The Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, has reiterated Federal Government’s commitment to the reduction of tobacco use among citizens particularly exposure of underage children to smoking.
Yemi Osinbajo, Vice-President of Nigeria. Photo credit: profyemiosibanjo.com
Osinbajo, who spoke at the Presidential Villa in Abuja on Tuesday while receiving leaders of anti-tobacco civil society groups, lamented inadequate information about the dangers of smoking “which has made it difficult to convince many to quit the dangerous habit.”
He said: “We need the public behind us in this engagement. We need to change the public perception that smoking is a matter of choice. We also need to be more creative in passing our messages and in developing policies.”
While lamenting tobacco products “proliferation” in the country, Prof. Osinbajo hinted that government would be exploring strategies on how to reduce tobacco consumption.
“The Presidency will give every support that is needed to ensure that tobacco control laws and policies are effectively implemented in Nigeria,” he assured.
He charged the NGOs to work more closely with youths to ensure that under-age initiation into smoking is reduced in the country.
Earlier, the leader of the delegation, Akinbode Oluwafemi, who is Deputy Director of Environmental Rights Action /Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN), urged the Federal Government to provide all the necessary support for the effective implementation of the National Tobacco Control Act (NTCA) 2015.
“We want the Federal Government to demonstrate that the era of impunity is over by bringing all tobacco companies flouting our laws to justice,” said the activist.
Hilda Ochefu of the Washington-based Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids (CTFK) expressed the readiness of her agency and other international NGOs to support Nigeria in implementing effective tax policy for the tobacco industry.
The 23rd session of the Committee on Forestry (COFO23), which took place in Rome, Italy 18 to 22 July 2016, took an effective approach that focused on the interlinkages between forest and other sectors and issues, including biodiversity and climate change.
The 13th meeting of the CBD Conference of the Parties (COP13) will hold in Cancun, Mexico, 2 – 17 December, 2016
COFO23 helped to showcase how countries have been devising forest policies which provide mutual benefits for the forestry sector as well as for agriculture, watershed management, biodiversity, recreation, climate change adaptation and mitigation, and sustainable development. Major steps are being taken to integrate different policy agendas through a comprehensive and coordinated land use management perspective.
Among the key outcomes of COFO23 was a decision requesting the FAO to collaborate with the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity and with the ministries responsible for forests and the forest sector to support the preparations for COP13.
A dialogue event was organised by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), and the Government of Mexico, at which representatives from the Committee on Forestry, FAO Permanent Representatives, representatives from other Departments of FAO, World Resources Institute (WRI), other organisations and stakeholders exchanged experiences on the mainstreaming conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity in the forest sector, one of the key topics to be discussed at the Thirteenth Meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP13) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and its High-Level Segment (HLS), to be held in Cancun, Mexico, 2 to 17 December 2016.
“One of the main areas of focus for COP13, and its High-Level Segment, will be on the need to enhance efforts to mainstream biodiversity in four key sectors – Agriculture, Fisheries, Forestry and Tourism. The fact that the forestry sector is already demonstrating its recognition of these linkages is a significant sign that we are on the right path”, said Mr. Alberto Glender, Special Adviser of Mexico for COP13.
One of the key outcomes of the High-Level Segment, taking place prior to the opening of COP13, from 2 to 3 December 2016, is the Ministerial Declaration that will emphasise the need for increased action to mainstream conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity in sectoral and cross-sectoral policies, plans and programmes. The Zero Draft of the Declaration was circulated by Mexico through official channels in July, and replicated by a notification of the Executive Secretary of the CBD around the time of the COFO23 meeting.
Discussion during the dialogue session noted shifts in the perception of forests and on the pivotal role of the forest sector for advancing other policy agendas. The importance of land use planning and policies, as well as governments role in creating an enabling environment for community and private sector involvement, through the role of economic instruments and measures to better value biodiversity and their impacts to other sectors, were factored in by several participants throughout the discussion. Moreover, efforts taken to integrate conservation and sustainable use practices into commodity supply chains at different scales were also mentioned.
