As world leaders prepare to sign the Paris Agreement on Earth Day (Friday, 22 April), an international alliance of grassroots and indigenous leaders is calling the historic agreement “a dangerous distraction.”
Cindy Wiesner of the Grassroots Global Justice Alliance
According to members of the alliance, the Paris Climate agreement has declined to mention fossil fuels, regarded as the clearest cause of climate change.
Cindy Wiesner of Grassroots Global Justice Alliance (USA): “The Paris Climate agreement doesn’t even mention fossil fuels, the clearest cause of climate change. The agreement is a dangerous distraction that leaves common sense, science, human rights and the rights of communities on the frontlines of climate change on the negotiating table. While world leaders are finally taking action they are heading down the wrong path. Frontline communities and Indigenous Peoples have been calling for a clear path to solve our climate crisis. We can end the privatisation of nature, we can stop the use of dirty fossil fuels and we can stop climate change. We know this because we are on the front lines of climate change, we see it, we know it, we live it. The world will not find solutions to climate change without us.”
Tom Goldtooth, of the Indigenous Environmental Network (North America): “I started attending the UN climate meetings in 1999. Over the last 17 years I’ve witnessed corporate, Wall Street and other financial influence gut any real solutions coming out of the negotiations. As a result, the Paris Agreement goal of stopping global temperature rise by 1.5 degrees C is not real because the pledges each country is making will allow emission levels that will increase global temperature 3 – 4 degrees.
“This will be catastrophic to the ecosystem of the world, including the ice culture of the Indigenous Peoples of the Arctic. The Paris agreement will result in the cooking of the planet. We, Indigenous Peoples, are the red line against climate change. We cannot be idle, we have never been idle. Indigenous voices are rising up globally to demand climate justice for humanity — for human rights and the rights of Mother Earth.”
Nnimmo Bassey, Director, HOMEF (Health of Mother Earth Foundation) (Nigeria): “The Paris Agreement locks in fossil fuels and, to underscore corporate capture of the negotiations, the word, fossil, is not as much as mentioned in the document. It is shocking that although the burning of fossil fuels is known to be a major contributor to global warming, climate negotiations engage in platitudes rather than going to the core of the problem. Scientists tell us that burning of fossil fuels would have to end by 2030 if there would be a chance of keeping temperature increase to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels. The signal we get from the silence on the fossils factor is that oil and coal companies can continue to extract profit while burning the planet.”
Hours before about 155 world leaders are expected to travel to New York to sign the Paris Agreement, organisations that collectively represent more than 400 institutional investors with $24 trillion of assets under management have called on world leaders to not only sign but accede to the international treaty and implement it into national law as a matter of urgency.
Stephanie Pfeifer, CEO of the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change
In a letter addressed to “the Heads of State and Government of the world’s largest economies”, the global investor networks (comprising Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change, Investor Group on Climate Change, Investor Network on Climate Risk, CDP, Principles for Responsible Investment and UNEP Finance Initiative) stressed that countries that accede early to the Paris Agreement will benefit from increased regulatory certainty, which will help attract the trillions of investments to support the low-carbon transition.
“The Heads of State and Government of the world’s largest economies” were listed to include: United States of America, the European Union, China, Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, India, Italy, Brazil, Canada, South Korea, Russia, Australia, Spain, Mexico, Indonesia, the Netherlands, Turkey, Switzerland, Saudi Arabia, Argentina and South Africa.
The investors emphasised in the letter that the early entry into force of the Agreement would send an important signal to investors that governments are translating into concrete action “the momentous political will represented by the adoption of the Paris Agreement.”
The global investor networks wrote: “We believe that the Paris Agreement is an historic breakthrough that delivered an unequivocal signal for investors to shift assets towards the low-carbon economy. In conjunction with its national-level implementation, the Paris Agreement provides the right framework to trigger substantial investment and thus keep the door open to a well below a 2-degree pathway.
“It is now essential that the strong political consensus between 195 countries captured in Paris is made actionable through the rapid entry into force of the Paris Agreement.
“The global investor networks would like to encourage your country to sign the Paris Agreement on April 22nd at the United Nations in New York. We would also like to encourage, and stand ready to support, your country to complete domestic preparations for accession, and to accede to the Paris Agreement as soon as possible. It is essential that the political momentum arising out of the Paris conference is sustained.”
According to them, they have, since 2009, been calling for an effective global agreement through the Global Investor Statement on Climate Change to:
Provide stable, reliable and economically meaningful carbon pricing that helps redirect investment commensurate with the scale of the climate change challenge.
Strengthen regulatory support for energy efficiency and renewable energy, where this is needed to facilitate deployment.
Support innovation in and deployment of low carbon technologies, including financing clean energy research and development.
Develop plans to phase out subsidies for fossil fuels.
Ensure that national adaptation strategies are structured to deliver investment.
