Economic growth and carbon dioxide emissions have increasingly diverged in the UK. Photo credit: James Allan/Flickr
The nations are: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States and Uzbekistan.
The United States is the largest country to experience multiple consecutive years in which economic growth has been “decoupled” from growth in carbon dioxide emissions. From 2010 to 2012, energy-related carbon dioxide emissions declined by six percent (from 5.58 to 5.23 billion metric tons), while GDP grew by four percent (from $14.8 to $15.4 trillion). In its analysis of the Clean Power Plan, the U.S. Energy Information Administration forecasts that moving to a cleaner electricity system after 2020 would bring about a sustained period of GDP-GHG decoupling. As illustrated in the figure below, CPP implementation is expected to reduce total U.S. energy-related carbon dioxide emissions by a further 6 percent between 2020 and 2025, while GDP increases by 13 percent in real terms over the same period.
Sources: U.S. Energy Information Administration; U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis
If the United States implements the Clean Power Plan and achieves sustained decoupling, it will be in good company. Twenty other countries achieved decoupling of GDP and energy-related carbon dioxide emissions over the period from 2000 to 2014.
The UK is an example of a country where economic growth and CO2 emissions have increasingly diverged. Between 2000 and 2014, the UK achieved six years of absolute decoupling where real GDP grew at the same time that carbon dioxide emissions declined. Over the 14-year period, emissions dropped from 591 to 470 million metric tons of energy-related CO2, while GDP grew from $2.1 to $2.7 trillion (constant 2005 U.S. dollars).
Sources: BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2015; World Bank World Development Indicators
How Have Countries Decoupled?
There is not a single formula, policy or demographic trend that’s driven GDP-GHG decoupling across all countries. Sweden, for example, implemented ambitious policies including carbon taxes that supported its decoupling. Denmark’s rapid increase in renewable energy reduced emissions while stimulating local production. Another key factor in many countries is a structural shift of the economy away from emissions-intensive industry.
More than 90 percent of the countries that decoupled GDP and GHG emissions between 2000 and 2014 reduced the industrial sector share of their economies. However, the exceptional cases of Bulgaria and Uzbekistan demonstrate that GDP-GHG decoupling is also feasible in countries with expanding industrial activity (not to mention Switzerland and the Czech Republic, where the industrial portion of GDP remained essentially steady). Across the 21-country group, the average change in the industry share of GDP was a 3 percent reduction over the period, with an average CO2 reduction of 15 percent.
Shifting to a Low-Carbon Path
Decoupling of GDP and GHG emissions in numerous countries demonstrates the feasibility, and increasing prevalence, of the transition to cleaner modes of economic activity. These country-level decouplings are driving the global trend toward decoupling in 2014 and 2015. Beyond the aggregate trends described here, more information is needed on the potential leakage of carbon emissions to other countries as nations move their industries overseas, factors that enable sustained and absolute decoupling, and what’s needed to support larger-scale emissions mitigation.
Over the 14-year period covered here, the aggregate annual CO2 reduction for these 21 countries amounted to slightly more than one billion metric tons. Given that total annual global carbon dioxide emissions grew by more than 10 billion metric tons over this period, it’s clear that decoupling needs to be scaled up rapidly to have any chance of limiting average warming this century to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels, the current international target for preventing the worst impacts of climate change. As countries focus on implementing the Paris Agreement, decoupling presents one option to address global climate challenges while preserving economic security.
The United Nations has disclosed that a record number of countries are expected to sign the historic climate agreement adopted last December in Paris at a signing ceremony scheduled for New York on 22 April this year. The event will be hosted by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon at COP21. Photo credit: ibtimes.co.uk
More than 130 countries have confirmed that they will sign the Paris Agreement on that day, the first day that the agreement will be open for signature. This would surpass the previous record of 119 signatures for an opening day signing for an international agreement, set by the Law of the Sea in Montego Bay in 1994. In addition, more countries have informally indicated that they will sign the agreement, with the numbers increasing rapidly each week.
Over 60 Heads of State and Government will attend the ceremony, including French President François Hollande, demonstrating the continued high level of engagement by world leaders to accept and implement the Paris Agreement.
The signing ceremony will mark the first step toward ensuring that the Paris Agreement enters into force as early as possible. The agreement will enter into force 30 days after at least 55 countries, accounting for 55 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, deposit their instruments of ratification or acceptance with the Secretary-General.
A number of countries have also indicated that they will deposit their instruments of ratification immediately after signing the agreement on 22 April.
The 22 April signing ceremony will also bring together leaders from civil society and the private sector to discuss efforts to boost financing for climate action and sustainable development, and to increase actions that would achieve the Paris Agreement’s goal of limiting average global temperature rise to well below 2 degrees Celsius.
“Paris was historic,” the Secretary-General said. “But it’s only the beginning. We must urgently accelerate our efforts to tackle climate change. I encourage all countries to sign the Paris Agreement on 22 April so we can turn aspirations into action.”
Governor of Osun State, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, on Tuesday said never will his administration base the execution of its programmes on allocations from federal revenues allocations again.
Rauf Aregbesola, governor of Osun State
The governor, at the signing into law of the Osun State Land Use Charge Bill at the Executive Chambers of the Governor’s Office in Osogbo, stated that previous and present administrations had so much relied on the allocation that, when the oil glut came, it could no longer pay salaries and other critical expenditures of government.
Aregbesola held that the state has learnt a lot of lessons from the situation where it had to go cap in hand to the Federal Government for the allocation that can no longer take care of the primary needs of the state.