In closing the dialogue event, Mr. Rene Castro, Assistant Director General, Forestry Department of FAO, noted: “The discussions that took place at this Committee on Forestry and the technical support that FAO can provide are highly relevant to the biodiversity community”. FAO has prepared a variety of tools which can assist Parties to the CBD in meeting their national biodiversity commitments and the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020 and its Aichi Targets and the SDGs.
He added: “One recent example is FAO’s new partnership with Google Earth for more frequent updates of tree cover and other land use elements that will enable FAO and the public to monitor earth ecosystems almost in real time.”
Furthermore, Mr. Hesiquio Benitez Diaz, General Director of International Cooperation and
implementation, CONABIO-Mexico, stated: “Governments around the world have recognised the essential role that biodiversity plays in achieving sustainable development, human well-being, and prosperity in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The discussions at COFO23 provided a major contribution from the forest sector towards coherence between agendas, and we look forward to continuing our close collaboration with the CBD Secretariat and FAO to achieve results for our common objectives at COP13.”
“Momentum towards a successful COP13 is building,” noted Braulio Ferreira de Souza Dias, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity. “Clearly this event shows that the future of our forests can continue to provide multiple benefits for biodiversity, people and sustainable development, if we ensure that they are safeguarded and managed sustainably. As we head into COP13, we will be counting on the forestry community to underscore the benefits that biodiversity and ecosystem services provide to the sector and the verse how the sector can ensure viable productivity without depleting the natural capital that biodiversity underpins”, he added. Similarly, the interlinkages between the biodiversity and the fisheries agendas were discussed in the Committee on Fisheries (COFI) meeting in July 2016 in Rome.
To enhance further engagement and interaction with other sectors, a similar dialogue event will be convened during the Committee on Agriculture (COAG), in September 2016, in Rome, Italy to address the links between biodiversity, agriculture, food security and rural livelihoods.
New research has revealed some alarming insights about the effects of climate change on one of the world’s oldest and largest lakes. A study published on Monday in the journal “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences” suggests rising temperatures have been responsible for significant declines in the fish that populate Africa’s Lake Tanganyika and feed the surrounding communities – and that these declines may only worsen as global warming continues to progress.
Lake Tanganyika’s waters lap Tanzania, Burundi, Congo DR and Zambia. It is the longest fresh water lake in the world and the second deepest after lake Baikal in Russia. Photo credit: boomsbeat.com
The research suggests that sustained warming throughout the decades has hindered a vital “mixing” process, common to lakes all over the world, that helps to spread nutrients and oxygen throughout the water. Typically, this process occurs when oxygen-rich water near the surface of a lake sinks down to deeper areas (a churn often aided by the wind), and nutrient-rich water rises up from the bottom to take its place.
The problem is that when the air temperature rises, it can cause water near the surface to heat up – and because warm water is less dense than cooler water, the differences in temperature between the surface and the bottom of the lake make it much more difficult for two to mix together. When this happens, some parts of the lake don’t receive enough oxygen while other parts don’t receive enough nutrients, and marine organisms in both areas suffer as a result.
This is the effect the research team believes has been occurring in Lake Tanganyika – which is a serious problem, given how important the lake is to nearby human communities.
Lake Tanganyika is one of Africa’s Great Lakes and the second largest freshwater lake in the world by volume. It’s also one of the oldest lakes in the world at about 10 million years in age, and it’s known for having some of the highest levels of endemic species, or organisms found nowhere else in the world.
Bordered by Tanzania, Burundi, Zambia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, it is a vital source of food in the region. The lake has been known to produce more than 200,000 tons of fish in a year, and it’s estimated that its yields may account for up to 60 percent of the animal protein consumed by humans in the region.
