)circulate most materials, and rely largely on renewable energy. “Green infrastructure” – the use of natural areas to provide economic services – can also help cities avoid building costly new water management facilities, can recharge aquifers, and can provide flood protection. Ensuring that decision-making is transparent and participatory ensures that no community is left behind.
“Building on the new hope created by the breakthrough agreement on climate action achieved in Paris last December, cities stand ready to engage their citizens in building a sustainable future,” writes Mayor Paes.
Break Free from Fossil Fuels actions commenced in Nigeria on Tuesday, 10 May 2016, with a rally at Oil Well 1 in Oloibiri, Nigeria’s first oil well drilled in 1956.
It was a gathering of hundreds of community chiefs, youths, women groups, and civil society groups in the Break Free Coalition. Frontline environmental activist, Nnimmo Bassey of the Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF) led the rallying calls alongside a leader from the neighbouring communities, Chief Napoleon Ofiruma, at the feisty event. A musical performance by BioMagic, a group of environmental activists lead by Akpotu Ziworitin, added verve to the occasion as they sang: “Stop the gas flares, we need fresh air…”
While Bassey clamours for a clean Delta region and for the fossil fuels to be kept underground, Ofiruma pleads that government should diversify the economy and restore the degraded ecosystems so that indigenes can resume fishing and farming activities
Nnimmo Bassey
As we stand at the very first oil well in Nigeria, we see clearly that when the well runs dry all your hopes also dry up. This first oil well has been named a national monument. This is indeed a monument. This Olibiri Oil Well is a monument to neglect. It is a monument to pollution. It is a monument to destroyed livelihoods and of betrayed hopes. It is a monument to the agents of global warming. It is a monument to fossil colonialism. It is a monumental disappointment. And we are saying, never again!
This oil well demands that we raise our voice and speak out loudly. For the Nigerian economy to be truly diversified, we must break free from the bondage to fossil fuels. For the Nigerian economy to work for Nigerians, it is time to move on from fossil fuels.
Globally, fossil fuels extraction, and use, is the major driver of climate change. Today our weather is unbearably hot. Our waters are so polluted with crude oil that we cannot dive into them to cool our bodies. Some of our rivers and forests even go up in flames.
The water we drink used to be sweet. Today the only sweet thing coming out of our land is so-called sweet crude. It is only sweet to those who do not care about the land, our lives.
I don’t need to remind you about oil spills. The evidence is all over the land. Thousands of oil spill locations are crying out to be cleaned. We don’t talk about it, but hundreds of barrels of produced water are dumped into our water ways daily in the Niger Delta, poisoning our waters and choking throats instead of quenching thirst.
Oil extraction has poked holes all over the Niger Delta. Coastlines erosion is eating up the lands of our communities and sea level rise will make this worse. Ask our people at Brass. Ask our people at Koluoama. In addition, our land is sinking!
Combine these with the effects of gas flaring and tell me what benefit crude oil has brought to our land, to Nigeria.
We want a clean Niger Delta.
We want Niger Delta to stay clean.
We demand that fossil fuels be kept in the ground.
We insist that we must not wait until the wells run dry.
We cannot have a clean Niger Delta if oil spills continue. We cannot have a clean Niger Delta if pipelines keep getting bombed. We cannot have a clean Niger Delta with broken pipelines and without companies maintaining their facilities. We must all join our hands to make fossil fuels history and make this first oil well a monument to the monumental damage caused by fossil fuels.
What do we want? A clean Niger Delta!
How can this happen? Stop oil spills. Stop gas flares.
What is our demand? Keep the oil in the ground!
Chief Napoleon Ofiruma
Today is special because we have the opportunity to speak out to Nigerians and to the world. Today we can say that when we welcomed oil drilling on our land 60 years ago we had a lot of hopes and now we can boldly say that our hopes have been dashed. After 60 years what have we got from oil? In fact, our hopes have been betrayed and relegated.
