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Why Nigeria will submit climate action plan in September

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Why Nigeria will submit climate action plan in September

The Federal Government said in Abuja on Thursday, July 2, 2015 that its Intended Nationally-Determined Contributions (INDCs) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) would be submitted in September. Dr Samuel Adejuwon, the Director, Climate Change Department, Federal Ministry of Environment, who made this disclosure, said that Nigeria was taking its time to develop solid INDCs that would help address the impact of climate change without jeopardising its quest for development.

Dr Samuel Adejuwon, Director, Climate Change Department (CCD), Federal Ministry of Environment (FMoE) (right) with Peter Tarfa, Deputy Director at the CCD, at COP 20 in Lima, Peru
Dr Samuel Adejuwon, Director, Climate Change Department (CCD), Federal Ministry of Environment (FMoE) (right) with Peter Tarfa, Deputy Director at the CCD, at COP 20 in Lima, Peru

He said that the ministry would look at the country’s economic and development interests while developing the INDCs.

“The whole exercise (INDCs) will consider some priority sectors, look at the baseline and look at our needs too for development and see what we can put on the table that we are going to strive to mitigate in terms of Green House Gases. And it is not something you just rush into without understanding because you are never too sure whether the potential agreement in Paris will be legally binding,” Adejuwon said, adding that Oct. 1 had been fixed as the deadline for countries to submit their INDCs to enable UNFCCC to study the documents before the Conference of Parties (COP) 21 in Paris in December.

According to him, the requirement for countries to submit their commitments ahead of the conference is to see if they will be able to address the impact of climate change. The director, however, said that the ministry had held series of workshops to fulfill its commitment to climate change conventions and protocols as well as exploit opportunities as a party to the protocols.

He said that the country had also looked at ways of taking advantage of some funding opportunities available such as the Special Climate Change, Adaptation and Green Climate Funds.

His words: “When you see funds, to access it can be problematic. And that is part of the negotiation and that is part of what we use to do in negotiations that you (developed countries) are creating these funds then you put a condition that makes it very much difficult to access. Look at the Adaptation Fund, it was part of Kyoto Mechanism; before you can access it, you need to identify National Implementation Entity. We’ve been in this process of identification of National Implementation Entity for the past three, four years. By the time you solve this problem, they will come up with another issue and if you don’t fulfill that condition, then it becomes very difficult for you to access.“

Adejuwon, however, explained that there was the need for the Federal Government to put some structures on ground before these funds could be accessed. He, therefore, stressed the need for government to invest in research, designs and mappings as a means of reducing the impacts of climate change on the country.

“There is the need for government to look at climate change from another perspective and be proactive. For example, looking at the 2012 flooding, we should map our flood plains in Nigeria and see how vulnerable they are to the impact of climate change. After identifying the vulnerability, we also need to put other things in place to minimise the impacts of the climate change,“ he said.

INDCs are a requirement to be submitted by all parties to the UNFCCC as a major component to climate change treaty to be adopted in Paris later in 2015.

Diabetes: Sitagliptin treatment poses no cardiovascular risk – Study

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Diabetes: Sitagliptin treatment poses no cardiovascular risk – Study
Treating a diabetes 2 patient. Photo credit: endrocrinologyadvisor.com
Treating a diabetes 2 patient. Photo credit: endrocrinologyadvisor.com

A study has shown that treatment with Sitagliptin does not increase the risks of major cardiovascular events or hospitalisation for heart failure

MSD, known as Merck (NYSE: MRK) in the United States and Canada, recently announced the primary results of the Trial Evaluating Cardiovascular Outcomes with Sitagliptin (TECOS), a placebo-controlled study of the cardiovascular (CV) safety of MSD’s DPP-4 inhibitor, sitagliptin.

The TECOS cardiovascular safety trial was an event-driven study designed to assess the long-term CV safety of the addition of sitagliptin to usual care, compared to usual care without sitagliptin, in patients with type 2 diabetes and established CV disease. The study enrolled more than 14,735 patients from 38 countries and was led by independent academic research collaboration between the University of Oxford Diabetes Trials Unit and the Duke University Clinical Research Institute, and was sponsored by MSD. Amongst the key findings, it was evident that there was no increase in CV-related deaths or hospitalisation for heart failure in the Sitagliptin group versus placebo.