In recent decades, though, it’s become apparent that fish populations in the lake are not what they used to be. The question that’s been occupying scientists’ minds is what’s behind the declines. While experts have hypothesised that climate change has played a role, many researchers have also pointed to the pressure of commercial fishing – which took off in Lake Tanganyika in the mid-20th century – as a major culprit.
“There has been an ongoing debate between various scientific communities as to the relative importance of climate change and fishing pressure,” said Andrew Cohen, the new study’s lead author and a distinguished professor and expert in paleolimnology – the study of lake history using ancient sediments – at the University of Arizona.
The new study suggests that declines in the lake’s fish predate the onset of commercial fishing there, he said, meaning climate change was having a negative impact before overfishing ever became a concern.
The researchers demonstrated this effect by drawing sediment cores from various sites in the lake and analysing them in the lab. Certain chemical components of ancient sediments can reveal a lot about a region’s climate history – it’s a method that’s commonly used by climate scientists to determine how an area has changed over thousands of years.
The researchers were also able to use certain aspects of the sediment samples to determine how algae production – the foundation of the lake’s food chain – has changed over time. And they also examined the lake’s fossil record to see how fish and mollusk populations have grown or declined throughout the ages.
After constructing a history going back about 1,500 years, the researchers found that as the lake temperatures have risen, the fish and mollusk fossils have declined, suggesting warmer temperatures have been bad for the lake’s biodiversity. The results indicate this pattern has been particularly striking since the late 19th century, when the lake began to experience sustained warming.
In fact, the study suggests that the area of suitable habitat on the lake floor has shrunk by about 38 percent since the mid-20th century.
A reduction in the mixing of the water can be identified as “the fundamental problem that this lake is facing,” Cohen said. “And the decline in fishery is in large part a consequence of this climate change phenomenon.”
This is not to say that commercial fishing has played no role in recent declines, Cohen added. Since the middle of the 20th century, the two factors have likely been working together in concert. Rather, the new study confirms that climate change also is a major culprit – and has been for a much longer period of time.
Furthermore, the results serve as a kind of warning bell for the future, given that temperatures in the region will likely continue to warm in the coming decades. Future management of the lakes fisheries will need to account for the fact that fishing is not the only force placing pressure on fish populations, and that current levels of commercial fishing may already be unsustainable there.
Cohen cautioned that the effects observed in Lake Tanganyika don’t necessarily apply to lakes all over the world. In the Arctic, for instance, there’s some evidence to suggest that rising temperatures may actually increase productivity in some lakes.
And even in other tropical lakes, there are additional factors that need to be considered when making predictions about the future. It’s possible that an increase in a region’s windiness could help counteract a rise in temperature, since wind helps to mix up the water.
“We don’t have any evidence of that in the Tanganyika region,” Cohen added. “But the importance is we need to look at these big, deep lakes in the tropics on a case-by-case basis and think about all the types of climate processes.”
United Parcel Service (UPS), an international package delivery firm, on Monday in Atlanta, Georgia announced that it has achieved its goal of driving one billion miles in its alternative fuel and advanced technology fleet one year earlier than planned, and marked more than 10 years of learning from its “Rolling Laboratory.”
UPS Hybrid Electric Vehicle
According to the company, it’s commitment to sustainability is now transforming commercial transportation and logistics, spurring growth in the clean fuels market and powering critical engineering advances. The company’s wider sustainability progress is detailed in the 14th annual Sustainability Report, released on Monday.
“We had a big sustainability goal as we set out to make the most of our rolling laboratory by driving one billion clean miles in alternative fuel vehicles – that’s the equivalent of well over 4,000 trips to the moon,” said David Abney, Chairman and CEO, UPS. “While attaining this goal is new, our commitment to seeking out alternative fuels actually dates back to the 1930s when UPS tested electric vehicles. With more than 100,000 drivers logging more than 3 billion miles per year, our future depends on our ability to meet the growing demand for global trade while reducing our impact on the environment.”
