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Rachel Kyte succeeds Kandeh Yumkella as head of SE4All

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Rachel Kyte succeeds Kandeh Yumkella as head of SE4All

Rachel Kyte has been selected as Chief Executive Officer of the Sustainable Energy for All (SE4All) initiative, Charles O. Holliday, Jr., Chair of the Executive Committee of SE4All, has announced. Ms. Kyte currently serves as the World Bank Group’s Vice President and Special Envoy for Climate Change. Her appointment is effective 1 January 2016.

Rachel Kyte
Rachel Kyte

Ms. Kyte will succeed Dr. Kandeh K. Yumkella, who served as SE4All CEO and Special Representative of the Secretary-General from its inception, and who has guided the development of the initiative. Earlier this year, Dr. Yumkella announced his resignation, to return home to Sierra Leone.

Ms. Kyte’s selection – the result of a global search that considered more than 100 candidates – comes at a time of transition for SE4All. The programme, which commenced as an initiative of the UN Secretary-General, is transitioning to a new institutional structure that will be spearheaded by an international not-for-profit organization headquartered in Vienna, Austria. The new structure is designed to allow business and civil society to take part in setting the direction of the initiative, while remaining closely linked to government partners – developing and developed countries alike.

The new Sustainable Energy for All Partnership will have close ties to the UN through a relationship agreement, and through the co-chairmanship of its Advisory Board, by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon together with the President of the World Bank Group, Jim Yong Kim. The Secretary-General will also appoint Ms. Kyte as his Special Representative for Sustainable Energy for All, supported by a team in the UN, to further grow SE4All as a global movement together with the not-for-profit organisation.

“At a time of institutional change, when the mandate and mission of the new Sustainable Energy for All Partnership is being defined, we concluded that institutional knowledge, experience, and ability to operate at the highest levels of the multilateral system will be among the most important attributes of SE4All’s first leader under the new structure. Our new CEO will face a challenging set of responsibilities: with limited resources and a novel institutional structure, to inspire a global movement; implement an ambitious agenda of action; and navigate a complex political landscape of partners from government, business, and civil society, North and South, to persuade them to pool their individual efforts into creating something bigger and better than what has gone before. We could not have a better candidate than Rachel Kyte,” said Mr. Holliday, who is also the Non-Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors of Royal Dutch Shell plc.

Dr. Kandeh K. Yumkella
Dr. Kandeh K. Yumkella

Dr. Yumkella welcomed Ms. Kyte’s selection, saying, “Rachel is a strong and persuasive advocate who knows where we are and where we want to go. She led the World Bank’s endorsement of Sustainable Energy for All as its own energy strategy, and she is passionate about achieving concrete progress on the ground. She can lead us to new levels of engagement with the financial sector to deliver on those ambitions.”

Ms. Kyte, a longtime advocate for sustainable development, currently oversees work on climate change adaptation, mitigation, climate finance, and disaster risk and resilience across the institutions of the World Bank Group. The climate group is focused on ensuring that all Bank Group operations integrate climate change and take into account the opportunities presented by inclusive green growth. She previously served as World Bank vice president for sustainable development and was the International Finance Corporation’s vice president for business advisory services and a member of the IFC’s management team. She is a professor of practice in sustainable development at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. She holds a master’s degree in international relations from Tufts University, and a bachelor’s degree in history and politics from the University of London.

In September 2011, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon launched SE4All as a global initiative to mobilise action to achieve three goals by 2030: ensuring universal access to modern energy services; doubling the global rate of improvement in energy efficiency; and doubling the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix.

Some 1.1 billion people worldwide still have no access to electricity, and nearly three billion rely on dangerous and polluting traditional fuels such as wood, charcoal and dung to cook and heat their homes. At the same time, extensive energy use, especially in high-income countries, creates pollution, emits greenhouse gases and depletes non-renewable fossil fuels.

The UN General Assembly declared 2014-2024 as the UN Decade of Sustainable Energy for All and is poised in September to approve “Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all” as one of the world’s new Sustainable Development Goals. Billions of dollars have already been mobilised for SE4All in commitments from governments and businesses.

Fatalities as fire guts plaza in Lagos Balogun Market

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Fatalities as fire guts plaza in Lagos Balogun Market

Several people were feared dead and others injured when a six-storey plaza in the heart of the popular Balogun Market in Lagos State was gutted by fire on Thursday.