He described a situation that suggests that the state cannot be self-sufficient in the light of the human and material endowments on the state by God as an insult, saying looking inward for progressing the state has now become a must.
The main objective of the newly signed law, he explained, is to generate additional revenue and also the provision for a single property charge which replaces all other state and local governments taxes on real property, including taxes like tenement rates, ground rents and neighbourhood improvement charges.
Aregbesola pointed out at the signing ceremony that the aim of the new law is to do away with multiple rates, increase efficiency in collection and avoid discriminatory and arbitrary application of property based levies and charges.
He said, “As you are all aware, governments at all levels have been under severe financial assault for some time. This is as a result of a precipitous fall in revenues from the federation account.
“We are here facing formidable challenges in paying salaries and meeting other critical expenditure of government. This is because we have been programmed to live day-by- day on allocation from the federation account.
“The lesson we are taking from the situation is that living on other people’s bakery is never reliable. It is high time we started to bake our own cake by ourselves, if we don’t want to starve.
“It is even an insult to suggest that we cannot be self-sufficient, in the light of the human and material endowments it has pleased the Almighty God to bestow on our land. One of these is land. Land is of great value where there are humans because it is the primal resource. We live, work and derive other resources from land.
“This is why we, as a government, have decided to make a law that will also benefit government from part of what the people derive from land. This is the basis of the Land Use Charge Law,” the governor stressed at the signing of the new law.
Aregbesola held that part of the attraction of the law is safeguarding people from abuse and arbitrariness, noting that a chargee under the law, on receipt of an assessment, can make a formal complaint to the Commissioner for Finance on high assessment and that it should be reduced.
He added that such chargee also has the right to file an appeal against the assessment to the Assessment Appeal Tribunal on the precondition that the chargee pays 50 per cent of the amount assessed and the fees that would be prescribed by the Appeal Tribunal for the filing of the appeal.
Governor Aregbesola said the new law is predicated on the principle of mutual delegation of authority between the state government and each of the local government areas (LGAs) in the state.
“By this new legislation called the Land Use Charge Law, once the Land Use Charge is imposed upon a property, the rates and charges which were hitherto payable under the old legislations will no longer be applicable and due on the same property.
“The Local Government Authority in the jurisdiction/locality where the property is situated is the authorised collecting authority, but in order for there to be compliance with the constitutional requirements on the division of powers between the States and the Local Governments, this new law is predicated on the principle of mutual delegation of authority between the State Government of Osun and each of the Local Government Areas in the State.
“The new Land Use Charge Law will also boost job creation in the State because between valuation and assessment and between revision and collection, we see thousands of people being employed.
“With the implementation of this law, there will be an accelerated development in many areas of the state’s economy because the multiplier effect of this new development is that by the time the owners pay property tax on their property that has been lying fallow, they will be forced to find economic use for it and in the process thousands of other unemployed youths will be gainfully engaged,” he added.
Governor Aregbesola, who attributed the new law to what he regarded as a direct instrument to boost the state revenues, however disclosed that the implementation and enforcement of the new law would exempt some institutions like religious bodies, public utilities, traditional grounds, and non-profit making organisations.
He said, “It is noteworthy that this law is a piece of legislation with human face with its Section 8 devoted to the class of people exempted from its ambit – the poor, religious bodies, public utilities, traditional grounds, non-profit making organisations among others.”
The governor therefore sought for collective supports from all and sundry, urging the people to ensure total compliance on the new development in order to move the state forward.
“I implore us all as citizens of this great state, in furtherance of our collective resolve to move our state forward by enhancing the frontiers of our economic independence, to join hands with the government to make the State of Osun Land Use Charge Law work,” he stated.
In his remarks, the Chairman of the consulting firm of Interspatial Limited, Pastor Olumide Bolorunduro, said the charge is a law in form of the executive bill sent to the House which, according to him, has already been passed into law after being assented to by Governor Rauf Aregbesola.
He said the effective implementation of law would in a greater was help in achieving a harmonised law on standardised rate.
He said, “The beauty of this exercise is based on its uniformity nature by putting into consideration the value and size of every property put together in a formula being applied in bringing in the charge.
He extolled the prompt enactment of the law which he said would go a long way in encouraging accountability, transparency and openness and as well eliminating all forms of leakages in taxation.
He said, “This new law would definitely enhance accountability and eradicate the shortcoming in all forms of taxation especially on land use charge.
“The accountability nature of the charge dictates that there will be no leakages, as all that involved in taxation and value of property or all relevant laws in this regard bringing in inter-ministerial approaches to the charge.”
Pastor Bolorundoro disclosed that a committee would be set up to give and bring in reports on monthly basis about the exercise which according to him would remain greater ingredients to harmonize the exercise.
He expressed optimism that the exercise will in no small measure increase the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) of the state.
The Coordinating Director, Bureau of Lands, Mr. Tayo Hassan, said the implementation of the law would in no measure assist the state to jerk up its resources and revenue, hence facilitate all round development in all sectors of the economy.
Hassan expressed confidence in the socio-economic benefits of the law if properly implemented, saying it would help to complement and balance the meagre allocation accruable to the state from the Federation Accounts.
“Effective implementation of this law will increase, improve and assist the societal infrastructural activities in the state.
“At the same time, it will optimally guard against multiple land taxation as well as economic planning purposes,” he added.
Mr. Hassan said if the law is embraced and supported by all, it has the capacity to take the state to greater heights never witnessed by any administration in the state.