UPS Cargo Cruiser
UPS, believed to be the world’s largest package delivery company, reportedly deepened its commitment to alternative fuels in 2012, when it set the goal of reaching one billion miles driven with alternative fuels by the end of 2017. Shattering that goal one year early, about 12 percent of the conventional diesel and gasoline fuel previously used by UPS’s ground fleet is now being replaced by alternative fuels including renewable natural gas and renewable diesel.
“The question wasn’t should we make alternative fuels work?” said Mike Whitlatch, UPS’s vice president of global energy and procurement. “Instead, it was ’What’s the best way to make alternative fuels work for UPS, and for the environment?’ After more than a decade of focus, we are now driving more than 1 million miles globally each business day in our alternative fuel and advanced technology fleet.”
UPS Propane Powered Package Car
Recognising alternative fuels and advanced technologies each have unique advantages depending on the routes and geographies in which they are used, UPS, it was gathered, deploys the more than 7,200 vehicles in the Rolling Lab to determine what works best in each situation. From old-fashioned pedal power and electric-assisted bicycles in dense urban areas like London and Hamburg to electric and hybrid electric vehicles in the U.S., and natural gas, renewable natural gas and propane globally, UPS is putting sustainability innovation into action, all over the world.
“Many congested cities around the world are implementing zero tailpipe emissions zones, and UPS is keeping ahead of the curve by investing in advanced technologies and creating the commercial delivery fleet of the future,” said Abney.
By the end of 2016, UPS, founded in 1907, will have invested more than $750 million in alternative fuel and advanced technology vehicles and fueling stations globally since 2009. That continued investment, combined with supportive government policies, and a collaborative set of partners has helped to expand development and utilisation of alternative fuels, vehicles and infrastructure throughout the world.
UPS Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Tractor
UPS disclosed in a statement that, along the way, it learned several lessons that can help other companies make sustainability investments that create long-term payoffs. It listed these to include:
Encourage innovation. What started out as an “approach” has become an ecosystem of innovation and progress shaped by collaboration with suppliers, policy makers and other stakeholders. UPS applied its expertise in logistics to the sustainability challenge and leveraged the scale of its 100,000 vehicle fleet to drive technology, market, and infrastructure improvements that make cleaner fuels and technologies economically viable.
Adapt and tailor the solution. The best solution is not always the perfect solution. The fuels and vehicles that work in one region or one setting may not make sense in another. Technology constraints, range, infrastructure availability, government policies and local air quality goals all play a role in determining vehicle deployment and fuel selection.
There’s no substitute for real-world big data. UPS is able to see 30,000 delivery route optimisations per minute through its On-Road Integrated Optimisation and Navigation (ORION) system, which uses fleet telematics and algorithms to reduce the number of miles driven. The application of this big data approach to the UPS Rolling Lab’s fleet has been a key enabler to improving performance and reducing costs. When fully implemented, ORION is expected to help UPS avoid 100 million miles driven every year, reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 100,000 metric tonnes annually, and avoid 10 million gallons of fuel per year.
It takes consistent, unwavering commitment from leadership. Long-term investments don’t always pay off in the short term. Economic and market forces are constantly changing, and the political environment that is necessary to foster investment and infrastructure development can be unpredictable. It took UPS more than a decade to reach a point where the accumulation of miles driven by its fleet was rising nearly exponentially. That wouldn’t have happened without a long-term commitment.
Partner, promote and report progress. Sharing progress and learnings with key stakeholders and partnering with alternative fuel and technology developers, non-profits, government agencies and industry trade groups have been critical to the Rolling Laboratory’s success. UPS reports its progress annually in its Sustainability Report, and includes key metrics such as CO2 emissions, energy consumption, and alternative fuel and advanced technology miles driven, among others. Together, these metrics demonstrate the positive impact of the company’s sustainability and social responsibility programmes.