“Patients with type 2 diabetes need antihyperglycemic medicines to help control their blood sugar.  Because these patients are at increased risk for cardiovascular complications, understanding the cardiovascular safety of these medicines is important,” said study co-chair Rury Holman, Professor of Diabetic Medicine and Diabetes Trials Unit Director, University of Oxford. “The results from TECOS showed that sitagliptin did not increase the risk of cardiovascular events in a diverse group of patients with type 2 diabetes at high cardiovascular risk.”

Overall, the primary endpoint occurred in 11.4 percent (n=839) of sitagliptin-treated patients compared with 11.6 percent (n=851) of placebo-treated patients in the Intention-to-Treat (ITT) analysis, and in 9.6 percent (n=695) of patients in both the sitagliptin and placebo groups in the Per Protocol (PP) analysis. In addition, there was no increase in hospitalization for heart failure, and rates of all-cause mortality were similar in both treatment groups, which were two key secondary endpoints.

“We believe the results of TECOS provide important clinical information about the cardiovascular safety profile of sitagliptin,” said Dr. Roger M. Perlmutter, president, Merck Research Laboratories. “The TECOS CV safety trial reflects the best efforts of clinical scientists at the University of Oxford, the Duke Clinical Research Institute and MSD on behalf of patients around the world who suffer from type 2 diabetes.”

IUCN: Columbia heritage site in conflict area no longer in danger

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IUCN: Columbia heritage site in conflict area no longer in danger
Los Katíos National Park. Photo credit: whc.unesco.org
Los Katíos National Park. Photo credit: whc.unesco.org

Colombia’s Los Katíos National Park has been taken off the List of World Heritage in Danger on Tuesday, June 30 2015 at the UNESCO World Heritage Committee meeting taking place in Bonn, Germany. The decision follows advice by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) – the official advisory body on nature to the Committee.

After suffering extensive damage from illegal logging, poaching and overfishing, which proliferated in a climate of armed conflict in the area, Los Katíos was danger-listed in 2009 at the request of the government of Colombia. The park authority has now regained control of the site thanks to intensified patrolling and engaging local communities in the sustainable use of the area’s natural resources, allowing the site to be removed from the danger list.

“This is what the danger list is about: a constructive mechanism to stimulate joint efforts nationally and internationally to take concrete action in the face of imminent threats to our common heritage,” says Tim Badman, Director of IUCN’s World Heritage Programme. “Colombia took advantage of the danger listing and made every effort to start reversing the critical situation this exceptional site was in.”

Los Katíos National Park was inscribed as a World Heritage site in 1994 due to its outstanding biodiversity. Bordering Panama’s Darien National Park – also a World Heritage site – the park is part of a larger area that is important for the survival of threatened species, such as Baird’s Tapir, the Giant Anteater, American Crocodile and West Indian Manatee. With no formal border crossing between Colombia and Panama, the area, known as the Darien Gap, is one of the world’s most species-rich regions of moist lowland and montane rainforest, with exceptional numbers of endemic species.

However, due to its remoteness and strategic location, forming the narrowest ‘land bridge’ between two subcontinents and between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, the area is also affected by the transit of armed groups and those displaced by armed conflict, as well as drug trafficking and the illegal use of natural resources. Decades of internal armed conflict in the area have resulted in the National Park managers losing control over Los Katíos. Poverty in rural areas near the World Heritage site has also fuelled demand for its resources in the absence of alternative sources of livelihood.

While the security situation in the area is still not fully resolved, the park’s management is now in a position to operate in the entire site. An IUCN field mission in January 2015 confirmed that the steady increase in patrolling and cooperation with local communities since the park was danger-listed has had positive results, including a reduction in illegal activities.

Agreements on the sustainable use of natural resources with local communities, who are now involved in monitoring fish populations, have succeeded in containing overfishing and overharvesting of the site’s rivers and swamps.

Dialogue with the Indigenous Wounaan community, who consider parts of the park as their ancestral land, is also progressing. Their ancestral rights are now recognised, and cooperation to maintain a balance between the community’s livelihood needs and conservation objectives has become an integral part of the site’s management.

“Colombia’s efforts over the last six years to respond to complex challenges affecting both the integrity of Los Katíos National Park and the livelihoods and security of local communities have been impressive and must be sustained to secure the long-term conservation of the site,” says Tilman Jaeger, IUCN World Heritage Advisor. “Natural World Heritage sites are much more than just beautiful places – they also support people’s lives. We have all to gain by managing them in a sustainable, participatory way.”