Enumerating the legal implications and benefits of the Land Use Charge Law, former Commissioner for Special Duties and Regional Integration, Dr. Bashir Ajibola, said the passage of the bill into law by the state legislature was a signal to the fact that the state was towing the path of economic sustainability.
Ajibola noted that the exercise would engender essential human and material development in all aspects of life and assist the state to harmonise all existing laws on property acquisition for better uniformity.
He revealed that with proper implementation of the law, some local government, which have not been benefiting from the collection of the charges on land used will be able to benefit, saying state would henceforth get more from the exercise.
Ajibola said the new development has clearly departed from the previous policies in which the charges had been beneficially centralised.
“With all the efforts being made by the present government in the state, coupled with the economic reality on ground, there is a need for collective support just as voluntary compliance is required by all and sundry in making the state a better place to live,” he added.
The Speaker, State of Osun House of Assembly, Najeem Salam, said the bill was passed into law purposely to increase the state’s IGR and as well serve as a driven force to eradicate all forms of leakages in the revenues being generated by the government.
Salam said with the passage of the law it has become a must for every land user to comply with the dictates of the new law on land use charges.
The Speaker stated that the House, having painstakingly considered all factors involved, believed that the only sustainable way to boost the state IGR was to support the bill for physical development.
He said, “Obviously, what we have today is a fallout of what transpired during the public hearing we had.
“Due to the current economic reality on ground, both on the side of the masses and that of the government, we have intensified a considerable approach to achieve the said aims and objectives of the new land used charge.
“Our beliefs remained the fact that if this law is well implemented, the state IGR will definitely improve as it is a must that will do the needful and not optional.”
Activists have condemned Monday’s deadly police crackdown on villagers protesting coal plant construction in Bangladesh. Officials say that at least four people died when police opened fire on an unarmed crowd in Gandamara, a small coastal town in Bangladesh, where 500 villagers had gathered to oppose two new Chinese-funded coal projects.
Wild deer in the Sundarbans. The forest is home to more than 1,000 species including Bangladesh’s last population of tigers Photo credit: Majority World/Getty Images
Thousands of Bangladeshis had marched from the country’s capital, Dhaka, to the world’s biggest mangrove forest to protest plans to build two coal-power plants on the edge of the World Heritage-listed forest.
The organisers intended to persuade the Bangladeshi government to drop its backing for construction of the plants near the Sundarbans, an area of rice paddies, shrimp farms and vast mangrove forests.
Indeed, the villagers had been protesting peacefully for days, despite a police ban, after the local conglomerate behind the planned coal expansion started bulldozing land to pave the way for the obviously popular plants. Authorities in Bangladesh have long used intimidation tactics to prevent locals voicing their concerns – a move the Climate Action Network (CAN) termed a “new and deadly means of silencing opposition to dirty coal power is an extremely worrying escalation.”
“More than six thousand farmers are dependent on this fertile land for agriculture and salt production, these farmers travelled to Gandamara to save their livelihoods and some paid for it with their lives,” said Sanjay Vashist, Director of Climate Action Network South Asia. “Experts have also pointed out that the operation of coal plants would cause major damage to the delicate ecosystem of the area, due to air and water pollution and increase in boat traffic to deliver coal to the plant,” he added.
“It is time for government to stop the death and destruction caused by coal projects in Bangladesh and show real leadership through redirecting investments away from coal to renewables like wind and solar,” said Dr. Mohd. Abdul Matin, Convenor of the Coal Affairs Programme Committee and General Secretary of BAPA.
Wael Hmaidan, Director of Climate Action Network International, said, “People have a right to peacefully stand up against reckless coal expansion that threatens to destroy their homes and ruin their livelihoods. This community is trying to defend itself from an increasingly desperate industry and has suffered a direct attack from the authorities who should be preserving their rights, not trampling on them.”
CAN, a global community of over 950 NGOs in more than 110 countries fighting for action to tackle climate change, has declared its support for the demand from local groups for an immediate, full and independent inquiry into Monday’s events, to hold those responsible to account for the unnecessary murder of at least four people.
“It is simply unacceptable for police to open fire on protesters and shoot to kill,” the group stated.
“No sensible person will deny that there are many alternative ways for electricity generation,” said Anu Muhammad an economist with Jahangirnagar University, and head of the march organisers, the National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Ports. “But there is no alternative for (the) Sundarbans.”
Both the proposed 1,320 MW Rampal coal plant and the 565 MW Orion coal plant will sit within 14km of the Sundarbans, a 10,000 sq km (3,860 sq miles) forest listed as both a UNESCO World Heritage site and a Ramsar-protected wetland. The great forest is split between Bangladesh and India, but the bulk of its lies in the former.
Activists fear that the coal plants will slowly destroy the Sundarbans – already under threat from forest fragmentation and overpopulation – due to air and water pollution, changes in water quality and increased boat traffic. The Rampal coal plant alone will take 219,600 cubic metres of water every day from the Passur river, potentially changing the salinity and temperature of the water on which mangroves depend.
A recent study released by Sustainable Research and Action for Environmental Development (SRADev Nigeria) under the auspice of the US-based Developing World Outreach Initiatives (DWOI) has revealed that very dangerous toxic chemicals in cosmetics are widely used in salons and beauty parlours despite their attendant health effects in disruption of nervous, respiratory, reproductive systems and lungs, kidney damage and inflammation of the skin and eyes to both salon workers and users alike.
Participants at the Lagos gathering
The study was conducted in Lagos state to assess “safe cosmetic use by occupational workers of salons and beauty parlours”.