Drinking water supplies serving more than six million Americans contain unsafe levels of a widely used class of industrial chemicals linked to potentially serious health problems, according to a new study from Harvard University researchers.
A drinking water well structure at Versluis Park in Plainfield Township, Mich. Utilities serving the area recently reported elevated levels of two potentially toxic industrial chemicals in both raw and treated water. Photo credit: Garret Ellison/The Grand Rapids Press via AP
The chemicals – known as polyfluoroalkyl and perfluoroalkyl substances, or PFASs – have been used for decades in a range of industrial and commercial products, including non-stick coatings on pans, food wrappers, water-repellent clothing and firefighting foam. Long-term exposure has been linked to increased risks of kidney cancer, thyroid problems, high cholesterol and hormone disruption, among other issues.
“Virtually all Americans are exposed to these compounds,” said Xindi Hu, the study’s lead author. “They never break down. Once they are released into the environment, they are there.”
As part of the study, which was published on Tuesday in Environmental Science & Technology Letters, the researchers examined concentrations of six types of PFAS chemicals in drinking water supplies around the country. The data came from more than 36,000 samples collected by the Environmental Protection Agency between 2013 and 2015.
They also looked at sites where the chemicals are commonly found – industrial plants that use them in manufacturing, military bases and civilian airports where fire-fighting foam is used and wastewater treatment plants.
What they found: 194 of 4,864 water supplies across nearly three dozen states had detectable levels of the chemicals. Sixty-six of those water supplies, serving about six million people, had at least one sample that exceeded the EPA’s recommended safety limit of 70 parts per trillion for two types of chemicals – perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA).
“It’s a big problem in a lot of communities,” said Richard Clapp, professor emeritus at Boston University’s school of public health. “It’s happening in a lot of places.”
From Decatur, Alabama State, to Merrimack, New Hampshire State, residents have been wrestling with high levels of the potentially harmful chemicals, and public officials have been scrambling to figure out how to prevent them from contaminating drinking water supplies.
The federal government does not currently regulate PFAS chemicals. But they are on the EPA’s list of “unregulated contaminants” that the agency monitors, with the goal of restricting those that most endanger public health. Partly because the rules that it must follow are complicated and contentious, officials have failed to successfully regulate any new contaminant in two decades.
Only once since the 1990s has the EPA come close to imposing a new standard – for perchlorate, a chemical that sometimes occurs naturally but also is found in explosives, road flares and rocket fuel. It has turned up in the drinking water of over 16 million people.
Joel Beauvais, who leads the EPA’s Office of Water, told the Post earlier this year that the system mandated by Congress demands the agency move deliberately. “It’s a rather intensive process to get one of these drinking-water regulations across the finish line,” he said.
There are reasons for that, Beauvais said at the time. A substance may occur in only a very small number of drinking-water systems or might occur only in extremely low levels. Before the EPA imposes new limitations on the nation’s water utilities, it has to prove that there is a meaningful opportunity to improve public health. “These are very consequential regulations,” Beauvais said. “They are consequential from a health perspective. They are consequential from an economic perspective.”
One of the agency’s approaches is to issue health advisories that can prompt state and local officials to take action or at least notify residents about contaminants. In May, it issued advisories for PFOS and PFOA, urging utilities around the country to follow more stringent guidelines than the EPA previously had recommended.
What they found: 194 of 4,864 water supplies across nearly three dozen states had detectable levels of the chemicals. Sixty-six of those water supplies, serving about six million people, had at least one sample that exceeded the EPA’s recommended safety limit of 70 parts per trillion for two types of chemicals – perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA).
“It’s a big problem in a lot of communities,” said Richard Clapp, professor emeritus at Boston University’s school of public health. “It’s happening in a lot of places.”
From Decatur, Ala., to Merrimack, N.H., residents have been wrestling with high levels of the potentially harmful chemicals, and public officials have been scrambling to figure out how to prevent them from contaminating drinking water supplies.