As we stand at the very first oil well to be drilled in the Niger Delta, we ask the world to see our situation. The oil well has been sucked dry and abandoned. As the oil well has been abandoned so have we been abandoned.
We realise that our being abandoned and neglected is not all the story. Oil extraction and use has brought a lot of problems to the Nigeria and the world. Today everywhere is hot. The climate is changing. Life is very tough and unbearable.
Crude oil spillages have destroyed our fishing business. They have also destroyed our farms. We demand that oil companies should stop polluting our land. We demand that our land and creeks should be cleaned up urgently. We demand an end to gas flaring. We are tired of diseases and deaths caused by oil pollution.
Welcome to our land. Look around you and help us tell government that oil has brought nothing to us but destruction and death.
We demand that as government begins to diversify the economy, the only oil business in Nigeria should be the business of cleaning up the oil pollution. That will employ thousands of youths and restore our fisheries and agriculture. We want to return to our fishing business. We want fish and food, not oil.
We join all Nigerians and others in the world to say that our bondage to crude oil is enough. It is time to break free from this bad business. We support your call to leave the oil in the soil and to quench the killing gas flares and the destruction of our flora and fauna.
National climate action intentions are becoming concrete under the Paris Agreement
UNFCCC Executive Secretary, Christiana Figueres
The UN climate change secretariat has launched a new interim public registry to capture countries’ formal climate action plans under the Paris Climate Change Agreement.
Known as nationally determined contributions (NDCs), they set out publicly what each country plans to do as part of the Paris Agreement to contribute to the international effort to secure a sustainable future for all by keeping the global temperature rise since pre-industrial times well below two degrees Celsius, with a preference to limit it to 1.5 degrees.
The NDCs showcase countries’ climate policies and actions to reduce emissions and adapt to climate change across many sectors, for example such as decarbonising energy supply through shifts to renewable energy, energy efficiency improvements, better land management, urban planning and transport.
The launch of the registry heralds a key step towards implementing the Paris Agreement that has now been signed by 177 Parties under the UNFCCC (176 countries plus the European Union, which is counted as a Party).
“The Paris Agreement marked the start of a new era in international climate change cooperation,” said UNFCCC Executive Secretary Christiana Figueres. “The launch of the interim public registry for NDCs underpins the collective trust and goodwill that led to the historic agreement and is a new milestone on the road to its implementation.”
The new interim registry for NDCs is the principal instrument to formally record action taken by countries under the Agreement. It is a fully transparent channel of communication where anyone can browse and search for information on what countries are doing to tackle climate change.
Ahead of Paris, as part of the negotiating process, countries had submitted their climate action plans based on their national circumstances and interests, which were called “intended nationally determined contributions”, or INDCs. The Paris Agreement included a change in legal status of these climate action plans, turning what were intentions, or INDCs, into concrete plans for action known as NDCs.
If an INDC has been submitted by a Party under the UNFCCC – and there are now 189 INDCs already submitted – and that Party ratifies the Agreement, then that INDC will be considered their first NDC, unless the Party decides otherwise. Parties can also make changes to a communicated INDC by submitting a new NDC. Countries have also been invited to communicate their first NDC before their instrument of ratification of the Agreement has been submitted.
The Paris Agreement establishes the principle that future national plans will be no less ambitious than existing ones. National contributions are expected to be made more ambitious over time as climate finance and other forms of multilateral cooperation spurred by the Agreement become mobilised.
The interim public registry will be presented at a side event taking place on 18 May during the Bonn session, where countries will have the opportunity to provide feedback on the registry’s design and features.
Recalling that just two weeks ago, 175 countries came to the United Nations to sign the historic Paris Agreement on climate change, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said that it is time to take climate action to the next level.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon addresses the opening session of the summit “Climate Action 2016: Catalysing a Sustainable Future”. Photo credit: UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe
“We need to accelerate the speed, scope and scale of our response, locally and globally,” Mr. Ban last week told participants of the Climate Action Summit 2016 in Washington D.C., a forum that aimed to strengthen the multi-stakeholder approach to climate implementation.