In a total of 29 shops from 20 Local Government Areas (LGAs) sampled showed that all the shops regularly make use of cosmetic products containing particularly the “Toxic Trio” – a group of chemicals (toluene, formaldehyde and dibutyl phthalate) which are ingredients in nail polishes and known today to be very toxic to human body.
Other chemicals ingredients identified to have detrimental effects found on cosmetics shelf of salons and beauty care givers (especially when handled in an unsafe manner as was found in the study) were P-phenylenediaamine used in hair dye, butylacetate, Isopropylacetate and ethylacetate used in nail paints and varnishes or wig-glue/hair piece bonding, ammonium per sulfate in olive oils as hair bleach, acetone in nail polish remover and hair spray, hydroquinone in hair treatment, preservatives like formaldehyde releasers and parabens in shampoos, shaving gels, make-ups and polyethylene glycol (cleaner/disinfectant in lotion and creams).
“This is alarming and a dangerous trend, people patronising beauty salons and cosmetologists must as a matter of urgency avoid the ‘toxic trio’ products. Since safer and affordable alternatives exist, customers should now ask for only cosmetics products that are labelled as ‘Three-free’ which do not contain these harmful ingredients and are therefore healthier for the bodies” said Leslie Adogame, Executive Director, SRADev Nigeria.
Other key findings of the study include:
Poor housekeeping practices in most of the salons. For example, a very high (79.3%) percentage of their workplaces were poorly ventilated, whereas cosmetics products are regularly exposed when not in use. Poor solid waste management and wastewater treatment practice regular. Chemical exposures to little children in attendance at workplace were noticed; and cases of poorly handled food and cooking utensils found within at workplaces.
A very high proportion (head cover (93.1%), body wear (82.8%), and nose mask (89.7%) while at work) of the workers do not make use of Personal Protective Equipments (PPEs) when at work or while handling cosmetics.
Significant cases of difficulty in breathing, respiratory dysfunctions including occasional difficulty in breathing and catarrh, occasional coughing, incessant abdominal pain, occasional miscarriage, occasional neurotoxic effects such as memory loss and dizziness were indicative health symptoms/problems identified among salon workers interviewed.
The report further cautioned Nigerians on excessive and unsafe use of cosmetic products. It stated further that, reviewing the ingredients on the label is one way to be sure cosmetic product is true to its claims. It cautioned users to be aware that potentially problematic chemical ingredients are today hidden behind the word “fragrances.”
Fragrances are considered trade secrets and the ingredients within fragrances are not required by law to be revealed and may represent many ingredients, sometimes hundreds, the report disclosed, adding that since “unscented” and “fragrance free” have no legal definition, their labels do not guarantee that the product doesn’t contain potentially toxic chemicals.
“Globally, of the over 10,500 chemical ingredients used in personal care products, only about 11% have been assessed for health and safety. So the need for occupational safety and health standards for personal care products imported and used in the country requires some urgency,” said Adogame.
Since 1950, the World Health Organisation/International Labour Organisation (WHO/ILO) expert committees on Occupational Health and Safety in their first session spelt out the objectives of occupational health which includes promotion and maintenance of the highest degree of physical, mental and social well-being of workers in all occupations. Although, Nigeria has Workman Compensation Decree and the Factory Decrees of 1987 which should address the issue of occupational health and safety from federal to local levels, they have however not been effectively put to use or reviewed to the present day realities.
“As at today, there is no government institution that statutorily coordinates occupational hygiene and not too many Nigerians understand labour laws, factory laws and workman compensation laws that are meant to ensure the dignity of labour and its security,” said Faith Osa-Egharevba, Senior Programme officer, SRADev Nigeria.
A comprehensive report released by Women’s Voices for the Earth in 2014 shows that workers in beauty salons businesses are exposed to myriad of chemicals of concern every day in their workplaces since hair sprays, permanent waves, acrylic nail application, and numerous other salon products contain ingredients associated with asthma, dermatitis, neurological symptoms and even cancer. Salon workers and their customers absorb these chemicals through their skin and breathe them in as fumes build up in the air of the salon over the course of the workday.
In Nigeria, the beauty salon sector is made up of hairdressers, hairstylists, cosmetologists, barbers, nail salon workers, and other beauty and personal care workers employs more than one million people who work across thousands of salons and receive some 150 million potential customers. Hairdressing in Nigeria is a predominantly female profession, with over 80% women workers many of whom work full-time and stay in the shops for about 8-hour periods of time per day. A healthy work environment contributes significantly to the success of the business and is important both for the persons working in the salon trade as well as for the customers.
In an urgent response to the study, a stakeholder’s workshop was held recently in Lagos. Participants drawn from government, NGO and trade unions unanimously agreed on the immediate need to regulate the beauty care profession in Nigeria in view of the occupational, health, safety and environmental consequences of its practice and call on the government to take appropriate action.
“Ignorance is no longer an excuse for my people. We are commencing re-registration of beauticians from national to state levels for effective coordination of our members. My institution is readily available to dialogue government towards putting in place a national occupational health and safety sectoral policy framework,” said Dr (Mrs) Elizabeth Ishoka, National President of National Association of Salon Hairdressers and Cosmetologists (NASHCO).
The workshop, attended by both national and state members of the umbrella body, NASHCO, was aimed at increasing awareness of beauty practitioners on salon chemical exposure, health effects, safety at workplace and strengthening capacity towards creating a legal framework. It also solicited views on next concrete steps towards a more robust national campaign, regulation of the profession and policy development in the future.