Colombia has also re-affirmed that there is no legal basis for two large infrastructure projects, potentially threatening the park, to be constructed within the site’s boundaries. These include the last missing link of the Pan-American Highway – the world’s longest road crossing North, Central and South America, which is interrupted at the Darien Gap – and an electricity transmission corridor linking Colombia to Panama. Possible indirect impacts will have to be understood and considered if these infrastructure projects eventually take shape.

Natural World Heritage sites are globally recognised as the world’s most important protected areas, inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List for their unique natural values, such as the scale of natural habitats, intactness of ecological processes, viability of populations of rare species, as well as exceptional natural beauty. One in four World Heritage sites is natural.

The List of World Heritage in Danger is designed to mobilise urgent, international action to protect the most threatened sites. A total of 46 sites are currently listed as ‘in danger’, including 19 – over 40% – natural sites.

IUCN is the advisory body on nature to UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee. Working closely with IUCN’s World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA), IUCN evaluates sites nominated to the World Heritage List, monitors the conservation state of listed sites, promotes the World Heritage Convention as a leading global conservation tool, and provides support, advice and training to site managers, governments, scientists and local communities.

INDCs: China to slash economy’s carbon intensity by 60-65%

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INDCs: China to slash economy’s carbon intensity by 60-65%

China formally committed to halting the rise in its greenhouse gas emissions within the next 15 years on Tuesday (June 30, 2015), in a much anticipated strategy to help build a U.N. climate deal in 2015.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang. Photo credit: cnn.com
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang. Photo credit: cnn.com

The world’s top greenhouse gas emitter said it would invest more in clean energy and plant more carbon-absorbing forests as part of the plan.

The Chinese plan chimes with targets announced in November, when Beijing reached a key climate change deal with Washington to cap its emissions by 2030.

“China’s carbon dioxide emission will peak by around 2030 and China will work hard to achieve the target at an even earlier date,” Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said in a statement after meeting French President Francois Hollande in Paris.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius called China’s plan an “excellent sign” for the United Nations summit in Paris from Nov. 30 to Dec. 11, which intends to agree a global deal to combat climate change after past failures.

China did not, however, say at what level its emissions would peak. The cap is the first set by Beijing, which had argued that it needed to burn more fossil fuels to end poverty and that developed nations must lead in climate action.

In a new element beyond the U.S.-China deal, Beijing said it would cut its CO2 emissions per unit of gross domestic product by 60-65 percent from 2005 levels by 2030. That would deepen a 40-45 percent cut already set by Beijing for 2020.

The world’s second-largest economy also aims to increase the share of non-fossil fuels in its primary energy consumption to about 20 percent by 2030, the statement said, as part of a strategy to limit more heatwaves, floods and rising sea levels.

 

Carbon Price Up

Benchmark EU carbon prices rose after the news and were last 1.4 percent higher at 7.47 euros a tonne.

China accounts for a quarter of world greenhouse gases and its plan, submitted to the United Nations on Tuesday, means governments accounting for more than half the global total have now outlined goals for climate action beyond 2020.

About 40 countries emitting just over 30 percent of world emissions have previously submitted their plans, including the United States and the European Union. National plans will be the building blocks of a Paris accord.

Separately, the United States and Brazil pledged to increase their share of renewable energy in electricity generation.

South Korea said it would cut greenhouse gas emissions by 37 percent below business-as-usual levels, deeper than its earlier intention.

“The United States and China can no longer use inaction by the other as an excuse for ignoring the risks we all face from climate change. Both countries are acting,” said Bob Perciasepe, president of the U.S. Centre for Climate and Energy Solutions think-tank.

Many experts outside China reckon it can peak its emissions before 2030, given signs such as a fall in coal consumption in 2014. Beijing is under strong pressure to shift to renewable energies, partly to curb air pollution.

“”In our estimates the peak would be around 2025 or even earlier,” Hanna Fekete of the independent New Climate Institute think tank in Germany, which tracks pledges, told Reuters.

She said she did not think Beijing’s plan would affect the group’s estimates last year that global temperatures are set to rise by 3.1 degrees Celsius (5.6 Fahrenheit) by 2100, far above a U.N. ceiling of 2 degrees (3.6F).

Li Shuo, climate analyst Greenpeace China, said: “China has only ever been on defence when it comes to climate change, but today’s announcement is the first step for a more active role. For success in Paris, however, all players – including China and the EU – need to up their game. Today’s pledge must be seen as only the starting point for much more ambitious action. It does not fully reflect the significant energy transition that is already taking place in China. Given the dramatic fall in coal consumption, robust renewable energy uptake, and the urgent need to address air pollution, we believe the country can go well beyond what it has proposed today.”