Consider the effect of unintended constraints from financial regulations on investments in low carbon technologies and in climate resilience.
In 2015, ahead of the G7 summit in Elmau, Germany, the CEOs of more than 120 institutional investors lent their support to the adoption of a long-term decarbonisation goal by the G7 summit, and ultimately by the Paris climate conference.
Speaking in London Stephanie Pfeifer, CEO of the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (representing over 120 European asset owners/managers), said, “The agreement reached in Paris was an historic breakthrough that delivered an unequivocal signal for investors to shift assets swiftly towards the low-carbon economy. It’s now vital the 195 countries who adopted the Paris Agreement, especially the top 20 major emitters, amplify that signal that by signing and acceding to the Paris Agreement to bring it rapidly into force.”
Emma Herd, CEO of the Investor Group on Climate Change (IGCC, Australasia), added: “Investors are speaking with a clear voice. The purpose of this letter is to urge every government to sign the Paris Agreement on Friday April 22nd at the United Nations in New York and move swiftly to implement an effective national policy response able to deliver an efficient transition to a sustainable low carbon economy. Maintaining strong momentum is particularly important in the lead up to the G20 meeting in China.”
Mindy Lubber, President of Ceres and Director of the Investor Network on Climate Risk (INCR, North America), said, “The Paris Agreement provides the framework to trigger the pace and scale of investment – at least an additional $1 trillion per year, four-fold higher than current levels – needed to decarbonise the global economy while limiting global warming to two degrees Celsius or less. It’s vital therefore that world leaders sustain the political momentum captured in the Paris Agreement.”
Fiona Reynolds, Managing Director of PRI, said, “Global climate finance hit record-breaking levels in 2015 but a huge investment gap still needs to be bridged. Developing nations also need to know they will have access to the investment required to transition smoothly to a low carbon economy. Prompt action by major emitters on the Paris Agreement is required to meet both these urgent capital allocation challenges.”
Eric Usher, Director (acting) UNEP FI, added, “Countries that accede early to the Paris Agreement will benefit from increased regulatory certainty, which will in turn help attract the trillions of investments necessary to secure the low-carbon transition. We encourage all world leaders to sign and accede to the Paris Agreement as soon as possible.”
Paul Simpson, CEO, CDP, said, “This rallying cry shows an unequivocal business and financial imperative for governments to take concrete action from the momentous political will represented by the Paris Agreement. Those countries who are major emitters are also some of those with most to gain from prompt action to curb the threat of climate change because of the massive impacts it could have, not just on agricultural systems, transport or energy infrastructure but on bottom lines. CDP’s investor research shows clearly that the best prepared investors and companies will be the ones to gain competitive advantage.”
The Paris Agreement enters into force once 55 countries representing 55% of global emissions have deposited their instruments of accession with the UN.
The formal signing of the Paris Agreement could be the next nail in the coffin of the fossil fuel industry if governments actually follow through on their commitments, 350.org Executive Director, May Boeve, has said.
May Boeve, 350.org Executive Director. Photo credit: shifttheclimate.org
She disclosed in a statement ahead of the formal signing ceremony of the Paris Agreement taking place at the UN on Friday that the growing and vibrant climate movement is forcing governments to bow to the pressure to break free from fossil fuels.
“However, there is still a dangerous gap between what the governments are signing up to, what they are doing and the real ambition we need to avert the worst impacts of climate change. The only way to achieve this is by keeping coal, oil and gas in the ground. As a movement we will continue to hold governments accountable, ensure they ratify the treaty, go well beyond their current targets and accelerate the transition to 100% renewable energy,” added Ms Boeve.
She continued: “We also need to maximise the current political momentum to push for more. Break Free, a wave of global mobilisation planned for this May, is at the forefront of this and marks an unprecedented moment of local and international groups undertaking bold mobilisations to stop fossil fuel projects on six continents; demonstrating their resolve to transition off fossil fuels and build the new kind of economy that we know is possible-centred on a just transition to 100% renewable energy systems.
“The fossil fuel industry is pushing our climate to the brink faster than anyone expected, as record temperatures are proving, along with extreme weather related events. We are all at risk from a warming planet, so we are left with no choice but to scale up nonviolent direct action. As the transition from dirty energy to clean and efficient energy systems grows stronger and faster, communities and private citizens around the world will continue to hold decision makers accountable to their promises, and to science.”
Friday’s event is purely ceremonial, as most countries still need to ratify the agreement at a national level. The treaty will only enter into force when at least 55 countries representing at least 55% of global emissions have ratified.
The record number of countries set to sign the Paris Agreement in New York on April 22 signals the next step towards the Agreement coming into force and a critical juncture in a global effort to ensure lasting hopes for secure and peaceful, human development, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has submitted.