The scene of the incident
The scene of the incident

The News Agency of Nigerian (NAN) reports that the plaza is surrounded by several important businesses, which include Union Bank, Diamond Bank and the United Bank for Africa.

NAN also observed that the plaza, which was being used as a wholesale and retail outlet for shoes and bags, is directly beside and attached to the Union Bank building.

NAN investigations revealed that the fire started at about 9am and was battled by a team of combined fire fighters from the Union Bank and UBA before the arrival of the Lagos State Fire Service.

Some eyewitnesses, who spoke to NAN, said some people who jumped out from various floors of the burning plaza to escape the fire were carried away dead.

Mallam Hamza Abdullahi, a trader in the market, told NAN that he saw three dead bodies and five people who were wounded.

Abdullahi said: “People were shouting and jumping down from upstairs. I saw a woman dead with her skull open.”
Florence Adewunmi, a staff of the Lagos State Ambulance Mobile Intensive Care Service, stationed at the scene, told NAN that some victims had been stabilised and transferred to hospital.

Adewunmi said: “There are several casualties. We got a distress call at about 10am that there was fire outbreak at Balogun behind UBA. We proceeded here and learnt that they have rushed some people to General Hospital, Lagos but we met some casualties on ground.

“The patients jumped from the second, third and fourth floors and had fractures and various degrees of injuries. There were those that inhaled too much smoke so we gave some oxygen, some Dyclofenac injection. We treated ankle dislocations. We sutured deep cuts before carrying them to General Hospital, Lagos. So far, we have carried six people to hospital and discharged four after treatment.”

One of shop owners, who deals in female shoes, Nonso Christian, told NAN that he came to the plaza at 10am and met it on fire.

Christian said: “I met the plaza on fire and I tried to go in to bring out my goods but I couldn’t because the fire is too much. My shop is on the second floor and I just re-stocked on Monday. I don’t know what to do because the second floor is still on fire.”

Several other shop owners, who were wailing while watching the fire, declined comment.

One of them simply said: “We are sad. This hard economy, where do I start from?”

A security man attached to Union Bank, Umoru Monday, told NAN that the fire started a few minutes before 9am.

Monday said: “The Union Bank Fire Service came around and started pushing the fire back so that it would not enter the bank and later the fire fighters from UBA came to assist them before the Lagos State Fire Service came.”

An official of the Lagos State Fire Service carrying a cylinder on his back into the burning plaza declined comment.

He told NAN that senior officers of the service who could speak to press were attacking the fire on various floors.

He said: “I cannot tell you anything. Our fire boss is up in that burning building now and our main aim is to put the fire out. We are attacking it on various floors.”

NAN reports that a lone Policeman battled to keep spectators away, while security men of Diamond Bank situated beside Union Bank turned their customers away.

Arctic peoples overlooked as forum thaws climate discussions

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Arctic peoples overlooked as forum thaws climate discussions

Are climate discussions ignoring the self-determination of Arctic peoples?

On August 30-31, President Barak Obama traveled to Alaska to address the U.S. State Department’s conference on Global Leadership in the Arctic: Cooperation, Innovation, Engagement and Resilience (GLACIER), highlighting international and domestic priorities in the region. However, as politicians and activists seek to tackle the climate change challenges of the far North – rather than taking bold steps to curb emissions in other, more-consumptive regions of the world – the autonomy of Arctic peoples may be threatened.

President Barak Obama of the United States at the GLACIER conference. Photo credit: haveeru.com.mv
President Barak Obama of the United States at the GLACIER conference. Photo credit: haveeru.com.mv

GLACIER aimed to consolidate support for an ambitious joint commitment at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change meeting (COP21) that will take place this December in Paris. Among the conference guests were the foreign ministers of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, South Korea and the Netherlands, as well as President Obama, the first sitting president to visit the Alaskan Arctic. President Obama’s speech at GLACIER was perhaps the highest-profile one to date on climate change, and he used strong language about the need to grow clean-energy economies and reduce carbon pollution.

Discussions on a warming Arctic have been wrapped in debate over whether the president should allow drilling off the northern coast of Alaska. The “Arctic Paradox” – the expansion of available fossil fuels in the Arctic due to ice melt triggered by the burning of fossil fuels – has made the region an important battleground in the war against climate change.