In particular, it is expected to deepen and expand the action coalitions of government, business, finance, philanthropy, civil society and academic leaders launched at the Secretary-General’s Climate Summit 2014 in New York.
“I have been looking forward to this event because it is about solutions – innovation and imagination; collaboration and partnerships between the public and private sectors. Today as never before, the stars are aligning in favour of climate action. Everywhere I look, I see signs of hope,” he said.
Noting that the current Summit would focus on six, high-value areas of multi-stakeholder partnership: sustainable energy; sustainable land-use; cities; transport; and tools for decision-making, the UN chief underscored that strong partnership would be needed at all levels to tackle those challenges.
“No sector of society and no nation can succeed alone. I encourage you to collaborate. Innovate. Invest. Together we can build the world we want,” he said.
The signing of the Paris Agreement on 22 April received overwhelming support from all regions of the world, said UN officials, adding that never before had so many countries signed an international accord in one day.
Adopted in Paris by the 196 Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) at a conference known as COP21 last December, the Agreement’s objective is to limit global temperature rise to well below 2 degrees Celsius, and to strive for 1.5 degrees Celsius. It 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.
“Two of the world’s largest emitters – China and the United States – have pledged their continued commitment and collaboration,” Mr. Ban stressed, noting that leaders must turn the “promise of Paris” into action and implementation as soon as possible.
The UN chief also announced that, in September, on the margins of the G20 meeting, he intends to co-convene a meeting in China similar to this one to further solidify coalitions.
Also speaking at the event, the President of the World Bank Group, Jim Yong Kim, said there is no time waste.
“Political agreements are critical but they are just the beginning. We must regain the sense of urgency we all felt on the eve of COP21. Inaction means we will not meet our targets set in Paris, and the global temperature will soar above 2 degrees Celsius. That would spell disaster for us, for our children, and for the planet,” he warned.
Mr. Kim highlighted the World Bank Group’s Climate Action Plan, developed soon after the Paris agreement, which aims to increase its support in a range of areas – from water to crowded cities and from forests to agriculture.
“One part of our plan is to help countries put a price on carbon, which will create incentives for investments in renewable energy and in energy efficiency,” he explained. “In many parts of the world, we have seen the price of renewables like solar and wind falling fast – so fast that they are now competitive with fossil fuels. Private sector investments are pouring in. But we need to expand these breakthroughs and help countries establish the right policies that will drive down the cost of renewable energy even further.”
The Summit drove high-level engagement as “global luminaries” addressed plenary sessions on how to deliver on climate commitments and embed the transformation agenda across the globe in government, key sectors and among the general population.
A new World Bank reports finds that water scarcity, exacerbated by climate change, could hinder economic growth, spur migration, and spark conflict. However, most countries can neutralise the adverse impacts of water scarcity by taking action to allocate and use water resources more efficiently.
The impact of water scarcity on GDP by 2050, relative to a baseline scenario with no scarcity.
Key findings of the are listed to include:
Water scarcity, exacerbated by climate change, could cost some regions up to 6% of their GDP, spur migration, and spark conflict.
The combined effects of growing populations, rising incomes, and expanding cities will see demand for water rising exponentially, while supply becomes more erratic and uncertain.
Unless action is taken soon, water will become scarce in regions where it is currently abundant – such as Central Africa and East Asia – and scarcity will greatly worsen in regions where water is already in short supply – such as the Middle East and the Sahel in Africa. These regions could see their growth rates decline by as much as 6% of GDP by 2050 due to water-related impacts on agriculture, health, and incomes.
Water insecurity could multiply the risk of conflict. Food price spikes caused by droughts can inflame latent conflicts and drive migration. Where economic growth is impacted by rainfall, episodes of droughts and floods have generated waves of migration and spikes in violence within countries.