Samantha Smith, Global Climate and Energy Initiative leader, WWF, stated: “This is the first major developing country emitter to set a total emissions peak target. In doing so, China has committed to both global climate security and to a transformational energy transition at home. We emphasise the importance of the fact that China has made commitments beyond its responsibility as a developing country. But we hope that China will continue to find ways to reduce its emissions, which will in turn drive global markets for renewable energy and energy efficiency.”

Bi Xinxin, coordinator CAN China, emphasised: “It is clear that the Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) which was lodged by China today is a serious step forward for the country’s transformation to low carbon and climate resilient development. Already a world leader in renewable energy, the government has announced it will roll out as much low carbon energy as the entire US electricity system by 2030. While the plan is indeed a strong effort, it should be viewed as the floor upon which additional efforts will be built. There are early indications that the country could exceed the targets it has set for itself. Bold actions are required from all levels of governments as well as from the indispensable private sector and civil society. China’s commitment towards the Paris agreement is an important milestone on the way to Paris and can catalyse stronger action from the rest of the world.”

By Julien Ponthus (Reuters)

Risks, deaths as workers generate wealth

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Risks, deaths as workers generate wealth

Workers labour to make a living. Sadly, for many the wages of work has been death. The occupational hazards that workers face is a challenge for those in the formal as well as in the informal sectors. Stringent regulatory and control measures as well as strong and united labour unions are needed to halt the menace.

Nnimmo Bassey, Director, HOMEF
Nnimmo Bassey, Director, HOMEF

We note that the health impacts of extractive activities swallow up lives beyond the mine pits as evidenced by the death of over 400 children from lead poisoning in Zamfara State, Nigeria. The extractive sector is equally an arena of conflicts and has thrown up severe human rights abuses including displacement of communities, toxic work conditions, and the burying alive of artisanal miners in Ghana, Tanzania and other locations. It also includes outright shooting and killing of miners, as was the case in Marikana, South Africa.

This Sustainability Academy aims to highlight the fact that workers and communities are at the frontlines of exposure to toxic chemicals that often result in fatalities. Some of these impacts are subtle and do not immediately become manifest. Indeed, while communities may live the rims or fence lines of extractive pits, workers are literally in the belly of the beasts. If the impacts on communities are so deadly, it is not difficult to agree that workers are often worse off. Workers are part of communities and as we see especially with regard to artisanal mining, communities get co-opted as work teams by economic necessities or by the imposed daunting struggles for survival.

As the chisels, pickaxes and hammers hack away at rock faces to extract wealth and profit, the dusts clothe workers with toxins that leave them gasping for breath. Despite the health and safety measures announced by extractive sector corporations workers sometimes are not aware of the dangers that their daily toil portend. Sadly, however, some workers fully aware that they are making a dying, not a living, as they toil in dangerous activities continue in silence due to fear of job loses.

In a recent article, the ITUC general secretary declared poignantly – If You Expose Us, We’ll Expose You stressing that occupational cancer is not a mystery disease because there has been abundant evidence that workers are unreasonably exposed to danger while working with cancer-inducing chemicals.

Examples of such exposures include of workers dealing with asbestos and those that work in industries like the petrochemicals with high presence of benzene. According to the ITUC leader, “Wherever stricter controls are proposed, industry representatives or their hired guns appear, challenging the science and predicting an economic catastrophe.”

It is well known, for example, that polluting industries spend huge sums of money in research twisted to help them deny the reality of climate change. The same is true with efforts by toxic industry to block regulations seeking to curb the use of certain chemicals and by implication the exposure of workers to harm. To do this they churn out tonnes of publications and glossy so-called sustainability reports while actually they are promoting in paralysis by analysis.

Almost 1 million workers die every year from exposure to toxic chemicals – in the extractive sector and others. Up to 2.3 million persons get exposed to work-related diseases or accidents every year.

We have no doubt that our instigator at this Sustainability Academy, a veteran health workers unionist, will educate us on the health impacts workers in the extractive sector are exposed to. Permit me to close this short opening words by reminding us that the grave environmental and health impact caused by the oil and gas industry in Nigeria is an open sore that salt is being added to daily and cannot be allowed to continue to fester. Routine gas flaring, rampant oil spills and reckless disposal of toxic wastes including drilling cuts and produced water, have health implications not just for our environment and community health but equally on oil and gas sector workers. With life expectancy standing at just above 40 years in our oil field communities and at a paltry 54 years (some say 43 years) nationally, no one can claim to be exempt from the urgent need for actions to clean our air, land, water and workplaces.