“It can no longer be business as usual, NAFDAC would be putting in place necessary mechanisms to expand its regulatory mandate for the salon sector, but there is the need for collaboration among other relevant government agencies. Presently, the ban in cosmetics products containing hydroquinone and mercury in Nigeria is still in place by my organisation,” said Dr Anthony Hotton of NAFDAC.
Lagos State President of NASHCO, Mrs Surat Abari-Ajibola, commended the timeliness of the workshop and applauded the recent findings of the study, calling for continued partnership between SRADev Nigeria and NASHCO. She assured that NASHCO would put in place urgent actions towards setting up Environmental Health Surveillance Task force from to work with the government in monitoring of beauty parlours shops and salons all over the state.
While no one can say that the Nigerian petroleum resources sector is known for transparency, most would readily agree that it wields a lot of power. The sector has effectively determined the political, economic, social and cultural paths of the nation since its ascendancy as major income earner for the nation. As its power rose, so the attendant impunity, including a murky treatment of financial matters. Governments have bent backwards so much that the tail began to dictate to the head.
Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki
To secure continuous flow of revenue from the sector, full military might have been deployed to silence calls for dialogue from already trashed communities and these have sometimes resulted in horrendous sackings of communities in wasting operations by way of flagrant and outright display of murderous rage at the slightest provocation. Today, citizens are intimidated by security forces into raising their hands in total surrender each time they come close to oil pipelines of transnational corporations crossing their creeks.
Denying Dialogue
The denial of dialogue can be said to be a major precursor of the persistent conflict points in the Niger Delta. That was what the people of Umuechem requested for in 1990. What they got was mayhem and deaths.
The current outcry over the non-inclusion in the new Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) of the Host Communities Fund that was provided for in the “old PIB” is justifiable. This will continue to agitate communities and observers until the National Assembly or the Petroleum Resources Ministry explain what the fate of the communities will be in the new dispensation.
The Quadruplet Logic
What we have learnt from the grapevine is that the new PIB will come in multiple parts so what is being debated is not yet the whole story. However, the entire focus is on business and there is scant attention to the environment or the people. These may remain the milk cows that should simply steel themselves for more squeezes.
It is thought that the PIB will come in four parts arranged as follows:
The Governance and Institutional Framework for Oil and Gas Bill
The Fiscal Reform Bill
Licencing Rounds Bill
Revenue Allocation and Management Bill
It is expected that the fourth bill may say something about the funds for communities. Perhaps the logic is to serve the “controversial” consideration of oil field communities last with the hope that the hurdle will never be reached within the life of this government or that the controversy would have died of its own accord by such a time.
One complaint against the former PIB was that it was rather voluminous. Having the bill split into four volumes may make reading easier for text-message or SMS generation.
It could also be one way of displaying a bent towards unbundling the sector in all ramifications. Another plausible explanation could be that the sector is simply copying the industry’s best practice in other countries.
Host Communities Conundrum
The sore point of the petroleum sector in Nigeria as in elsewhere is the serious impact it has on the environment, the communities and the people.
The fact that our politicians could not agree on any allocation of resources for host communities should not make the current legal draughtsmen push consideration to back burners. The President doubles as the Minister of Petroleum Resources and he should clarify what the intentions are with regard to the communities and indeed the oil field environment. With the clean-up of Ogoni and the Niger Delta about to commence, informing about the global environmental architecture would help.
A key point is to ensure that host communities are not defined as only the communities that host oil wells, pipelines, flow stations, waste pits and other oil industry appurtenances. Here is the reason why this definition must be broadened. There are communities that do not have the physical presence of oil operations but are heavily impacted by those operations. A case in point is Goi community in Ogoni. This community has been severely impacted by repeated oil spills and related fires and one section of the community has been deserted for over a decade now. Yet, Goi has no pipeline and no oil well. It simply sits on the bank of a creek that connects oil facilities that have spewed crude and devastated their environment. Would it be right to say that Goi is not a host community? My point is that any community that has the potential to be impacted by petroleum sector accidents has to be classified as a host community. So, a host community is a community that hosts oil or industrial facilities as well as those that host pollutions.
Another case in point is that Exxon Valdez oil spill of 1989 in Alaska. The spill so much impacted Prince William Sound and the coastline that, despite all clean-up efforts, 27 years after effect is still there and less than half of the wild life population is yet to recover.
Time to Come Clean
It is time for the National Assembly and the Ministry of Petroleum Resource to come clean over the PIB. The draft bill(s) should be posted online and made available to citizens. It would help the ministry, the National Assembly and the nation if citizens are able to scrutinise the bill(s) and make comments based on knowledge rather on rumours. What are the provisions in the PIB for ending gas flaring? What is in it for the communities? Certainly the oil business cannot be allowed to be all about money to the detriment of life.
By Nnimmo Bassey (Director, Health of Mother Earth Foundation – HOMEF)
For the first time, scientists have pieced together a 1,200-year long record of water availability, rainfall and drought across Europe, North Asia and North America.
Lead author, Fredrik Charpentier Ljungqvist
The research, published in the journal Nature, is the first time scientists have been able to accurately see how rainfall patterns have changed during the 12th century compared with the last 12 centuries.
The findings show the Northern Hemisphere experienced considerably larger variations in rainfall and drought patterns during the past 12 centuries than in the 12th century. The researchers, from Sweden, Germany and Switzerland, find that climate models overestimate the increase in wet and dry extremes as temperatures increased during the 12th century. The new results, a contribution to the Past Global Changes (PAGES) 2k Network, can help improve how climate models represent future rainfall changes in a warmer world.