UNFCCC Executive Secretary, Christiana Figueres. Photo credit: eaem.co.uk
The organisation highlighted UN chief Ban Ki-moon’s dictum that the present generation is the first that can end poverty but the last that can act to avoid the worst climate change speaks to the fact that cutting greenhouse gas emissions in time to prevent unmanageable rises in temperature is the one assurance of keeping those hopes on track.
“More carbon in the atmosphere equals more poverty. We cannot deliver sustainable development without tackling climate change, and we cannot tackle climate change without addressing the root causes of poverty, inequality and unsustainable development patterns,” said Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC.
Ms Figueres will moderate a debate with Segolene Royal, French Minister of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy and President of the 21st Conference of the Parties to the UN climate convention in front of an invited audience, on the margins of the General Assembly meeting on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on Thursday, April 21.
The realisation that climate change and development are solvable only when seen as inseparable is articulated in the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, agreed by nations last September at the UN in New York.
Achievement of the Paris Agreement’s climate goals calls for unprecedented rates of decarbonisation. The short 15 years to 2030 will need to deliver unprecedented outcomes in terms of global well-being and poverty eradication.
Nothing less will do than a massive global transformation to clean energy, restored lands and societies pre-proofed against existing climate change.
“Key actors across government, the private sector and civil society are shaping their vision on how they can best contribute to that objective. We have a short window of opportunity to align strategies and to sharpen the focus on the urgency of implementation. Strategic approaches developed this year will shape the overall path for years to come,” said Ms Figueres.
The SDGs not only contain a distinct climate change goal (#13), but climate action is also integral to the successful implementation of most of the other SDGs under the agenda.
This works in three fundamental ways that underpin the relation between the nature of the climate change threat and aspirations for a better, safer, fairer future.
Climate and development are locked together through basic cause and effect, by the need for an unprecedented transformation to a low-carbon economy and through the demanding timetable of action necessary to stay well below a 2 degrees Celsius temperature rise, with 1.5 degrees identified in the Paris Agreement as an even safer line of defence.
These three factors affect every goal.
Climate Impacts Eat Away at Every Positive Human Goal
It will clearly be impossible to end poverty in all its forms (Goal #1), if temperatures are allowed to spiral out of control – emissions need to peak globally in the next decade followed by a rapid decline, ending in a state before 2100 where natural sinks like forests absorb the balance of human emissions.
The same is true for sustainable agriculture, water, oceans, biodiversity, human health and well-being, resilient societies and cities (Goals #1,2,3, 6, 9,11 and 15).
New investment especially must be directed at priorities which target both climate and sustainability with indicators underpinning all the SDGs in mind including climate.
A classic example is investments in land restoration and forests. Forest cover not only absorbs carbon dioxide but stabilises soils, recycles nutrients, manages and feeds river flows and harbours treasure troves of biodiversity including pollinators – services which are all essential to alleviate poverty, sustain healthy agriculture and protect species.
The poorest and most marginalised people and communities, often women and children, are already being hit hardest by climate impacts, which are preventing them from attaining a decent quality of life or enjoying their basic human rights.
Climatic changes are undermining food and nutrition security, keeping poor people in poverty traps, and throwing back entire economies for years.
The Philippines, Dominica and Fiji are just some countries which can recently attest to the devastating impact of extreme storms.
Impacts on agriculture have a rapid knock-on effect on poverty. Under a scenario with lower crop yields, countries like Bangladesh could experience a 15 per cent increase in poverty by 2030.
Water resources are also at risk, as many expected climate impacts are water-related, such as floods and droughts. Sanitation and water quality are both threatened as storm run-off adds to sewage and could contaminate water supplies.
The global insurance industry has already warned that a world drifting into the temperature spaces above 2 degrees would become, quite literally, uninsurable.
Sustainability Demands Rapid Progress to Low-Carbon State
At the heart of the goals which promote sustainable development in energy, economic and jobs growth, industry and infrastructure (Goals 7,8 and 9) is the overwhelming requirement that it is done within a rapid transformation towards low-carbon solutions.
This transformation relies heavily on getting low-carbon technology and investment deployed now because whatever we invest in today – be it power plant, road, bridge, or tiny widget or component – can lock-in the emissions of that investment for its lifetime.
The point where human economic life becomes uninsurable is also the point at which extreme climate impacts start to disrupt or destroy industries, structures, supply chains and farming.
A significant resource for both governments and business to gauge how returns on climate and development investments can be maximised together lies in the almost universal set of national climate action plans which are now to be captured in legal form under the Paris Agreement.
The plans are, in essence, blueprints of policy, actions and investment to take climate action, suited to the individual economic needs of each country. Almost by definition, they are also a roadmap towards more sustainable national futures.
Inequality, Ignorance and Injustice Kill Effective Climate Action
The remaining goals which look to achieve equality, education and justice for all will also fail unless that aspiration includes equal opportunity to take climate action, knowledge and skills on how to do so and a just protection from the impacts of climate change within and between nations.