The struggle to secure the health of workers, communities and our planet is an epic struggle against a ravenous system that feeds on profits and swims in the sweat and blood of workers.  The time has come for the dichotomy between workers and community must b eliminated. To change this system it is inescapable that all relevant forces – labour and all of us – must team up to confront reckless myopic consumption and a crass lack of concern about the future and the planet.

By Nnimmo Bassey (Director, Health of Mother Earth Foundation at HOMEF)

Is 2 degrees warming too dangerous?

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Is 2 degrees warming too dangerous?

In the wake of the G7’s announcement to limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius (or 3.6 degree Fahrenheit), UN climate negotiators from the world’s most vulnerable nations have questioned whether 2 degrees is too dangerous.

Should the 2 degree goal be ditched? Photo credit: livescience.com
Should the 2 degree goal be ditched? Photo credit: livescience.com

Unfortunately, their call to focus efforts on limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees was from some of the most powerful nations at the UN climate talks: India, China and Saudi Arabia.

Care International’s Sven Harmeling has labelled this move “highly concerning”, especially given the human rights implications of a 2-degree target.

This concern turned to protest, as young people gathered at the UN with banners of tropical storms. They then asked negotiators to “add their name here” if they believed that a 2 degree world was safe, noting that they would use their names for the “future disasters of a 2 degree world”.

Recently, a group of global Human Rights experts, highlighted what they called the “human rights” implications of a 2 degree rise, calling it “the greatest human rights challenges of our generation”.

They argue in line with the most recent report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that people who are currently “marginalised are especially vulnerable to climate change”, even at only 2 degrees of warming.

They also pointed the finger of responsibility squarely at “the heads of governments and their climate negotiators” who they say “represent the very last generation that can prevent catastrophic environmental harm to a vast array of human rights”.

A U.N. report released earlier this year states that climate change accounts for 87 percent of disasters worldwide. This figure, it must be remembered, comes with only 0.8 degrees Celsius of global temperature rise that we are now experiencing.

However scientists are largely uncertain what the impacts of a doubling of current warming could be.

As Harjeet Singh from ActionAid International points out “In reality, the impacts of increasing temperature levels will not be linear, but will multiply what we face now several times over. What will happen at 2, 3 or 4 degrees Celsius of warming is unimaginable”.

Those countries most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change have been concerned about the reality of 2 degrees of warming since the UN climate talks began.

As the Philippines Climate Change Commissioner, Mary Ann Lucille Sering argued earlier this year, “How can we possibly subscribe to more than double current warming given what less than 1 degree Celsius has entailed?”

Seeing currently heads a group of countries within the UN climate talks known as the Climate Vulnerable Forum, who argue that the 2 degree target, reinforced by leaders of the G7 this week is “inadequate, posing serious threats for fundamental human rights, labor and migration and displacement”.

Seeing and other leaders of the Climate Vulnerable Forum commissioned a Human Rights inquiry into the 2 degree target earlier this year that has highlighted the severe impacts of 2 degrees for poor and marginalised groups around the world.

John Knox, who lead the inquiry as the U.N. Special Rapporteur for Human Rights and the Environment, argued that “Even moving from one to two degrees of warming negatively affects the full enjoyment of a wide range of human rights.”

He further believes it will have a multiplying impact on Human Rights around the world, and make it very difficult for countries to “respect, protect and promote human rights.”

These reports, and the current state of UN climate negotiations around the 2 degree target have shone light once again on the importance of support that developing countries will need to face the ongoing impacts of global warming.

In fact, the government of Vanuatu has decided to sue the world’s leading fossil fuel companies for the impacts of climate change that they are already facing. Earlier this year, Cyclone Pam destroyed more than 90 per cent of housing infrastructure in the pacific nation’s capital city, Port Vila.

Baldwin Lonsdale, president of Vanuatu, called the Cyclone a “monster” which was directly linked to Climate Change. As such, his government has now decided to “bring a case that would investigate the human rights implications of climate change and hold the big carbon polluters accountable to appropriate international bodies.”