A big uncertainty in climate research is what will happen to rainfall and drought when temperatures rise across the globe. This matters for water resources, crop yields and ecological change. The leading authority on the consensus of climate knowledge, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), concludes from climate model simulations that wet areas are likely to get wetter and dry areas drier in a warmer world.
But the first reliable reconstruction of rainfall and drought across the Northern Hemisphere, looking back 1,200 years, challenges the conclusions of these climate models. The results, published in the journal Nature, indicate that the undisputed temperature rise of the twentieth century may not have affected the hydroclimate – rainfall and drought-related climate anomalies – to the same extent as earlier suspected.
Lead author Fredrik Charpentier Ljungqvist, a historian and climate researcher at Stockholm University, said, “Despite strong twentieth century warming, we find that rainfall and drought extremes in the twentieth century have varied within the natural variability we can now see in earlier centuries. Several other centuries in the past 1,200 years show stronger and more widespread extremes and deviations from the average.”
“Climate models strongly overestimate the intensification of wet and dry extremes in the twentieth century,” added Ljungqvist.
The team, working within a major international research initiative examining 2,000 years of climate variability for the Past Global Changes project of Future Earth, used tree-rings, lake sediment, historical data and other types of archives to piece together the new picture of past climate. The researchers found larger land areas with relatively wetter conditions in the ninth to 11th and the 12th centuries, whereas drier conditions than during the 20th century were more widespread between the 12th and 19th centuries.
“The lack of agreement between the reconstruction and the climate models in the 20th century indicates that the models can have limitations in realistically predicting which regions may get wetter and which may get drier in a warmer world. But one reason climate model predictions do not agree well with actual data could also be that 20th century warming may not yet have been strong enough to trigger large-scale hydroclimate changes.”
To investigate the links between temperature and hydroclimate variations, the scientists compared their reconstructed hydroclimate variations with a new temperature reconstruction they also developed. The researchers conclude that only in a few regions is it possible to see clear correlations between changes in temperature and hydroclimate. For instance, drought was most widespread during both the relatively warm 12th century and the relatively cold 15th century.
“The study shows the importance of placing recent hydroclimate changes in a millennium-long perspective,” says Ljungqvist. “Actual measurements of precipitation and drought are too short to tell if the observed changes today fall outside the range of natural variability. Instrumental measurements are also too short to test the ability of state-of-the-art climate models to predict which regions will get drier or wetter with global warming.”
Effective from April 2, Amina J. Mohammed, Nigeria’s Environment Minister, became Chair of the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC).
The former Assistant-Secretary General and Special Advisor to the Secretary General on Post-2015 Development Planning, Ms. Mohammed chairs the Steering Committee, while guiding the work of WSSCC’s Geneva-based Secretariat, its operations in 20 countries in Africa and Asia, and its 5,000 members in 150 countries.
Hosted by the United Nations Office of Project Services, WSSCC is the part of the United Nations devoted solely to the sanitation and hygiene needs of the most vulnerable people around the world. Ms. Mohammed has replaced erstwhile Chair, Andrew Cotton, Emeritus Director of the Water, Engineering and Development Centre (WEDC, Loughborough University), and previous Chair, Prof. Anna Tibaijuka, Member of Parliament, Tanzania, and former Under-Secretary General and Executive Director of UN-Habitat.
As the Secretary-General’s Special Advisor on Post-2015 Development Planning, Ms. Mohammed worked systematically to ensure the successful adoption by Member States of the Sustainable Development Goals in September 2015. She is an Adjunct Professor at Columbia University and previously held the position of Senior Special Assistant to the President of Nigeria on the Millennium Development Goals, serving three Presidents over a period of six years. In 2005 she was charged with the coordination of the debt relief funds ($1 billion per annum) towards the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals in Nigeria. From 2002-2005, Ms. Mohammed served as coordinator of the Task Force on Gender and Education for the United Nations Millennium Project.
Ms. Mohammed’s appointment builds upon WSSCC’s tradition of having a Chair with experience serving as a senior official of the United Nations and who is a current or former government official.
Amina J. Mohammed, the new Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC) chair takes her seatAddressing a gatheringYou’re welcome…Delivering the maiden speech…Interacting…
The oil price crash hit Nigeria hard. The country’s revenue fell, affecting the funding of critical infrastructure. The Debt Management Office (DMO) has risen to the challenge, issuing bonds to fund such projects in the 2016 budget. Will local investors take a cue from DMO? COLLINS NWEZE writes.
Kemi Adeosun, Finance Minister
For Nigeria, the worst era seems over. That was last January when crude oil price touched nearly $25 per barrel, with little hope that it would rebound. But the black gold has inched up slightly, touching $41 per barrel last March 30. But, there is still a decline on large chunk of government revenues. Low crude oil prices meant that the government must borrow to realise its spending plans.
In 2005, Nigeria struck a deal with Paris Club lenders to write off over half of the country’s $30 billion debt. Since then, the government’s debt has crept back up, but it remains relatively low as a percentage of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Oil revenues from oil have dropped, and the only way to fund over N1.84 trillion deficits in the N6.06 trillion 2016 budget is through the issuance of the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) Bonds as being done by the Debt Management Office (DMO).
The DMO, last month, sold N100 billion FGN bonds through three bond offerings: re-openings of 15.54 per cent FGN February 2020, three-year, 11 month-bond; 12.50 per cent FGN January 2026 nine-year, 10-month bond and a new 20-year bond, 12.4 per cent FGN March 2036. The stop rates were 11.334 per cent; 12.090 per cent and 12.4 per cent.
The DMO Director-General, Dr Abraham Nwankwo, explained that a bond is a loan and the investor or holder of the bond is the lender.