For example, ensuring women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in political, economic and public life has been shown to be a particularly effective catalyst of climate action, including in poorest, most vulnerable countries.
Climate change impacts inequality because the most disadvantaged groups are particularly affected by climate hazards. It is a known statistic that when they are socially or economically disadvantaged, more women die in hurricanes and floods.
“There is no longer climate action and development action, only sustainable, low-carbon action,” said Christiana Figueres. “Growth can and must be decoupled from fossil fuel consumption and impacts.”
“The only plausible path after Paris is to direct human ingenuity, innovation and implementation towards sustainable, low-carbon growth and development.”
Governor of Osun State, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, on Tuesday reiterated the commitment of his administration to agriculture and forestry development for the attainment of self-sufficiency in the production of staple commodities.
Gov. Rauf Aregbesola of Osun State, Nigeria. Photo credit: thesheet.ng
The governor stated this at the opening session of a public hearing by the Inter-ministerial Committee on report of illegal entry and farming on Shasha Forest in Ile-Ife at the Local Government Service Commission hall in Abeere, Osogbo.
Aregbesola noted that the Committee was set up in order to foster the peaceful atmosphere that is needed for the development of the state in accordance with the six-point integral action plan of our administration.
He held that the importance of agriculture and forestry to national economy cannot be over-emphasised, adding that the two sectors are veritable sources of food, shelter, life sustaining drugs and raw materials for the industries.
The governor stated that responsible government in developing an economy like Osun State’s must give agriculture and forestry prominence in its development plan.
According to him: “Considering the global standard prescribed by Food and Agricultural Organisation, 35 per cent of any nation’s land mass must be forested. In order to achieve this objective, our administration has among other things raised 2.5 million seedlings of Teak and Gmelina Arborea (Igi-Iye) for free distribution in the state in 2014.
“We have planted 120 hectares in the six geo-political zones of the state and set up special task force with serviceable patrol vans to patrol and protect our forest against illegal logging.
“We have also engendered a healthy environment through systematic application of community mobilisation, volunteerism, technology and other best practices in waste, flood and vegetal management to attain Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) standard in sanitation, beautification and forest resources management.”
Aregbesola reminded the sitting of the setting up of Osun Rural Enterprise and Agriculture Programme by his administration to empower farmers through guaranteed inputs, rural infrastructural development and youth training in farming and agro-entrepreneurship.
The governor also hinted on government interventions in the development of storage facilities and market linkages, development of farm produce processing, especially rehabilitation of the Cocoa Processing Industry at Ede, among others.
Aregbesola said: “In spite of all these efforts by the government to promote agriculture and give those willing to farm access to agriculture land and other farming inputs, some people have been encroaching on government forest reserves.
“It is regrettable that Shasha Forest Reserve in Ile-Ife, which is one of the oldest forest reserves in the country, is at the receiving end of this unsavoury development.”
Aregbesola stated that the state is not just conserving forests to keep people away from land, but for the reason that forests are necessary to protect the biodiversity of the environment.
He pointed out that forest encroachers are carrying out illegal activities, some of which are clearly criminal in nature, adding that it is more rampant in illegal logging activities.
Speaking earlier, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of environment, Sanitation and physical planning, Wale Ojo, stated that the forest reserve is a farmland of economic trees, especially timber.
Ojo added that the forest was conserved significantly to ameliorate climate change, provision of shelter for wildlife and the provision of raw materials for industries.
Ojo also added that provision of material for drug industries, provision of watershed for stream and rivers and research as the reasons for the conservation of the forest.
He said: “The report that came to the government is that illegal entries, demarcation and re-allocation as well as farming have been taking place in the forest reserve. All these are antithetical to the purpose of keeping the forest and are therefore not in the public interest.
“Mr. Governor who believes in peaceful resolution of disputes through dialogue, has therefore allowed the public hearing by an inter-ministerial committee.”
The Permanent Secretary noted that the committee is determined to carry out the assignment with objective perception and mindset and come up with a report that shall be in the public interest.
In his paper, a professor of Forest Economics and Sustainable Development at the University of Ibadan, Prof. Labode Popoola, decried indiscriminate deforestation in the country.
Popoola noted that time has come for government at all levels to rise against deforestation in order to save the country from adverse effects of global warming and climatic change.
Prof. Popoola condemned the clearing of forest majorly for farming, confirming that 400,000 hectares of forest is lost annually through what he described as shifting cultivation.
According to him: “Forest is life and there abound enough evidence that those who grow it, care for it and conserve it.
“As diversely perceived, forest in our society are viewed as just ‘bush’, a dangerous place for demons and evil spirits, wild animals that can harm but it remains an ecosystem where human existence lies on.
“Though we need to go back to land to farm, but it has to be systematically and intensively planned because sustainable agriculture does not imply creating environmental crisis.”