The federal government does not currently regulate PFAS chemicals. But they are on the EPA’s list of “unregulated contaminants” that the agency monitors, with the goal of restricting those that most endanger public health. Partly because the rules that it must follow are complicated and contentious, officials have failed to successfully regulate any new contaminant in two decades.
Only once since the 1990s has the EPA come close to imposing a new standard – or perchlorate, a chemical that sometimes occurs naturally but also is found in explosives, road flares and rocket fuel. It has turned up in the drinking water of over 16 million people.
Joel Beauvais, who leads the EPA’s Office of Water, told the Post earlier this year that the system mandated by Congress demands the agency move deliberately. “It’s a rather intensive process to get one of these drinking-water regulations across the finish line,” he said.
There are reasons for that, Beauvais said at the time. A substance may occur in only a very small number of drinking-water systems or might occur only in extremely low levels. Before the EPA imposes new limitations on the nation’s water utilities, it has to prove that there is a meaningful opportunity to improve public health. “These are very consequential regulations,” Beauvais said. “They are consequential from a health perspective. They are consequential from an economic perspective.”
One of the agency’s approaches is to issue health advisories that can prompt state and local officials to take action or at least notify residents about contaminants. In May, it issued advisories for PFOS and PFOA, urging utilities around the country to follow more stringent guidelines than the EPA previously had recommended.
Amid the pomp and circumstance of the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games last Friday, in between the fireworks and musical acts, the costumed performers and the camera shots of Gisele Bundchen dancing giddily alongside her fellow Brazilians in the crowd, came a more somber message.
The Opening Ceremony at the Rio 2016 Olympics Games centered on climate change and its effects. Photo credit: Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)
In primetime, with the world watching, Brazil showed a video focused on the problem of global warming and climate change. The video, narrated by Academy Award-winning actor Judi Dench, included maps and graphics showing how rapidly the earth’s temperature has spiked over time, how drastically the Antarctic ice sheet has wilted in recent decades and how steadily seas are rising around the globe.
This was not the stuff of celebration and joy, of gold medals and national pride, but rather a stark message about the challenges facing the planet and an unsubtle reminder that the countries of the world are inexorably linked in their fates.
Perhaps it was fitting that Brazil chose to raise awareness about climate change when the world was tuned into the opening moments of the Olympics. The country is home to about one-third of the world’s rainforests, and more than half the Amazon rainforest lies within its borders, according to Climate Central. Significant chunks of that land has been lost to deforestation, and drier, hotter weather is expected to stress the rainforests only more in coming years.
In addition, more frequent storms and heavy rains fueled by climate change could pose a threat to Rio’s already abysmal water quality. Not to mention, the changing environmental conditions could help accelerate outbreaks of mosquito-borne illnesses such as Zika, which have ravaged Brazil over the past year and led to serious birth defects in infants.
The climate change interlude of the opening ceremony ignited social media, winning praise from environmental advocates who welcomed the worldwide attention on the topic.
Not everyone was moved by the display, however, as some saw it as outright hypocrisy.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Monday in Buenos Aires urged Argentina and other large nations to ratify the Paris climate accord , even as Argentina’s foreign minister said she hoped the country would do so by the end of the year.
Argentine President Mauricio Macri (right) and Secretary General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon shake hands after delivering a joined statement at the Casa Rosada government house in Buenos Aires, Argentina on Monday August 8, 2016. Photo credit: Télam
In December 2015, some 195 countries reached an agreement in Paris that obligates states to take concrete measures to curb emissions that contribute to climate change. But the pact will not go into force until it is ratified by 55 countries representing 55 percent of global greenhouse emissions.
As of now, only 22 countries have done so, many of them small, vulnerable island nations that account for a negligible percentage of emissions.
Ban urged China and the United States, the world’s top two greenhouse gas emitters, to ratify the deal, and also pushed Argentina, Latin America’s third largest economy, to do the same.