“When you purchase a bond, you are lending money to a government, local government council, state government, federal agency or a corporation, known as the issuer. The government uses it to fund budget deficit, for instance, or to build roads, electric power stations, finance factories, among others. When you purchase a bond, in return the issuer promises to pay you a specified rate of interest during the life of the bond and to repay the face value of the bond (the principal) when it ‘matures’,” he explained.
The debt office said when investors buy FGN bonds, they are lending funds to the federal government for a specified period of time.
“The FGN bond is considered as the safest of all the investments because it is backed by the ‘full faith and credit’ of the government. They have no default risk, meaning that it is virtually certain your interest and principal will be paid as and when due. The income you earn is exempted from state and local taxes,” it said.
It added that the government-sponsored enterprise bonds help support project relevant to public policies, such as helping certain groups, such as farmers, homeowners, students, etc to raise money for financing specific projects. These bonds do not carry the full-faith and-credit of the government. The investors are likely to hold them in high regard because they have been issued by a government agency.
However, corporate bonds are debt obligation issued by private or public corporations. The corporations use the funds for building facilities, purchase of equipment to expand the business, among others. “When investors purchase corporate bond, the corporation promises to return your money, or principal at maturity date, but they are being paid interest semi – annually,” he said.
He continued: “FGN bond fosters economic development by promoting the use of long-term funds for long-term investment in the economy. It serves as an efficient way of mobilising domestic financial resources for productive investment in a non-inflationary manner. It also allows self-reliance of the country by reducing over reliance on short-term borrowing from the Central Bank Nigeria (CBN) & commercial banks while providing a basic infrastructure for the development of the financial system and the overall economy,” the DMO said.
Analysts and economists have continued to speak on the impact of buying FGN Bonds on the economy. Currencies Analyst, Ecobank Nigeria, Olakunle Ezun, said there is need for Nigerians to key into the government bond for infrastructure project by investing heavily in local bonds. He explained that the DMO works closely with the Federal Government to manage the national debts, adding that the government is regarded as the issuers of the bonds, while the buyers are seen as investors.
Ezun told The Nation that the FGN Bonds have the full credit of the Federal Government, and that the bond issuance option is far better than printing money to meet developmental needs of government. “It is not advisable for government to print money to meet developmental needs. And it is advisable that the citizens invest in FGN bonds, which are safe, profitable and deepens the local bond market,” he said.
For him, although funds from the domestic bond market are more expensive than the international bond market, investing in the local bond market is in the best interest of the economy.
The FGN Bonds, he added, help the government funds its deficits in a non-inflationary manner while providing benchmark yield-curve for pricing other securities/bonds. It also engenders rational management of government’s fiscal and monetary operations.
Chief Executive Officer, Nextnomics Advisory, Dr Temitope Oshikoya, said the government needs to borrow N900 billion through local bond issuance to fund the budget. He said the DMO would be involved in the exercise, adding that the practice where banks end up buying up the bonds instead of lending their deposits to customers is not the best for the economy.
“It will be good to have more people invest in the local bond market. Banks are expected to lend to the private sector instead of investing so much in the local bonds,” he said.
Oshikoya explained that FGN Bonds serve as risk-free investment with tax-free income. The bonds provide relatively high and stable returns while the principal element (collected at maturity) can be used as collateral for securing credit facilities from banks. Also, bond holders, who want cash, can trade the bonds on the floor of Nigeria Stock Exchange (NSE) for immediate cash before maturity even as it qualifies as liquid assets for banks from two years to maturity.
He said if the debts are well spent, they help to boost liquidity in the economy and investment in key sectors, such as Agriculture, Mining among others.
2016 Budget
A large part of the budget focuses on funding infrastructure, which entails the provision of tangible assets such as housing, power (electricity), transport, education, communication and technology, on which other intangibles can be built on. It also seeks to protect the poor with a social safety net including scholarships and food provision in schools.
The budget has revenue projection of about N3.86 trillion, with oil related revenues expected to contribute about N820 billion or 21 per cent, while tax collection and public expenditure reforms in Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs) will account for the rest.
The budget is clearly consistent and is part of the three-year Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF). It seeks to stir Nigeria off the path of oil dependence. It hopes to achieve this through a focus on non-oil revenues by broadening the tax base and improving the effectiveness of our revenue collecting agencies. However, the renewed drive to boost non-oil revenues may not be sufficient to cover the gap from low oil revenues.
The budget has a deficit financing that requires an additional N1.84 trillion for capital expenditure, which must be funded through borrowing from local and international markets through the supervision of the debt office.
Nwankwo said Nigeria’s low debt to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ratio means the country can borrow more to fund budget, infrastructure and other essential projects that will stimulate the economy and create jobs for the citizenry.
The DMO is expected to source the additional N1.84 trillion for capital expenditure, N984 billion of which will come from local investors and N900 billion from international investors.
In a report titled: ‘Budget 2016: Changed budget, Changed people, Changed leaders’, Managing Director, Financial Derivatives Company Limited, Bismark Rewane, said the spending and revenue estimate is based on the Keynesian model of counter-cyclical spending to stimulate growth.
Rewane said significant spending on infrastructure and security would complement reforms in agriculture and solid minerals.
Infrastructure needs
The Africa Infrastructure Country Diagnostic (AICD) report for 2011 estimated that Nigeria requires sustained spending of $14.2 billion per annum over the next decade in order to address the infrastructure challenge.