“Northerners are being asked to disproportionately bear the burden of mitigating climate change, even as they disproportionately bear the burden of adapting to those changes,” writes contributing author Heather Exner-Pirot in Worldwatch’s State of the World 2015: Confronting Hidden Threats to Sustainability.

Heather Exner-Pirot. Photo credit: Twitter
Heather Exner-Pirot. Photo credit: Twitter

The rural regions of the Arctic have among the lowest human development outcomes in the developed world. Resource extraction in the region is seen by some Northerners as a way to provide much-needed livelihoods, revenues to fund public goods, and progress in achieving indigenous self-sufficiency. Yet Southern powers perceive such extractive activity in the Arctic as particularly harmful and dangerous for the climate, and many Southerners are calling for moratoriums, bans, or heavy regulatory burdens on resource exploitation in the far North.

“Imagine how hypocritical and arbitrary this sounds to Northerners, who see oil production continuing unabated and uncontested in the rest of the world, including the lower 48 states, where so many of the carbon emissions that have contributed to climate change have arisen,” says Exner-Pirot. “It would be far more constructive for [politicians] to work on reducing fossil fuel use in their own regions, rather than seeking to manage the consequences of this energy use in others.”

With melting ice and thawing permafrost, the Arctic is experiencing some of the greatest regional warming on Earth, and Northerners have the greatest stake in good environmental stewardship of the region. Progress has been made to restore self-determination to Northerners and indigenous peoples whose values and goals may differ from those of central governments.

“The Arctic is a homeland, and its inhabitants have fought hard in the past four decades to regain control over its governance, only to see it recast as a global commons,” says Exner-Pirot. “GLACIER sent a powerful message about climate change, but it also sent a message that America’s interest in its Arctic may not recognise voices of the Northernmost peoples.”

Worldwatch’s State of the World 2015 investigates hidden threats to sustainability, including economic, political, and environmental challenges that are often under-reported in the media. State of the World 2015 highlights the need to develop resilience to looming shocks.

Shell, Total, other fossil fuel majors call for global climate deal

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Shell, Total, other fossil fuel majors call for global climate deal

Disclosures from thousands of the world’s largest listed companies reveal that many of the most significant producers of fossil fuels support an international deal that will limit warming to 2 degrees as an outcome of the UN climate conference, COP21.

CDP’s executive chairman Paul Dickinson. Photo credit: www.greenbiz.com
CDP’s executive chairman Paul Dickinson. Photo credit: www.greenbiz.com

The news comes as the United Nations is this week negotiating draft text in preparation for a legally binding plan to combat climate change. Countries are currently submitting their proposed contributions towards achieving this plan.

More than 2,000 listed companies have submitted climate change information to CDP, the global system for disclosure on climate, forests and water. CDP is the only organisation acting on behalf of investors to ask companies:

“Would your organisation’s board of directors support an international agreement between governments on climate change, which seeks to limit global temperature rise to under 2 degrees Celsius from pre-industrial levels in line with IPCC scenarios such as RCP2.6?”

Amongst the companies asked are 28 of the largest (by market capitalisation) energy firms, who together account for more than a quarter (26%) of global greenhouse gas emissions.

Despite widespread consensus that a significant amount of fossil fuel reserves will have to remain in the ground if dangerous climate change is to be avoided, none of these carbon majors answered “no” in response to the question.

In fact, a majority (13) of the heavy emitters state their board backs a global agreement. These include Russia’s Gazprom, the single biggest emitter of greenhouse gases among these carbon majors, and the US’s ConocoPhillips. Notable also are the Netherland’s Royal Dutch Shell and France’s Total.

Eight report that they have no opinion on the matter and the remaining seven did not answer the question, which suggests either a lack of clarity around the official board position on the issue or that some companies are not treating the imminent COP21 with the necessary strategic priority.

Looking beyond this significant energy sub sector, CDP data shows that companies that have formulated an opinion on a global climate deal are overwhelmingly in support: 806 companies answer yes versus 111 that said no. A high number of companies (1,075) state that they have no opinion and 330 did not answer the question.

CDP’s executive chairman Paul Dickinson says: “It is time for governments to listen to the business voice in support of climate progress rather than to be influenced by a minority and downgrade environmental priorities. Companies are telling us – and their investors – that they welcome climate action, which brings prosperity and growth.”