“When we add up the two countries’ greenhouse gas emissions, it comes to almost 40 percent” of global emissions, Ban said of the United States and China.
“So 55 percent may not be difficult to achieve, and I urge Argentina to ratify as soon as possible.”
In response, Argentina’s foreign minister, Susana Malcorra, who is running to replace Ban as U.N. secretary-general, said the accord has already been approved by one chamber of Congress and she hopes Argentina will have it ratified by the next major U.N. climate summit in December.
At the event in Buenos Aires, Ban also thanked Argentina for a recent commitment to take in 3,000 refugees from various war-torn locations.
“This kind of solidarity, sign of humanity, should be emulated by many people around the world,” Ban said.
Following the threat of a repeat of the devastating 2012 flooding in the country, geographers have called on the authorities to urgently evacuate people living on flood plains to reduce possible loss of lives, should the great flood occur, as alerted by the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).
Correspondent Innocent Onoh brings the details in this report on ways of saving lives during flood disasters.
The recent streak of record-breaking temperatures has shown that climate change is not waiting for the world to take decisive action.
Sir John Odey (left), Mr Daouda Toure (middle) and Mrs Bahijjahtu Abubakar at a function last year: Climate change mitigation initiatives being undertaken by the Abuja-based RUWES Nigeria is helping to keep the earth’s warming under 1-5-degree
But the adoption of the Paris Agreement was a clear signal that the world is ready to take climate change seriously. 175 countries signed and 15 of these ratified the climate deal during the signing ceremony.
Now there is every indication the agreement could enter into force this year. Many countries, led by the two biggest emitters, China and the United States, have signaled their intent to ratify by the end of 2016, leaving just four countries and 1.72% of global emissions needed for it to become official.
There can be no doubt that the window of opportunity to limit global warming to below 1.5℃, a key target of the 2015 Paris agreement, is closing fast. But there are encouraging signs around the world that this can still be done, even if there is still a very long way to go. Here are three of the most positive developments that will help the world reach its target.
Green energy is getting cheaper
The costs of climate mitigation have decreased drastically. According to NREL’s Transparent Costs Database, wind energy costs in the US are now on a par with coal-fired power.
In May 2016 the price of photovoltaic (PV) energy fell to less than three US cents a kilowatt at an auction in Dubai. Even in not-so-sunny Germany, solar energy costs have been decreasing steadily: in a recent auction December 2015, prices fell to eight euro cents per kilowatt hour.
We can expect further cost decreases in the coming years. According to a recent report, by the end of the decade, the cost of onshore wind should decrease by a quarter, off-shore wind by a third and photovoltaics by almost two-thirds. By the mid-2020s, solar PV and onshore wind should cost 5 or 6 US cents per kilowatt hour on average. This is significantly below the cost of energy from nuclear and coal.
As a result of decreasing costs and additional benefits, investment in renewables exploded in 2015 despite low oil prices. Meanwhile, renewable energy investment reached a record $286 billion, generating 152 gigawatts of new capacity. This is more than the combined installed capacity from all sources for the whole African continent.
Carbon dioxide emissions have stopped rising
In 2014 and 2015, the CO₂ emissions from the energy sector stalled despite the global economy growing by 3%. According to the International Energy Agency, in 2014, emissions increased by less than 0.2% and by only 0.03% last year.
BP’s estimates for both years were slightly higher, (0.5% in 2014 and 0.1% in 2015), but that was a significant change of trend compared to the average annual emission growth of around 2.6% over the past decade.
The major factor in this flattening trend was a fall in emissions of the two biggest emitters: China and the United States. In China, despite an increase in power consumption by 3%, power generation from fossil fuels decreased by 2%. This led emissions to fall by 1.5% last year. In the United States, emissions decreased by 2% despite healthy economic growth.
Meanwhile, developing countries are taking advantage of the significant fall in the costs of renewables. While India’s emissions grew by over 5% last year, the second most populous country in the world has embarked on one of the fastest renewable expansion programmes anywhere on the planet.