The need for Nigeria to eliminate impediments to trade facilitation on major highways was the plea by stakeholders at the Road Governance Caravan organised by the United States Agency for International Development in Nigeria (USAID NIGERIA) for states on the Lagos-Kano-Jibiya (LAKAJI) Corridor.
The forum wants impediments removed for trade facilitation to reduce the cost and time of moving goods and services in order to reduce poverty on the corridor and the country
Development of LAKAJI Corridor as a multimodal major trade route in Nigeria is an initiative of USAID NIGERIA through the Nigeria Expanded Trade and Transport (NEXTT) project which is designed to promote inclusive economic growth through an integrated approach to trade and transport competitiveness.
Speaking at the caravan in Abeokuta, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Works in Ogun State, Kayode Ademolake, noted that “impediments must be removed for trade facilitation to reduce the cost and time of moving goods and services. This will impact positively on reducing poverty on the corridor and the country.”
“Economic development of Nigeria is expansive and all challenges and encumbrances must be removed to improve trade,” he added.
In 2013, USAID conducted a baseline study on the LAKAJI corridor, which revealed that it costs over $3,000 and takes approximately 12.5 days to send a 20-foot container from Jibiya (border town in Katsina State) to Lagos, while it costs nearly $5,000 and takes approximately 19.5 days to move a 20-foot container from the Lagos port to Jibiya. The cost and time was the highest when compared with similar corridors between two different countries in West Africa and states in the US. The high cost to transport goods along the corridor is largely due to the lengthy clearance time and associated costs at the port with series of bottlenecks and fines along the express way.
A transport specialist from West Africa Borderless Alliance (another USAID initiative), Mr Noel Kosonu, noted that the preponderance of non-trade barriers is responsible for the low level of economic development and integration in Africa. Economic integration in Africa is at less than 11% when compared with over 71% in Europe and 53% in Asia.
According to Mr Kosonu, Nigeria is losing out from serving neighboring landlocked countries in West Africa due to its high cost and time of moving goods. Describing the Lome-Ouagadougou corridor as the most competitive corridor in the West Africa sub-region, the transport specialist stated that “landlocked countries like Niger and Burkina Faso are routing their goods to be moved through Togo because the country has drastically reduced the number of checkpoints, hence movement of goods through the country is faster and at a lower cost.”
“Nigeria can become a lot more competitive for trading in West Africa by the removal of barriers to trade and transport with harmonisation of procedure,” he added.
The Deputy Chief of Party of the NEXTT project notes that about 90% of Nigeria’s population reside along the LAKAJI Corridor, “hence the need to transform this corridor into an economic corridor because the economic development of the corridor which host the two most populated states in Nigeria will trigger the nation’s economy.”
The week-long road governance caravan is an advocacy platform by USAID NIGERIA, which aims to remove non-tariff barriers to enhance the competitiveness of the LAKAJI corridor for necessary investments. The caravan began in Lagos on Monday and it will run along the Southern LAKAJI Corridor states from Lagos to Abeokuta, Ibadan and Ilorin.
Leading agricultural producers, traders, transporters, officials from Federal Road Safety Corp, Nigeria Customs Service and financiers at the caravan proposed and advocated for systemic and practical improvements to the movement of goods, transport, capital, and services across the country.
Deputy Director of Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) Akinbode Oluwafemi calls on Lagos State governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, to make a public statement on an alleged Public Private Partnership (PPP) water privatisation scheme in the state
Amid water shortage in Lagos, government is believed to be favourably disposed to the idea of privatising the production of the resource
The failure of the Lagos State Government to open up on the controversial water PPP gives room for us to suspect that something is in the offing and the people are deliberately being kept in the dark.
We cannot stop demanding that the rights of Lagos citizens to a free gift of nature must not be subject to the dictates of privatisers whose only interest is profit. Worse is the fact that the Lagos government is toying with a failed model of PPP that the World Bank private arm – International Finance Corporation (IFC) advised it to embark upon even with documented failures in Manila and Nagpur, in the Philippines and India respectively.
After our water summit last year which was preceded by a rally which drew huge civil society and labour participation we had anticipated that the state government will come public with a clear action-plan that will involve the people in democratic decision taking in the water sector. Alas! This has not been the case as we have instead witnessed systematic backdoor attempt to foist the failed PPP model on the citizenry of the state.
For us it was good news that immediate past Group Managing Director of the Lagos State Water Corporation (LSWC), Shayo Holloway, was forced to resign on Friday 16 October 2015 following a strongly-worded query issued by the office of the Head of Service demanding he explain the parlous state of water infrastructure in all Lagos even after receiving huge sums in the last 16 years.
Apart from budgetary allocations, the LSWC attracted loans from the World Bank and international donor agencies to fund water supply expansion schemes such as the Iju, Adiyan, and Ishasi Waterworks, as well as expansion of distribution networks. These loans, running into billions of naira have not translated into improved water supply for residents. Over 18 million Lagos residents representing about 90 percent still lack daily access to clean and safe water, exposing citizens to water-borne diseases like cholera.