Supportive companies often reference their market leadership through technological innovation as a reason for the board’s support of a climate deal, particularly in the industrial and consumer discretionary sectors. The financial sector shows a preference for a stable investment environment and its role in assisting with financing climate change initiatives. This suggests that business growth and economic stability are key drivers of support for clear policy and climate progress.

Paul Dickinson concludes: “Huge opportunities to be part of the solution, build resilience and gain competitive advantage are on the table for companies right now. Decarbonisation is essential for the long-term sustainability of the global economy. Businesses that commit to reduce their emissions in line with what science demands, adopt renewable energy and innovate at this critical time will reap the gains. Corporations, investors and governments can cooperate to ensure a successful Paris agreement that brings net zero greenhouse gas emissions well before the end of the century ensuring sustainable growth for all.”

The 28 carbon majors
List of those that disclosed publicly and their response.

Anadarko Petroleum Corporation USA Blank
Anglo American UK Yes
Apache Corporation USA No opinion
BG Group UK Yes
BHP Billiton UK Yes
BP UK Blank
Chevron Corporation USA No opinion
China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation China Non public disclosure
ConocoPhillips USA Yes
Devon Energy Corporation USA No opinion
Ecopetrol Sa Colombia No opinion
Eni SpA Italy Yes
Exxon Mobil Corporation USA Blank
Gazprom OAO Russia Yes
Glencore plc Switzerland No opinion
Hess Corporation USA No opinion
Lukoil Russia Non public disclosure
Occidental Petroleum Corporation USA No opinion
PETROCHINA Company Limited China Non public disclosure
Petróleo Brasileiro SA – Petrobras Brazil Blank
Repsol Spain Yes
Rio Tinto UK No opinion
Royal Dutch Shell Netherlands Yes
RWE AG Germany Blank
Sasol Limited South Africa Yes
Statoil ASA Norway Yes
Suncor Energy Inc. Canada Blank
Total France Yes

Ogun warns against unauthorised sale of its land

Michael Simire
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Ogun warns against unauthorised sale of its land

The Ogun State Housing Corporation has warned members of the public to desist from unauthorised buying and selling of its landed properties or putting up buildings on any of its estates without approval.

Ibikunle Amosun, Governor of Ogun State. Photo credit: premiumtimesng.com
Ibikunle Amosun, Governor of Ogun State. Photo credit: premiumtimesng.com

The Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Corporation, Mr Akindipupo Enilolobo, who gave the note of warning, said that the development became necessary to put an end to the increasing cases of encroachment on its estates and lands across the state, saying that the Corporation would not hesitate to use maximum force which may lead to demolition to reclaim its land.

Enilolobo, therefore, enjoined the public to be careful when buying landed properties on any of the Corporation’s estates to avoid loss of money invested in acquiring such properties.

“The rate at which some unscrupulous individuals enter into government-owned lands and estates and sell the plots on such lands to unsuspecting members of the public under the cover that the land has been released to the community by one administration or the other, has become very worrisome for the authorities of the Corporation. Most of such claims which are not verifiable or gazetted are used to deceive people who themselves are looking for cheap plots for development of residential homes and business,” he said.

Enilolobo explained that most of such plots that were sold illegally were already allocated to some clients of the Corporation, only for them to get to their plots and find a building on them. He emphasised that the Corporation would have no choice than to demolish such illegal structures to reclaim the plots for the original allottees.

He maintained that the Corporation would neither do ratification nor compensate anyone for losses incurred in any illegal transaction involving lands and properties of the Housing Corporation, as usually promised by unauthorised sellers to illegal buyers that government would effect ratification.

How renewable energy can save Chilean lives, create jobs, by study

Michael Simire
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How renewable energy can save Chilean lives, create jobs, by study

A new study has been launched by the Chilean Citizens’ Committee on Climate Change showing that, by switching to 100% renewable energy by 2050, the country could: avoid spending $5.3 billion a year on fossil fuels, save 1,500 lives a year due to reduced air-pollution in Santiago alone, and create 11,000 green jobs.

Santiago, Chile
Santiago, Chile

The study, conducted by the NewClimate Institute, is one of a series of reports demonstrating the significant benefits to Chile and other countries – including the U.S., China, Japan, Australia, and the European Union – if they get on track to achieve 100% renewable energy by 2050.