Within the UN climate negotiations, many fear that financial support for adaptation and the damages that cannot be adapted to will not meet the required targets. This is what led negotiators and civil society actors to stage a protest today in the UN climate talks demanding that negotiators not only recognise the importance of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees, but also reinvigorate negotiations to better support the inevitable damages that will result.

Interestingly, this has been one of the key negotiating points for India over the years. However, with its plans to push ahead with its controversial coal plant in the pristine Sundarbands region of Bangladesh, and ban NGO’s from criticising, it may indeed be set on a development path that is at odds with its developing country partners.

While a 1.5 degree world may not seem “realistic” to the likes of India, China and Saudi Arabia, all seeking to continue to exploit their vast fossil fuel resources, it is only a matter of time before the true “reality” of a warming world sets in.

By Olumide Idowu (Team Leader, Climate Wednesday)

Our stand on COP 21, by Erimma Orie

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Our stand on COP 21, by Erimma Orie

It is interesting how time flies and, very soon, it shall be time for COP 21 in Paris, France; six months since COP 20 in Lima, Peru and two weeks since the Bonn meeting in Germany.

Dr Erimma Orie
Dr Erimma Orie

In the interim the clock ticks, the climate keeps changing, the impact is not abating and our vulnerability keeps increasing.

With the international deliberations over Nigeria, like other party members, has returned home to our domestic constituents to re-examine the decisions reached at Lima.

No doubt, the decisions at Lima will have to be x-rayed in the context of our home-grown electoral interests, national discourses and domestic political institutions. In coordinating our national response, the desire has always been, as is also applicable to most other countries, to do so in a way that will not entail accepting more responsibility than other parties or groups. Thus, the trend in the negotiations has been, first to ensure the preservation of national/domestic interests.

It is in line with this that it becomes very necessary to commend the renewed efforts by Nigeria to become more active at the negotiations and activities leading to the COPs. Indeed, Nigeria is far more serious and coordinated now than some years back. It will be necessary to complement these efforts with our submission of our climate change action plan, or the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs).

Perhaps in that same spirit one will suggest that it is also time to be more vocal – particularly against the developed countries who employ the services of lobbyists to achieve their aims – over continuous emission reduction at the expense of the more vulnerable developing countries like Nigeria. Particularly disturbing is the role of the fossil fuel lobbyists who are increasingly more determined each year to thwart the efforts at a new or post Kyoto agreement.

At COP 15, there was evidence that the fossil fuel lobbyist used their domestic influence to sway state negotiations in Copenhagen. About $20 million was spent by US Electric Utilities, $3.4 million by the coal mining industry and $35 million by the oil and gas industry just on political contributions to state representatives to ensure that the interest of the energy industry was protected at COP 15.

Similar situations played out at subsequent COPs. For instance at COP 19 in Warsaw, corporations with a direct conflict of interest in the treaty’s success got delegates and even sponsored talks. In fact, COP 19 is believed to be the first UN Climate talks to have corporate sponsorship with some of the biggest climate crooks as official “partners.”

COP 20 was also not different. At Lima, these lobbyists even had direct engagement with UN officials or body like the Lima Paris Action Agenda (LPAA) of the Office of the Secretary General of the United Nations and the UNFCCC Secretariat.

Indeed the role of these fossil fuel lobbyists have made critiques to see UNFCCC as capitalist in nature and to call for an alternative to UNFCCC.

It is time for G77 and Nigeria in particular to take a stand so that Paris 2015 will not go the way of Copenhagen.

There is a sense of urgency here to which Nigeria, Africa, G77 and Nigerian NGOs must rise up to and ensure that the fossil fuel lobbyists are chased out of the COP or at least not allowed to have their way, especially at COP 21, if we are to make good success. This should be our stand.

By Dr Erimma Orie (School of Law, National Open University of Nigeria)

PAVE, UC-Berkeley in water rights research initiative

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PAVE, UC-Berkeley in water rights research initiative
The Pan African Vision for the Environment (PAVE) is collaborating with the Department of City and Regional Planning at the University of California, Berkeley (UC-Berkeley) in the USA to investigate new strategies to explore how the human rights to water and sanitation can be successfully realised in Nigeria using Lagos as a case study. Graduate students of the Department involved in the initiative are scheduled to arrive Nigeria on Saturday, June 26 and depart July 9, 2015.
Access to water has posed a challenge in Lagos and other urban areas
Access to water has posed a challenge in Lagos and other urban areas

Using the access criteria delineated by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human rights to water and sanitation, the project will seek to create and pilot a mobile phone survey application for local community members, aid organisations and officials to collect and monitor data on water and sanitation conditions in urban Lagos. In addition, the researchers will carry out participatory mapping activities with community members to identify environmental barriers that impact access to safe water.