The negative impacts of climate change on water could be neutralised with better policy decisions, with some regions standing to improve their growth rates by up to 6% with better water resource management.
Improved water stewardship pays high economic dividends. When governments respond to water shortages by boosting efficiency and allocating even 25% of water to more highly-valued uses, such as more efficient agricultural practices, losses decline dramatically and for some regions may even vanish.
In the world’s extremely dry regions, more far-reaching policies are needed to avoid inefficient water use. Stronger policies and reforms are needed to cope with deepening climate stresses.
Policies and investments that can help lead countries to more water secure and climate-resilient economies include: (1) Better planning for water resource allocation, (2) Adoption of incentives to increase water efficiency, and (3) Investments in infrastructure for more secure water supplies and availability.
United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, following consultations with the Chairpersons of the regional groups of Member States, has informed the General Assembly of his intention to appoint Erik Solheim of Norway as the new Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
Erik Solheim
Mr. Solheim is currently Chair of the Development Assistance Committee of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), a post he has held since 2013. From 2007 to 2012, he was Norway’s Minister for the Environment and International Development. He also served as Norway’s Minister for International Development from 2005 to 2007.
“I congratulate Erik Solheim on his nomination to become the sixth Executive Director in UNEP’s 44-year history. Mr. Solheim was a strong supporter of UNEP during his tenure as Minister of Environment and International Development of Norway and continued to offer his good offices in later years,” said Mr. Steiner.
GCF’s direct access country partners take part in UN Women training session on women’s empowerment to scale up climate action
Director of UN Women’s Programme Division, Maria Noel Vaeza
The “why” and “how” of mainstreaming women’s empowerment in the context of climate change projects and programmes was the focus of a one-day training session held recently as part of the Green Climate Fund’s Accelerating Direct Access week.
Organised jointly by GCF and UN Women, the workshop was delivered to participants attending the Fund’s direct access country partners event, which brought National Designated Authorities (NDAs) and direct access accredited entities to GCF’s Headquarters in Songdo, Republic of Korea.
Led by representatives from UN Women, the workshop provided country partners with a comprehensive introduction to developing gender-responsive initiatives. Case studies were presented on gender in the context of sustainable energy and climate-resilient agriculture. The case studies gave concrete examples of the barriers and risks that must be overcome in the project design and implementation phases.
At the start of the workshop, the Director of UN Women’s Programme Division, Maria Noel Vaeza, gave an introduction to UN Women and an overview of international agreements on the promotion of gender equality and women’s empowerment. In her remarks, Ms. Vaeza underscored the role of women in the work countries are embarking on with GCF.
“Women are key agents for tackling climate change. They have an important role to play, not only in addressing the effects of climate change but also in contributing to the other Sustainable Development Goals,” she stated. “At UN Women, we are pleased to see that GCF has put women at the centre of its work with countries, demonstrated through this one-day workshop on women’s empowerment to scale up climate action.”
Ms. Vaeza shared that, despite more than two decades of climate change negotiations, gender and gender equality remain inadequately addressed in the climate change process, citing a study that found only 17 per cent of national adaption programmes of action (NAPAs) by countries incorporated a gender perspective. In the instances where gender was included, women were portrayed as victims and not as contributors to climate action, she added. Ms. Vaeza said the Paris Agreement on Climate Change represents a tremendous step forward.
“For the first time in the history of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, gender equality is in the preamble and articles of the Paris Agreement,” said Ms. Vaeza. “The agreement recognizes gender equality and women as agents of change to the solution of climate change. Now it is up to us to work together to make it happen.”
In the afternoon session, participants engaged in group work sessions to apply the tools and methodologies introduced earlier in the day, led by UN Women’s Seemin Qayum and Clemencia Muñoz-Tamayo.
The groups worked on a gender-blind project – where gender is viewed as not having an influencing factor on a project – to propose ways in which the project could have been redesigned to take a gender-responsive approach from the beginning.