The above scenario, clearly shows that as a result of the huge funding requirement for present and future infrastructural development and its attendant impact on survival and growth of businesses in Nigeria, traditional funding methods can no longer suffice as the traditional fund providers, various levels of government, do not have such resources at their disposal. Therefore, debts may simply be the solution to bridging the infrastructure funding gap.
Bond issuance option
The DMO captures the benefits of using debts to fund projects more succinctly. “If you want to build a railway line from Lagos to Aba, there are two options. Firstly, you can save the money for 10 years, before starting the project. The second option is to borrow and build the railway, and within 10 years, generate enough revenue to offset the debt,” DMO’s head, Policy Strategy and Risk Management, Joe Ugolala said.
The second option, according to him, is more plausible as it captures the inherent benefits of borrowing to build infrastructure that is in the interest of the economy. He explained that for one to borrow, there must be that inherent capacity to repay, whether the debt came from internal or external sources.
He explained that the Federal Government has the capacity to borrow from outside to fund the budget, and support specific projects including infrastructure. He said there was so much demand for infrastructure because of its immense benefits to the economy.
Speaking on external and domestic borrowing guidelines for the federal and state governments and their agencies, he explained that the National Assembly has a role to play in government’s borrowing plan.
Firstly, the National Assembly is to approve the borrowing programme for every succeeding year and approval of overall limits, for the amounts of consolidated debts of the Federal, State and Local Governments, to be set by the President on the advice of the Minister.
Other borrowing guidelines
The National Assembly is expected to grant prior authorisation in the appropriation or other Act or Law for the purpose for which the borrowing is to be utilised. “The Federal Government may borrow from the capital market, subject to National Assembly’s approval. Government at all tiers shall only borrow for capital expenditure and human development on concessional terms,” the debt guidelines said.
Any government of its agencies can only obtain external loans through the Federal Government and such loans must be supported by Federal Government guarantee. “No state, local government or federal agency shall, on its own, borrow externally. State governments and their agencies wishing to obtain external loans shall obtain Federal Government’s approval-in-principle, from the Federal Ministry of Finance,” it said.
However, the borrowing proposal must be submitted to the Federal Ministry of Finance and the DMO for consideration, and must state the purpose for which the borrowing is intended and its link to the development agenda of the government.
It must also state the cost-benefit analysis showing the economic and social benefits to which the intended borrowing is to be applied; cash-flow statements of the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), to ascertain their viability and sustainability. There must also be copies of the state’s Executive Council’s approval and the resolution of the State House of Assembly.
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Sustainable Development Goals (SSAP-SDGs), Princess Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire, has stated that the Federal Government is reviewing Nigeria’s implementation of the just concluded Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in a bid to ensure a proper, accelerated and efficient implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Princess Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire
Princess Orelope-Adefulire, who stated this recently in Abuja at a forum on the Implementation of SDGs in Nigeria, added that her office is also taking steps to come up with an achievable work plan to domesticate and adopt the SDGs into Nigeria’s national development plans as well as identifying Nigeria’s key areas for priority attention.
“This retreat on the Implementation of the SDGs in Nigeria is therefore very timely as the forum also offers us a unique opportunity to examine what has worked and what has not worked well and proceed to develop common strategy for the domestication, mainstreaming and implementation of the SDGs into our National Planning process,” the SSAP noted.
The presidential aide re-iterated that Nigeria has made appreciable progress in the implementation of the MDGs, particularly in the area of Universal Primary Enrolment, achieving gender parity in Education, reducing the spread of HIV and AIDs, reducing maternal death, and halving the percentage of people living in absolute hunger for which the country received recognition from the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO). She also noted that the implementation of incentive based interventions such as the Conditional Grant Scheme (CGS) has been key.
She however maintained that “despite this appreciative progress, some of the MDGs targets were not met due to challenges in the areas of poverty, insecurity, social inequality and youth unemployment. A situation she blamed on Nigeria’s late commencement of the MDGs implementation.
While highlighting the disproportionate successes recorded in the implementation of the MDGs across states, local governments and geo-political zones, Princess Orelope-Adefulire noted that the implementation of the MDGs in many states of the federation was hampered by factors such as poor funding, low participation, ownership and sustainability.
Against this backdrop, she concluded that the implementation of the MDGs in Nigeria and indeed the rest of Africa remains one unfinished business that needs to be rolled over to the SDGs.
She said: “As we kick-start the implementations of the SDGs, therefore we should re-examine and institutionalise some best practices as we all know that SDGs are aspirational, integrated, transformative, actionable and universal, targeting both developed and developing countries. The MDGs helped in improving the economic and social conditions in several nations of the world, particularly in Africa. However, the glitch in the MDGs was that, it focused majorly on the government of each nation.
“This time, the SDGs challenge both the government, private organisations and institutions, civil society and individuals to participate in making the world a better place. It is expected that collaborative efforts geared towards a similar agenda by all the bodies will have a greater impact to the society.”
In laying foundation for the effective implementation of the SDGs, the SSAP-SDGs stated that her office would be creating public awareness on the role of all stakeholders, highlighting the gaps in select sectors and propose sustainable strategies and models that can be adopted with emphasis on the role of the private sector. They will also identify priority issues and develop an actionable framework for implementation of the reforms in the select sectors, she added.
In his presentation, United Nations representative, Ojiji Odhiambo, stated that the foundation of the SDGs is based on six pillars such as People, Prosperity, Planet, Justice, Partnership and Dignity in a world that is guided by existing obligations under the international law and respect for human rights. He said Nigeria would work on its prioritised items according to the needs of each state of the federation.
The programme was jointly organised by Department for International Development (DFID) and Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President (SDGs).