We are however surprised that, after failing to manage the expansion of water supply and infrastructure, Holloway is still advising the Lagos government to toe the PPP line which Lagosians refused to accept.
We are even more perplexed that, with allegations against Holloway during his tenure at the LSWC, the Lagos state government is yet to demand accountability of the 16 years of his stewardship. The media reported that Holloway said last week that $3.5 billion will be needed to guarantee every Lagos citizen has water.
But our question to him is: How much did the LSWC receive throughout his 16 years as helmsman of the corporation and how did that translate to more water for Lagos residents? We are still surprised that the Lagos government has not hearkened to the call by civil society for a scrutiny of the time of Holloway as the MD of LSWC. We will not relent in asking for this.
We have also observed systematic non-release of funds meant for procurement of chemicals for water treatment by the current administration in the state. For us, this happening has become regular in the last seven months and fits into our belief that there is a grand ploy to make Lagosians believe that indeed the public sector workers cannot manage water infrastructure. The ultimate aim of the brains behind this development is to goad Lagosians into believing the solution is in private hands.
The question that should naturally follow is: What magic wand will the privatisers apply that public democratically-controlled water infrastructure managers cannot apply?
We reiterate again that a water PPP regime in Lagos will be a replication of the electricity sector privatisation, which has unleashed skyrocketing electricity bills on the citizenry without delivering improved service. If the Lagos project sails through, the average Lagosian already crushed by the huge costs of procuring water for drinking and other uses will be further levied while those who cannot pay will be cut off from a basic human right.
At this point we would have expected the state government to clear the air on the controversy surrounding the PPP advisory contract that the IFC was pressured by civil society and labour to cancel last year. But, alas, Lagosians are getting confused by the day as officials of the Lagos State Government say one thing one day and another the next day.
Late last year, in a memo to the LSWC, a copy of which we have, the Commissioner for Environment, Dr. Babatunde Adejare, said the PPP is “null and void”. At a rally organised by the Africa Women Water Hygiene and Sanitation Network (AWWASHNET) in Lagos, Permanent Secretary, Office of the Chief of Staff, Governor’s Office, Mr. Biodun Bamgboye, debunked the PPP plans, saying the governor had no plans to privatise water. That was March 17 this year.
Surprisingly, Governor Ambode was quoted as saying PPP was the way to go just two days after. We are disturbed at these conflicting statements. In all this we see a lot of so-called reorganisation at the LSWC which is evidently paving way for a PPP. These activities are carried out without due process and unknown companies are springing up to grab slices of our water resources.
Last week, precisely on April 12, US Representative Gwen Moore, a ranking member of the Monetary Policy and Trade Subcommittee of the House Financial Services Committee, tasked with oversight of the World Bank Group (WBG) sent a letter to World Bank President, Dr. Jim Yong Kim. The letter, copied new Executive Vice President and CEO of the IFC, Philippe Le Houérou and the US Treasury Secretary, Jacob Lew, lays bare the immense conflict of interest inherent in the IFC’s practices in the water sector.
Rep Moore calls for the World Bank Group, including the IFC, to cease funding and promoting water privatisation pending an independent review and congressional hearings.
Representative Moore explicitly includes so-called “public private partnerships” as a concerning form of water privatization promoted and funded by the World Bank.
Specifically, Moore calls for an in-depth outside investigation of the IFC’s conflicts of interest policies as well as congressional hearings.
Moore expresses her deep concern for the World Bank Group (WBG): “As a strong believer in the mission of the World Bank, I have become increasingly concerned that its role as advisor and investor in the MWC deal may now be creating reputational risk for the World Bank Group.”
To give you a bigger picture of what Moore is talking about, you might want to know that, in 1956, when the IFC was founded, it was prohibited from making equity investments. That policy changed in 1961 when the group’s Articles of Agreement were amended to allow the practice.
In the early 2000’s the IFC advised on, and facilitated a water privatisation project in Manila. The project led to two corporations running the city’s water system: Manila Water (MWC) and Maynilad.
The IFC -brokered arrangement favoured MWC, as that corporation took only 10% of the pre-existing utility’s debt (90% went to Maynilad) and assumed the service area with better existing infrastructure. The IFC then took an equity stake in MWC which raised rates by 845 percent.
When a further rate increase was blocked by the regulator, MWC responded by bringing the Manila regulator into arbitration at the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC). The ICC arbitration panel rejected MWC’s rate hike, but MWC filed another arbitration case at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in Singapore and petitioned the Philippines Ministry of Finance for financial remediation for lost profits.
As part owner of MWC, the IFC is now aligned with MWC and its aggressive campaign to protect its profits and continue to raising rates.
The failed Manila model is being promoted by the IFC as a flagship model to be emulated around the world, including in Africa, where it has led to IFC advisory contracts in Benin and Mozambique and informed a widely-opposed privatisation scheme in Lagos.