The reports assess the benefits delivered in terms of lives and money saved, and jobs created by their proposed climate action commitments – also known as Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) – and what more they stand to gain if they boosted their efforts in line with a fossil fuel phase out.  

In December 2014 Chile announced its intention to contribute to international efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions ahead of the upcoming climate change negotiations taking place in Paris this December, where a new global agreement to tackle climate change is due to be forged. Currently, Chile’s most ambitious proposal under discussion within the government aims to reduce national greenhouse gas emissions 40-45% by 2030.

A view of the Chilean capital under a heavy layer of smog. Photo credit: Reuters
A view of the Chilean capital under a heavy layer of smog. Photo credit: Reuters

However, for the Citizens’ Committee on Climate Change – a diverse national coalition of environmental organisations – this proposal is inadequate and will not achieve the transition that is needed. “The ambition of Chile’s government is insufficient compared to that of other countries in the OECD. It ignores all of the work that will be needed in the coming decades for us to adapt to climate change, particularly considering Chile has been categorised as extremely vulnerable to climate change impacts,” says Matthias Asun of Greenpeace and a member of Committee.

Through the nationwide “MAPS project” (Mitigation Actions Plans and Scenarios) the government calculated a range of models for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 2020, 2030 and 2050 respectively – none of those models set Chile on the path to achieving 100% renewables by 2050 and therefore would fail to deliver the associated benefits outlined above.

If Chile committed to achieving 100% renewable energy by 2050, a NewClimate Institute report found:

  • Additional savings of $2.4 billion dollars related to the decrease in fossil fuel imports, for a total savings of $5.3 billion annually, including the $2.9 billion the country would save if it pursues the most ambitious plan presented so far.
  • Avoid an additional 800 premature air-pollution related deaths each year, for a total of 1,500 lives that could be saved annually.
  • Create 4,000 additional green jobs in the renewable energy sector, on top of the 7,000 jobs that would already be created by implementing the most ambitious mitigation plan. This would signify the creation of 11,000 new jobs.

According to experts in Chile, the government’s proposed MAPS models neglect the global requirements established by the international scientific community, since none of the scenarios put forth by the MAPS project would be allow Chile to meet its obligations as part of the global effort to avoid a global rise in temperatures 2ºC above preindustrial levels and limit catastrophic consequences.

Considering the above, and the approval process which the Council of Ministers for Sustainability and Climate Change must now follow for the proposed INDC, the Citizens’ Committee on Climate Change calls upon the Minister of the Environment, Pablo Badenier, to push for raising Chile’s ambitions towards a truly transformative process for transitioning energy generation away from dirty and outdated fossil sources and towards a green, renewable and low-impact environmental one based on sources like solar and wind.

“With the resources that Chile could save each year, we could be funding half of Chile’s new education reform package or investing in more and better sources of renewable energy,” says Karen Pradenas of Fundación Decide and a member of the Committee.

Going further, Javiera Valencia of Fundación Terram and likewise a Committee member, says “This study shows that we are jeopardising lives and wasting financial resources and jobs, simply because Chile is unwilling to make the effort which both the country and the planet need on climate change. Chile emits a small amount of greenhouse gases, but our carbon footprint per capita is approaching France’s, for example. The developed countries are tending to reduce their emissions while we are increasing ours.”

IUCN begins countdown to global conservation summit

Michael Simire
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IUCN begins countdown to global conservation summit

The IUCN World Conservation Congress 2016 is scheduled to take place 1-10 September in Honolulu, Hawaii, USA

Hawaii
Hawaii

Monday, September 1, 2015 marks one year to the opening of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) World Conservation Congress 2016, which the organisation describes as the world’s largest and most inclusive environmental decision-making forum that will define the future path for nature conservation.

The IUCN Congress will be held under the theme ‘Planet at the crossroads’, emphasising that nature conservation and human progress are not a zero-sum game, and that credible and accessible choices exist that can promote general welfare while supporting and enhancing our planet’s natural assets.

“The world is facing a rapidly closing window – our planet is at the crossroads,” says Inger Andersen, IUCN Director General. “The path we choose today will define nature’s ability to support us as a species during our lifetimes and for generations to come. The IUCN World Conservation Congress is a forum of dialogue and decision which will help us determine that path.”