UN Women Deputy Executive Director of the Policy and Programme Bureau, Yannick Glemarec, joined the workshop by videoconference to share his views on gender and climate action and engage with participants during a question and answer session.
The workshop was opened by GCF’s Director of Country Programming, Ousseynou Nakoulima, who stressed that the Fund stands ready to support countries in applying a gender-responsive approach in their climate action projects and programmes. He recalled the Fund’s gender policy and action plan as crucial instruments to help and guide countries in this important endeavour.
Between the 4th and 15th of May 2016, thousands of climate activists around the world will embark on series of coordinated actions targeted at calling global attention to the need to wean the world from its dependence on fossil fuels.
In Nigeria, the Break Free from Fossil Fuels campaign will kick off on the 10th of May at Oloibiri, the site of the country’s first oil well
In December 2015, an unprecedented number of world leaders gathered in Paris in what could be the last opportunity to craft an earth-wide response to the dilemma of climate change. There, key world leaders duly affirmed that the only way to save our globe from an obvious incineration would be to drastically cut the level of greenhouse emissions – from the current path of 4 degrees Celsius to a more manageable 2 degrees Celsius and below.
But, according to some civil society groups, they failed to make any strong commitments in relation to the specifics of what needs to be done to achieve the target. Indeed, the deal which came out of Paris, say the activists, merely recognises all the problems associated with greenhouse emissions, recognises all that needs to be done, but fails to spell the appropriate steps to be taken in order to address them.
They attribute this development to the fact that the big national and multinational companies who control the global fossil fuel industry also have strong stakes and influence in global politics. Reducing greenhouse emissions means drastically reducing the level of extraction which results in reduced revenues, the groups stress.
“So weak and fearful of corporate power was the entire Paris climate deal that it only spoke about the need to reduce greenhouse emissions in abstract, without mentioning the need to cut the extraction of fossils which is what eventually leads to emissions. The truth is that when fossils are extracted, one way or the other, sooner or later, it gets burnt. Rather than speak of reducing emissions, the Paris deal might have done better if it concentrated on reducing extraction of fossils,” disclosed the Break Free from Fossil Fuel Movement in a statement issued on Sunday.
The Break Free from Fossil Fuel Movement is represented in Nigeria by the Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), Social Action and Ogoni Solidarity Forum.
Elaborating further on this reality, Surveyor Efik, National Coordinator of Climate Change Network Nigeria and member of the Climate Action Network International, says, “The global commitment to drastically reduce emissions and attaining the sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030, may be a wild goose chase if the world does not protect the climate through 100% clean energy provision and completely break free from dangerous fossil fuel-driven energy dependence. The Nigerian government should not just sign an agreement to combat climate change but also take decisive action to break free from activities of greenhouse emissions that destroy our climate, our planet earth and our humanity.”
According to him, it is this spirit of the need to stop the extraction of fossil fuel that informs the Break Free from Fossil Fuels movement. Break Free from Fossil Fuels, it was gathered, is a two-week global wave of escalated citizen led actions to keep coal, oil and gas in the ground.
According to the key organiser of the Break Free movement and Director of HOMEF, Nnimmo Bassey, “The time has come to make fossil fuels history and give our environment and peoples a chance to recover from decades of unrelenting oil pollution. By our actions we are standing in solidarity with communities in the oilfields of the Niger Delta, and other impacted communities around the world, demanding that our appetite for dirty energy must not be allowed to destroy the planet and future generations.”
He adds that the realities are dire in Nigeria.
His words: “After several decades of non-stop oil extraction, it is arguable that Nigeria is worse-off compared to other less endowed countries. On all key global development indicators, Nigeria fares badly. It tilts on the periphery of a failed state according to reports; it has one of the lowest electricity access in the world despite its huge crude and gas deposits, failing infrastructures, failing healthcare, failing educational systems, etc. It begs the question to ask, what has been the benefit of Nigeria’s fossil fuels?