Recently, the World Bank abandoned its multi-million-dollar effort to secure a water treatment PPP in Lagos, Nigeria. This reversal came after a year of protests from civil society and labour groups, including a summit in Lagos last August to chart the course for the city’s public water management.
As stated many a time, Lagos may become the emblem of corporate water grab promoted by the World Bank through the IFC. Though Lagos has since 1979 obtained loans from several institutions and governments, the secrecy surrounding the planned privatisation of water necessitated an alarm we raised early October that the state government may have appointed the IFC to design a PPP water privatisation scheme.
Our aversion to the plan is linked to the fact that, around the world, the IFC has been in the centre of controversial water projects that entangle governments in a web of loans that are tied to various anti-people conditions.
The IFC advises governments, conducts corporate bidding processes, designs complex and lopsided water privatisation contracts, dictates arbitration terms, and is part-owner of water corporations that win the contracts it designs and recommends. In all this, it aggressively markets its model to be replicated around the world. These activities continue to undermine democratic water governance, and constitute an inherent conflict of interest within the IFC’s activities in the water sector, as seen in parts of Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia.
The World Bank in December 2015 opened up that it has withdrawn support for PPPs in Lagos and Nigeria. Quoting the Bank, it said “the PPP for the operation of the Lagos treatment works is not going to be possible under this project…. (it is) not the intention of this project to continue with it anymore.”
Going by this public announcement by the World Bank we expect the Lagos State government to now take a more pro-active step in ensuring the management of our water resources is democratically implemented. We have said it time and again that all people have a fundamental human right to water and Lagos citizens are no exception.
We are therefore demanding the following:
That Governor Ambode publicly declare his stance on the controversial PPP
The Lagos government guarantee the protection of the rights of Lagosians to water by ensuring full disclosure of the PPP with the World Bank, and a halt to the project as the double-speak of the World Bank has already shown there is something being hidden from all of us.
That Governor Ambode Halts the secret concessions of Lagos water infrastructure
Governor Ambode should provide necessary financial and other resources needed to run existing water infrastructure in the state
Come out with a masterplan of incremental overhaul of the entire water infrastructure in the state
Global Muslim leaders will on Friday, 22 April, 2016 present the Islamic Climate Declaration to the United Nations at the Paris Agreement signing ceremony.
Imam Al-Hajj Talib ‘Abdur-Rashid, Vice-President for the North American Muslim Alliance
The presentation will be made to the President of the UN General Assembly, Mr Mogens Lykketoft, in his office at the UN Headquarters in New York.
The leaders will also officially launch the Global Muslim Climate Network as support for climate action from the world’s second largest faith group continues to grow.
The handing-in delegation is comprised faith and civil society leaders from around the world such as:
Imam Al-Hajj Talib ‘Abdur-Rashid, Vice-President for the Muslim Alliance (USA and Canada)
Imam Saffet Catovic, Chaplain at Drew University & Founder of Green Muslims of New Jersey (USA)
Lamia El-Amri and Mohamed Amr Attawia, MD Islamic Relief Worldwide Board of Trustees (Sweden & USA)
Nana Firman, Greenfaith Fellow and White House Champion of Change (Indonesia)
Wael Hmaidan, Director at Climate Action Network International (Lebanon)
The presentation takes place even as the Paris Agreement is set to make history as about 155 countries turn up for what is expected to be the largest UN treaty signing ceremony ever. National representatives and leaders will reaffirm their commitment to the ground-breaking international climate deal that puts nations on track to limit global warming to 1.5C degrees – requiring a rapid acceleration of the transition to 100% renewable energy.
The African Development Bank (AfDB) has declared its resolve to eliminate energy poverty in the continent of Africa.
Akinwumi Adesina, President of the African Development Bank. Photo credit: res.cloudinary.com
Addressing a high-level panel comprising African ministers of the environment and heads of country delegations at the ongoing 6th Special Session of the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN) in Cairo, the AfDB President, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, revealed that over 645 million Africans have no access to electricity and have become accustomed to living in darkness.
Represented by Prof. Anthony Nyong, the AfDB president decried the fact that over 600,000 women and children in Africa die each year from indoor smoke inhalations while trying to prepare meals for their families. According to him, the brakes being applied on Africa’s development by the obvious lack of energy leaves the AfDB with no choice than to declare an all-out war against energy poverty in Africa.
Revealing aspects of the bank’s strategic onslaught against energy poverty, Dr. Adesina declared that, in addition to the New Deal on Energy for Africa, “the light up and power Africa” initiative will achieve universal access to energy in Africa by 2025.
The New Deal is built on five inter-related and mutually reinforcing principles which include raising aspirations to solve Africa’s energy challenges; establishing a Transformative Partnership on Energy for Africa; and mobilising domestic and international capital for innovative financing in Africa’s energy sector.