With the adoption of the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) later this month and momentum building towards a global agreement to tackle climate change in Paris this December, the world is setting an ambitious agenda for addressing fundamental social and environmental global challenges. The IUCN Congress will guide the efforts of IUCN’s almost 1,300 member organisations – some of the most influential players on the environmental scene – including over 200 government members, in support of these global ambitions.

Held every four years, the IUCN World Conservation Congress gathers between 6,000 and 8,000 delegates from around the world, including world leaders and representatives from governments, science, academia, Indigenous peoples groups, businesses and conservation.

This will be the first time the IUCN Congress will be hosted by the USA, having received strong endorsement from US President Barack Obama.

The IUCN Congress will include a unique global environmental parliament session – the Members’ Assembly – where IUCN’s member organisations will identify the most significant concerns and trends in conservation and guide IUCN’s work for the coming years. The Members’ Assembly will be preceded by a hub of public debate – the Forum – which will bring together people from all walks of life to discuss the world’s most pressing conservation and sustainability challenges.

The Members’ Assembly has produced policy for the most important global conservation treaties and initiatives over the past 68 years. These include the World Heritage Convention, the Ramsar Convention, the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).

Participants of previous IUCN Congresses include His Serene Highness Prince Albert II of Monaco, UN Foundation Chairman Ted Turner, UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner, and Ocean Elder and marine conservation champion Dr Sylvia Earle.

IUCN is the world’s oldest and largest global environmental organisation, with almost 1,300 government and NGO members and more than 15,000 volunteer experts in 185 countries.

‘Nigeria must not miss 2017 Polio-free certification’

Michael Simire
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‘Nigeria must not miss 2017 Polio-free certification’

President Muhammadu Buhari has warned that he will not tolerate any gap that might prevent Nigeria being certified polio-free by World Health Organisation (WHO) by the year 2017.

Muhammadu Buhari, President of Nigeria
Muhammadu Buhari, President of Nigeria

He has, therefore, ordered the relevant agencies in the country to increase tempo of the fight against the polio virus nationwide.

He gave the directive at the Council Chamber of the State House, Abuja while receiving polio high level advocacy team.

The Permanent Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Health, Linus Awute‎, told State House correspondents at the end of the closed-door meeting: “The President directed us to sustain the tempo that has led us thus far after 17 years and how to do that is clearly developed in the template upon which we are going to work in collaboration with the state governors.

“As it is now there is no polio in our country but then we still need to monitor that throughout a period of two years.

“That is why we need to intensify routine immunisation, ensuring that there is no leakage, no gap until 2017 when we shall be certified a polio free country having arrested the transmission for upward of one year plus”.

Awute‎ said there is need to interface and make further pronouncements that would boost the gains so far recorded in polio eradication in the country.

“In doing that, the stakeholders are required and that is why a strong advocacy group, a high level advocacy group that happens to be the pillar and foundation of this tremendous efforts was led down here to interface with President.

“We also needed that one to happen at the instance of the governors of the 11 states where polio before now was endemic.

“So the gains of it is that we have a consensus on what we must or must not do to be able to cherish the gains that we have made”, he said.

Katsina State Governor, Bello Masari, told reporters that all the governors have given President Buhari their commitments to support eradication of polio and other communicable diseases.

According to him, religious barriers and other factors that used to hinder the progress of the immunization programme have been removed.

“The problem came from some religious misconception, misunderstanding of the polio and now we are very lucky entirely the Ulamas, the religious leaders have accepted the fact that this is a preventable disease and curative.

“So really I think we don’t have those trailblazer and religious encumbrances that hindered the progress of the immunization programme before and there is commitment on the part of religious leaders and traditional leaders, community leaders that really accounted for what you have seen that the last reported cases of immunization in this country is over 13 months, in some states over 33 months,” he said

Bauchi State Governor, Mohammed Abubakar, on his part, said that Bauchi has recorded 24 months of non-prevalence and 34 months for the vaccine-induced polio.

“Mr. President has taken charge of the fight towards eradication of polio and he has invited the states that are considered as vulnerable so that he would solicit our buying-in to this renewed eradication of polio,” he added.