“In the Niger Delta where the extraction of oil and gas takes place, the situation is alarming. The constant flaring of gas and regular oil spills have rendered the region an ecological disaster zone. Several known and unknown illnesses, a depressingly low life expectancy rate, loss of agricultural livelihood sources, regular conflicts and unprecedented poverty are all the bequests of extraction.”
Celestine Akpobari of the Ogoni Solidarity Forum submits: “If there are still people who doubts the devastating effect of the fossil fuel business on the environment, citizens’ livelihoods, well-being and their very life, the terrible experience of Ogoni, tells it all. If the Ogoni people had a second chance, they will choose their environment over crude oil. They will prefer to keep their sons and daughters including Ken Saro Wiwa and thousands of others who became victims of this deadly business. Breaking free from fossil fuel will save the world from having another Ogoni.”
In Nigeria, the Break Free from Fossil Fuels campaign will kick off on the 10th of May at Oloibiri, the site of the country’s first oil well. The abandoned oil wells in Oloibiri, Bassey discloses, tell the story of what becomes of communities (or countries) when their oil wells run dry.
He adds: “On the 12th of May, the campaign will move to Bori in Ogoni, another sad tale of the devastation, internal crises, wanton pollution and poverty which oil extraction brings.
“On the 14th of May, the campaign will arrive at Ibeno in Akwa Ibom State, where Exxon operates an offshore oil field from where it compromises community livelihood through regular pollution. In each of the locations, there will be mass actions by climate activists and communities demanding an end to the extraction of fossil fuels.”
Ken Henshaw of Social Action and member of Nigeria organising team of the Break Free campaign, contends: “This global campaign is the type of citizens’ led shock therapy that is needed to make the world realise that our dependence on fossils is destroying our only habitable world. Fossil fuels may seem attractive and something we cannot do without, but so did stone seem just before mankind moved away from the Stone Age; so did typewriters before we moved over to computers. A global dependence on fossil fuel is simply no longer sustainable, especially in the face of increasing threats to global existence on the one hand, and the availability of viable, safer and more sustainable alternatives.”
The first meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Implementation (SBI 1) of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) came to a close on 6 May 2016 in Montreal, Canada.
Montreal, Canada hosted the SBI 1
Delegates from around the world advanced attention on national action by recommending tools and approaches for implementing the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020 and a more effective operation of the decision-making bodies of the Convention on Biological Diversity.
The Subsidiary Body on Implementation (SBI) was established by the Conference of the Parties, at its twelfth meeting (COP 12). It replaces the Ad Hoc Open-ended Working Group on Review of Implementation of the Convention and also provides guidance on the implementation on the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, and the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilisation.
Recommendations from SBI 1 will be considered by the Parties to the Convention and its Protocols at all the meetings of the Conference of the Parties and meetings of the Parties to the two Protocols scheduled to take place in Cancun, Mexico from 4 to 17 December 2016. The main issues considered at SBI 1 included:
Mainstreaming: SBI 1 recommended strategic actions on mainstreaming biodiversity within and across sectors with a particular focus on agriculture, forestry, fisheries and aquaculture, and tourism. There were also recommendations on mainstreaming measures which cut across all sectors, such as the use of economic valuation tools, and environmental assessments which evaluate potential impacts on biodiversity as well as ecosystem services.
Parties recognised the close linkages between the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020 and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and urged governments to ensure that biodiversity is included in the implementation of all relevant sustainable development goals. There were also provisions on the role of business and of subnational and local governments for the achievement of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020, as well as the role of gender.
Capacity building and technical and scientific cooperation: Parties recommended a more integrated and coherent approach to capacity-building and technical and scientific cooperation in supporting the implementation of the Convention and its Protocols as well as with the other relevant biodiversity-related multilateral environmental agreements. They set up a process to further develop and finalise the web strategy and the action plan with regards to capacity-building.