At the same time, India is taking steps to curb coal investments. The choice between renewables and coal in India might be the most important factor when it comes to global efforts to reduce emissions.
Green jobs are good for the economy
Every major transition is accompanied by fears of job losses. But the positive economic impacts of new technologies are given less attention. In 2014, more than 7.7 million people worked in the renewables sector, excluding large hydropower plants. A third of these jobs were in the photovoltaic sector, and an additional one million were employed in wind power – technologies which barely existed two decades ago.
Another report, shows that doubling the share of renewables in the energy mix by 2030 would triple the number of jobs in the sector and increase global GDP by 1.1%. That’s the equivalent to US $1.3 trillion. In 2016, India plans to roll out 30 million solar irrigation pumps, which would have significant economic and sustainable development benefits for farmers, saving US$3 billion per year on subsidies.
The funds required for this transition could be partly covered by savings from removing fossil fuel subsidies. The IMF has found that elimination of post-tax subsidies in 2015 would have increased government revenues by US$2.9 trillion and significantly reduced environmental and social impacts of fossil fuels.
The ingredients for transforming energy systems and decarbonising the economy are already there. We are deploying more technologies that can peak emissions and accelerate their decrease.
To speed up this transformation, governments must adopt policies that ensure investments in renewable energy are secure and provide clear signposts for everyone participating in the process of decarbonisation.
Political leadership now is fundamental to prevent a slide-back to coal, and to stand up to vested interests, while providing finance and technology to the regions that need it most.
President Muhammadu Buhari has appointed a former commissioner in Lagos State, Wale Edun, as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Ogoni clean-up project.
Nnimmo Bassey, Director, Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), is part of the 12-member Ogoni clean-up Board of Trustees. He was picked to represent non-governmental organisations on the BoT
The 12-member BoT was inaugurated last Thursday by Mr. President, alongside a 13-member Governing Council for the clean-up.
Mr. Edun was Commissioner for Finance in Lagos when the leader of the All Progressives Congress, Bola Tinubu, was governor of the state.
Ibrahim Jibril, the Minister of State for Environment; Kemi Adeosun, the Minister of Finance; and Ibe Kachikwu, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources/NNPC chairman are also members of the BoT.
Renowned environmentalist and activist, Nnimmo Bassey, is also a member of the BoT. He was picked to represent non-governmental organisations on the board.
Other trustees are: Peter Medee and Bebe Okpabi, representing Ogoni stakeholders; Nicholas Terraz, Insula Massimo and Osagie Okunbor, representing the multinationals being Shell Petroleum Development Company, Agip and Total; and, Mike Emuh, the National chairman of Host Communities of Nigeria Producing Oil and Gas (HOSCOM), representing other communities in the Niger Delta.
A slot has been reserved for a yet-to-be named United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) observer, while the Secretary and HYPREP (Hydro-Carbon Pollution Restoration Project) Legal Adviser is to be appointed by the Governing Council.
Chaired by Environment Minister, Amina Mohammed, the 13-member Governing Council comprises: Ibe Kachikwu, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources/NNPC chairman; Udo Udoma, Minister of Budget and Planning; Usani Usani, Minister of Niger Delta Affairs; Major General Babangida Monguro (Rtd), National Security Adviser; Nisima Ekere, Managing Director (designate), Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC); and, Osagie Okunbor, Managing Director, Shell Petroleum and Development Company (SPDC).
Others are Anyakwee Nsirimovu (IHRHL), representing non-governmental organisations; Roselyn Konya (a commissioner in River State), representing nine oil producing states; Pyagbara Legborsi, Ben Naneen, Batam Ndegwe and Kammy Ngelala, who are representatives of Ogoni Stakeholders; Timi Agari and Pamela Asiri, who are representatives of other Niger Delta communities; and, a slot for a yet-to-be named UNEP observer.