According to Anthony Akpan, President of PAVE, nearly 74% of the population in Lagos rely on water from informal sources as urban access to piped water has declined sharply since 1990. He pointed out that the use of groundwater sources has increased dramatically and the use of unimproved sources of water has increased, especially in informal settlements, some of which have the fastest rates of population growth.
He said: “While the Millennium Development Goals have contributed to a remarkable reduction in global disease burden and an increase in quality of life, universal access to safe water and adequate sanitation remains a challenge for many low- and medium-income countries. In 2010, the United Nations General Assembly and United Nations Human Rights Council recognized access to water and sanitation as human rights in UN Resolution A/64/292.
“This resolution has become a seminal event in changing global expectations regarding water and sanitation. Countries are therefore responsible and legally accountable to utilize available resources to ensure that universal access to water and sanitation is provided for all. More importantly, the criteria for universal access established by the UN go beyond any previous expectations concerning infrastructure or quality.
“The requirements constituting the human rights to water and sanitation were delineated by the UN Special Rapporteur in the five following categories; 1) Availability of water and sanitation, 2) Physical accessibility to water and sanitation, 3) Quality and safety, 4) Affordability, 5) Acceptability, dignity and privacy.
The growing recognition of the human rights to water and sanitation has increased demand for disaggregated monitoring. Countries without a robust and efficient monitoring system are unable to gauge existing conditions in hard-to-reach communities. Thus, the unmet need for information and survey tools poses a threat to realizing and complying with the United Nations guidelines.
PAVE has been working to advance better access to water in Nigeria for the past 15 years.

IUCN: Dams, climate change threatening natural heritage

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IUCN: Dams, climate change threatening natural heritage

Climate change and large dam projects are putting natural World Heritage sites at risk, says the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the official advisory body on nature to UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee.

In Australia’s Great Barrier Reef – the world’s largest coral reef system – rising water temperatures are causing coral bleaching, and ocean acidification is restricting coral growth and survival. Photo credit: telegraph.co.uk
In Australia’s Great Barrier Reef – the world’s largest coral reef system – rising water temperatures are causing coral bleaching, and ocean acidification is restricting coral growth and survival. Photo credit: telegraph.co.uk

This year, for the first time in many years, climate change will be brought to the attention of the World Heritage Committee as a major threat affecting World Heritage sites. The World Heritage Committee meets on Sunday, July 28 2015 in Bonn, Germany.

Climate change impact is already evident in 35 of 228 sites inscribed on the World Heritage list for their natural values, according to the IUCN World Heritage Outlook – the first global assessment of natural World Heritage. Climate change could also become the most widespread threat to World Heritage sites in the future.

“Few people are aware of the full scale of the damage being done as a result of climate change, including to some of our planet’s most spectacular natural areas,” says Inger Andersen, IUCN Director General. “We need to take action to address this threat on the ground and at the global level. An ambitious agreement reached by governments meeting at the UN climate talks later this year in Paris can help safeguard our precious World Heritage. The stakes are too high for us to miss what may well be our last window of opportunity.”

While only coordinated global efforts can help address the threat of climate change, it is important to increase resilience of the threatened sites by limiting other pressures to a minimum, according to IUCN.

Marine and coastal sites are facing particular challenges due to sea level rise, ocean acidification, and increased frequency and severity of extreme weather events. In Australia’s Great Barrier Reef – the world’s largest coral reef system – rising water temperatures are causing coral bleaching, and ocean acidification is restricting coral growth and survival.

In East Rennell, Solomon Islands, a World Heritage site listed as ‘in danger’ due to logging activities, the increasing salinity of Lake Tegano as a result of sea level rise has caused reduced freshwater supply and food shortages for the local communities.

Dams also pose a growing and serious threat to natural World Heritage, as evidenced by IUCN’s recommendations to the Committee. This year, 11 natural World Heritage sites threatened by dam projects will be discussed, including several where the impacts come from dams in a neighbouring country. IUCN calls for more effective environmental impact assessment of such projects and improved transboundary cooperation from the earliest stages in order to avoid or minimise the adverse effects of dams on World Heritage.