They recommended that the Secretariat would further streamline and focus the draft short-term action plan on capacity-building in time for consideration by the Parties at COP 13 and commission by 2020 an independent evaluation of the impacts, outcomes and effectiveness of the action plan. They also agreed to further develop the clearing-house mechanism all at the central and national levels and to align the web strategy for the Convention and its Protocols with the communication strategy to be prepared for COP 13.
Review of Progress on the Strategic Plan: Parties reviewed progress towards the implementation of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020, a globally agreed plan for halting biodiversity loss through the achievement of a set of 20 Aichi Biodiversity Targets at the global, regional and national levels. SBI recommended a variety of actions that could be taken by Parties, such as updating National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs) as a flexible framework, considering, among others, the resources provided through the strategy for resource mobilisation; involving subnational governments, cities and other local authorities when revising their NBSAPs; undertaking activities regarding full and effective participation of indigenous peoples and local communities; continuing work on the voluntary peer review mechanism; including targets of other relevant conventions and the Sustainable Development Goals; and providing financial support, for the development, implementation and monitoring of NBSAPs.
Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety: Delegates looked as the results of the third assessment and review of the effectiveness of the Protocol and the mid-term evaluation of the Strategic Plan for the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety for the period 2011-2020 and made a number of recommendations to the eighth Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties (COP-MOP 8) to the Cartagena Protocol.
For the remaining period of the Strategic Plan, it was recommended to prioritise operational objectives relating to the development of biosafety legislation, risk assessment, detection and identification of living modified organisms, and public awareness, education and training. It was also recommended that in the follow-up to the current Strategic Plan, indicators should be streamlined to ensure that progress can be easily be tracked and quantified.
Nagoya Protocol: Delegates reviewed progress made towards Aichi Biodiversity Target 16 (the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilisation is in force and operational, consistent with national legislation). The first part of Target 16 was successfully achieved with the entry into force of the Protocol on 12 October 2014. 74 Parties to the CBD have now ratified the Protocol.
Recognising the efforts made by Parties and non-Parties in implementing the Nagoya Protocol, delegates also called for further progress to make the Nagoya Protocol operational as required by the second part of this Aichi Target, including by establishing institutional structures and legislative, administrative or policy measures; and by making all relevant information available to the Access and Benefit-sharing Clearing-House. The need for capacity-building and financial resources for this purpose was also highlighted.
Synergies among the biodiversity-related conventions: SBI looked at ways to strengthen synergies among the biodiversity-related conventions, including the CBD, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora and (CITES), the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS), the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC), the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA), the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands and the World Heritage Convention (WHC).
Parties welcomed the outcomes of a recent workshop on synergies that brought together 32 Party representatives of these seven global biodiversity-related conventions. They agreed to refine these outcomes through further collaborative work in order to provide voluntary guidelines for actions at the national level and a road map for the period 2017-2020 for actions at the international level that could be initiated by the CBD COP at its thirteenth meeting.
Resource Mobilisation: COP 12 adopted targets for the mobilization of resources for the effective
implementation of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020, and also adopted a reporting framework for monitoring progress against these targets. SBI 1 noted the limited number of completed financial reporting frameworks received in time, and urged Parties that have not yet done so to report by 31 August 2016, in time for consideration of progress by COP 13.
SBI 1 also recommended Parties that have finalised the revision and update of their national biodiversity strategy and action plans to identify their funding needs, gaps, and priorities and to develop their national finance plans for the effective implementation of revised national biodiversity strategy and action plans, as a matter of priority.
Financial mechanism: The Global Environment Facility is the financial mechanism of the CBD. Parties took note of the progress made in GEF 7 funding-needs assessment and urged relevant Parties to respond to a questionnaire on GEF 7 funding needs in order for the expert team to finalise a report. Parties also agreed to take decisions at COP 13 on a four-year framework for programme priorities for GEF 7, and the fifth review of the effectiveness of the financial mechanism.