WHO Representative in Nigeria, Dr. Rui Gama Vaz, applauded Buhari’s commitment to eradicate polio from Nigeria by 2017.

“He has requested the executive governors to ensure they take the lead. He emphasized on the importance of bottom-top approach, starting from the ward level up to the federal level.

“He also highlighted the importance to use the polio to strengthen all health systems in the country,” he said.

Flood waters from Kiri Dam submerge seven Adamawa communities

Michael Simire
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Flood waters from Kiri Dam submerge seven Adamawa communities

Seven communities in five local government areas of Adamawa were submerged as flood waters from Kiri Dam in Guyuk Local Government Area, swept through the state.

AdamawaAlhaji Haruna Furo, the Executive Secretary, Adamawa State Emergency Management Agency (ADSEMA), announced this when he spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Yola on Monday.

Already, NAN gathered that the Marine branch of the State Police Command and other similar agencies have been mobilised to commence rescue operation.

The dam, from the Gongola River, is about 30 kilometres in length and 15 kilometres in width.

“A report reaching us is that the flood had trapped several communities in Guyuk, Shelleng and Lamurde local government areas. More is needed to be done to rescue the communities.”

He said that there was still no report of death but many houses and farm lands had already been destroyed by the flood in the areas.

Furo said that already the agency had established some rescue camps for the affected victims in Borong in Demsa and Numan.

He said that the agency had also held an emergency meeting with Police Marine and other appropriate agencies for quick response mission.

Furo said that the aim of the joint meeting was to brief all authorities concerned on how to rescue the communities.

He said that there was need for all agencies concerned to unite to give their maximum contribution for the rescue mission.

“Among the agencies at the meeting included the police, Customs and Immigration marines and the State Fire Service.

He said the state government would do all it could to help repair the speed boats of the police marine for the rescue mission.

In his remark at the emergency meeting, ASP Gajere Raynan, the Head of Adamawa Police Marine Unit, said that the unit was ready to render its services in rescuing the affected communities.

Gajere urged the state government to provide speed boats for the mission.

He said that out of the 21 local government areas of the state, seven were directly on the bank of River Benue while two were beside the dam.

When contacted, Alhaji Sa’ad Bello, the State Coordinator, NEMA, said that the agency had contacted its headquarters over the flood.

UN Bonn climate talks: Momentum for action reaches new heights

Michael Simire
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UN Bonn climate talks: Momentum for action reaches new heights

A week-long UN climate negotiations began on Monday in Bonn, Germany as negotiators continue to make progress before meeting in in Paris in December to finalise a comprehensive and universal climate agreement. This agreement should protect people from climate risks and signal the end of the fossil fuel era.

Tasneem Essop of the WWF
Tasneem Essop of the WWF

On the opening of the talks, members of the Climate Action Network (CAN) commented on expectations from the gathering.  The CAN is a global network of over 900 NGOs working to promote government and individual action to limit human-induced climate change to ecologically sustainable levels.

Tasneem Essop, WWF: “Political momentum building outside the climate negotiations is putting pressure for greater progress inside the climate talks. All the efforts of people – through the declarations, mobilisations and actions – must translate into a meaningful deal being agreed in Paris. And while the UNFCCC is one but site of struggle for climate justice, it is an important one. We need to capitalise on the Paris moment to reflect the urgency and secure a climate-safe future.”

Martin Kaiser, Greenpeace: “It has long been clear that the submitted and expected INDCs won’t add up to the level of commitment needed to prevent catastrophic global warming. As a result, the agreement in Paris needs to be structured to scale up action. Key to this acceleration of ambition are commitments made every five years towards a long-term goal on mitigation. That goal needs to lead to a phase out of fossil fuels and deliver 100% renewable energy by mid-century.”

Alix Mazounie, RAC France: “Finance is one of the core missing pieces from the draft agreement here in Bonn. The silence around financial commitments after 2020 is deafening, and the growing public finance gap in the existing commitments is not sending the political signal that developing countries need. Developed countries must understand that accounting tricks alone and political declarations will not solve the bigger climate finance issue. Even French President François Hollande, host of the talks in December, has acknowledged that climate finance is key to any agreement in Paris. The recipe for predictable public finance, particularly when it comes to adaptation needs, needs to be established in the core agreement. The nuts and bolts may come later, but the principles need to be anchored by December.” 

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