Other aspects of the New Deal are supporting African governments in strengthening energy policy, regulation and sector governance; and increasing the African Development Bank’s investments in energy and climate financing.
In its all-out war on energy poverty, the development bank is ensuring that the vulnerable and poorest groups in Africa are not by-passed in the drive for universal energy access with the establishment of the “Bottom of the Pyramid Financing Facility for Africa” and the $300 million “Affirmative Financing Facility for Women in Africa.
“Once we can get our energy right, we can get all the other SDGs right,” the President added.
In recognition of the Africa Renewable Energy Initiative (AREI) as a major building block in wiping out poor access to energy, Dr Adesina called on all development partners to strongly support the AREI to reduce Africa’s reliance on polluting energy technologies.
“I call on our regional member countries to create the enabling environment to facilitate massive investments in renewable energy on the continent,” the AfDB President said.
Civil society concerns
Meanwhile, the African civil society under the auspices of the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA) says it received the recent launch of the AREI with interest as the initiative carries the prospects of facilitating successful transition to the inevitable low-carbon, climate-resilient development trajectory, in addition to reducing energy poverty and mobilising substantial financial resources if it is implemented well.
However, the Alliance cautioned that AREI and other renewable energy initiatives dotting the African continent should put in place comprehensive safeguards and holistic frameworks to address both social and environmental dimensions of human development, including the rights of indigenous peoples and gender disaggregation.
According to PACJA’s Mithika Mwenda, AREI should have a governance structure that is African-led, African-controlled, and providing space for civil society representation.
It was in furtherance of this inclusive and people-centred imperative that the Alliance facilitated consultations among an array of partners at the ongoing Cairo AMCEN meeting which led to the establishment of a Non-State Actors platform (African Coalition for Sustainable Energy and Access – AC/SEA).
The new platform aspires to engage on AREI and other energy transformation initiatives in the African continent.
The civil society platform which comprises small holder African farmers, traders, pastoralists, women and youth groups from the five regions in Africa urged African leaders to ensure that AREI runs its own governing framework, fully independent of the Trustee, the AfDB’s organisational structure.
Having endorsed the importance of AREI, PACJA believes AfDB’s New Deal for Africa should over time, inspire it to redirect its priorities overall so that its energy investments shift incrementally to renewable energy in the spirit of AREI.
The AREI Initiative
The Africa Renewable Energy Initiative (AREI) is a transformative, Africa-owned and Africa-led inclusive effort to accelerate and scale up the harnessing of the continent’s huge renewable energy potential.
Under the mandate of the African Union, and endorsed by African Heads of State and Government on Climate Change (CAHOSCC), the Initiative is set to achieve at least 10 GW of new and additional renewable energy generation capacity by 2020, and mobilise the African potential to generate at least 300 GW by 2030.
The AREI is firmly anchored in the context of sustainable development and climate change. It shows how low to zero carbon development strategies can be achieved in African countries through climate finance and means of implementation according to the principles of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
It recognises the critical importance of rapid expansion of energy access for enhanced well-being, economic development and the fulfilment of all Sustainable Development Goals.
The Ogun State Government has advised residents to always channel their enquiries on land acquisition particularly as it relates to its validity to relevant agencies.
Special Adviser to the Governor on Housing Development and General Manager, Ogun State Housing Corporation, Jumoke Akinwunmi
Special Adviser to the Governor on Housing Development and General Manager, Ogun State Housing Corporation, Jumoke Akinwunmi, while speaking on the achievements of the corporation in the last 40 years in Abeokuta, said that the rate at which some unscrupulous members of the public encroach on government-owned land particularly that of the State Housing Corporation was worrisome, noting that the situation had hampered the smooth operation of the agency.
The General Manager said: “The issue of land encroachment by some people on land belonging to the corporation has remained a major challenge and for us to deliver our mandate on housing development and housing needs of the people. Such illegal act must be stopped.”
Akinwunmi said efforts are in top gear to continually re-establish government land boundaries, dialogue with Community Development Associations (CDAs) of the host communities to curb activities of land grabbers popularly called “Omo Onile” and set up a monitoring committee to regularly inspect the boundaries in order to curb unlawful encroachment on government land.
She urged anyone interested in acquiring land to approach the Ogun State Geographical Information System (OGIS) of the Bureau of Lands and Survey for charting of such Land.
Akinwunmi pointed out that the agency has recorded tremendous and landmark achievements in the provision of residential and industrial estates in the state since its establishment, saying that these had contributed in no small measure to reducing the challenge of housing deficit in the country.
“Our 40 years of existence is a milestone in the history of housing development in the state and we want to assure the good people of the state that the corporation will continue to leave up to its responsibilities to ensure that affordable home ownership, land acquisition amongst others are within the people’s reach without compromising quality and global standards,” Akinwunmi stated.