National reporting: The meeting recommended agreed guidelines for the sixth national reports, including a voluntary online reporting tool with the reporting templates by 31 March 2017 and for Parties to submit their sixth national report preferably by 31 December 2018. The meeting also agreed to enhance the alignment in national reporting under the Convention and its Protocols, including synchronised activities with common deadlines for submissions, formats and integration of the central clearing-house mechanism.
Integration among the Convention and its Protocols: Further integration of meetings and ways of working among Convention and its Protocols, was recommended. Parties recognized the need to better integrate cross-cutting activities, such as capacity-building and development across the CBD and its Protocols to avoid duplication and reduce costs while respecting and upholding the legal integrity of each treaty. A list of criteria that concurrent meetings should meet was recommended, including ways to ensure the full and effective participation of smaller delegations from developing country Parties, small island developing states and Parties with economies in transition.
Administration of the Convention, including the Functional Review: SBI 1 noted the functional review submitted by the Secretariat, and recommended that further work should ensure that the main functions of the Secretariat of the Convention and its Protocols remain at the core of the functional review and are reflected in the structure of the Secretariat; and improve its communications with Parties on progress and results of functional review through the Bureau.
Modus operandi of the SBI: The meeting agreed to adopt a modus operandi of the SBI, including a mechanism for the review of the implementation under the SBI and the procedures regarding the election of the Chair. Parties also welcomed the development of a decision-tracking tool.
Rounding off a three-day mission to Nigeria, the Executive Director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Yury Fedotov, met with President Muhammadu Buhari and emphasised his organisation’s unwavering support for the country.
Executive Director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Yury Fedotov, with President Muhammadu Buhari
“There can be no doubt that Nigeria has suffered from the ravages of corruption, terrorism, piracy and other crimes; but it remains fully committed to working with international organisations such as the UN and the European Union to counter these threats,” said Mr. Fedotov.
“Such dedication calls for the international community to continue to display similar resoluteness and to redouble efforts to assist the country,” he said.
In a statement endorsed by Sylvester Atere, the Outreach and Communications Officer of UNODC, Mr. Fedotov reportedly informed President Buhari that Nigeria could play an active role in encouraging every African country to fully implement the Doha Declaration, endorsed at the 13th Crime Congress, as well as the Joint Commitment adopted at the UN General Assembly special session on the world drug problem in April this year.
To help, UNODC was working with partners on an integrated approach to achieving the 2030 agenda for sustainable development and urging countries to support security, justice, good governance and the rule of law as part of the promotion of development.
“UNODC is ready and eager to work together with partners within and outside the UN system, including Nigeria, to offer firm support to implement the 2030 agenda,” said the UNODC Chief.
Mr. Fedotov also praised President Buhari’s personal commitment against corruption and thanked him for Nigeria’s participation in the review mechanism of the landmark UN Convention against Corruption which calls for states to be reviewed by two peers.
During his mission to Nigeria, the UNODC Executive Director held a series of meetings with government officials including the Minister of Foreign Affairs Geoffrey Onyeama, the Minister of Justice Abubakar Malami, as well as the former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ibrahim Agboola Gambari.
Visits were also made to the UNODC office in Abuja, as well as Kuje Prison to launch a new UNODC supported drug treatment counselling facility.
In a meeting with the Vice President of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Edward Singhatey, both parties underlined the excellent relationship existing between the two organisations in combating drugs and promoting a balanced approach. Both are strongly committed to ensure the completion and adoption of the ECOWAS action plan 2016-2020 and the UNODC regional Programme for West Africa for the same period.
Nigeria is one of UNODC’s most important strategic priorities. The country has UNODC’s largest portfolio in Africa, and is one of its largest in the world.
Funding is provided by the European Union, as well as Japan, Switzerland and Germany. Projects deliver a broad range of activities designed to counter corruption, drugs, terrorism, human trafficking, smuggling of migrants, as well as uphold the rule of law and enhance criminal justice.