“Dams can have a huge impact on World Heritage sites, reducing precious natural wetland areas, changing river flows and impacting local communities,” says Tim Badman, Director of IUCN’s World Heritage Programme. “It is essential to consider better alternatives that avoid such constructions where possible, and to properly assess how dams will affect our World Heritage before they are built. Nature transcends national borders, and efforts to preserve what we recognise as our collective heritage must also look beyond national borders.”

Following a field mission, IUCN is concerned that the Gibe III dam in Ethiopia may permanently change the seasonal water flows into Lake Turkana National Parks – a World Heritage site in Kenya – with knock-on effects on wildlife and fish stocks which local communities depend on. The dam is now nearly complete and will be Africa’s second largest hydroelectric plant reaching the height of 243 metres. Ethiopia and Kenya have agreed to increase cooperation to mitigate the impacts from the dam on Lake Turkana.

Lake Baikal in Russia, the world’s largest and deepest lake and a World Heritage site since 1996, may suffer impact from three projects planned in Mongolia, including the construction of two hydropower plants and a reservoir. During a recent monitoring mission to Mongolia, IUCN found that environmental impact has been assessed in only one case. The combined effects of all three projects on the lake are unknown and could potentially seriously damage its World Heritage values.

The UNESCO World Heritage Committee will gather at its annual meeting from 28 June to 8 July in Bonn, Germany, to take decisions on the conservation of World Heritage sites affected by threats and the inscription of potential new sites.

Having prepared monitoring reports on 55 natural World Heritage sites for the meeting, IUCN recommends ‘in danger’ status for Brazil’s Cerrado Protected Areas: Chapada dos Veadeiros and Emas National Parks as a result of inadequate legal protection.

IUCN also recommends the removal of in-danger status of Colombia’s Los Katíos National Park thanks to the park management regaining control of the area following civil unrest and armed conflict. Los Katíos hosts exceptional biological diversity, including many endemic and threatened species such as the American Crocodile, Giant Anteater and Central American Tapir.

Eight World Heritage nominations have been evaluated this year by IUCN, which recommends World Heritage status for Jamaica’s Blue and John Crow Mountains, major extensions to Phong Nha – Ke Bang National Park in Viet Nam and Cape Floral Region Protected Areas in South Africa, as well as changes in the boundaries of Russia’s Lena Pillars Nature Park.

Rethinking nation’s energy strategy towards off-grid

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Rethinking nation’s energy strategy towards off-grid
Wind turbines. Photo credit: theenergycollective.com
Wind turbines. Photo credit: theenergycollective.com

 Energy is the Golden Thread that connects economic growth, social equity and environmental health. – Ban Ki Moon, UN Secretary General

…Energy is a prerequisite for sustainable rural development. – UNESCO
Energy touches everything…Our mantra going forward is very simple: converting commitments to kilowatt hours for real people. – Kandeh Yumkella
If the only future we can see for villages is to turn them into towns, it would be no future worth aspiring for, considering the shape our towns are already in. – Prof. Krishna Kumar
No single cause can be identified to explain Nigeria’s poor economic performance over the years than the power situation. It is a national shame that an economy of 180 million generates only 4,000MW, and distributes even less. Continuous tinkering with the structures of power supply and distribution and close on $20b expanded since 1999 have only brought darkness, frustration, misery, and resignation among Nigerians. We will not allow this to go on. Careful studies are under way during this transition to identify the quickest, safest and most cost-effective way to bring light and relief to Nigerians. – Muhammad Buhari, President of Nigeria
 
Nigeria’s over-dependence on hydro power for her energy sources has had negative impact recently. Her energy crisis deteriorated a few days to the country’s last general elections, when the agency responsible for regulating the operations in electricity sector, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), disclosed that, of the nation’s 23 power hydro power plants, only five were functional.
The development resulted in not only power crisis but also affected the country’s economic activities. Fuel supply nearly became zero. Even fuel-dependent generators, upon which Nigeria has been running her economy in the past 16 years, could not function. Banks in the country cut their normal hours of operation from eight hours to five, closing each day at 1pm. This almost grounded the economy.
It got to that point when the Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Power, Godknows Igali, along with the outgone Power minister, Chinedu Nebo, told former Vice-President, Namadi Sambo, of the alarming epileptic electricity supply across the country. Of the 4,800 megawatts (MW) of electricity supply being enjoyed by the country, according to Igali, only 1,327MW was being generated. This is too low for a supposed Africa’s largest economy.
He enumerated that most key power plants in the country had epileptic performance and had, therefore, shut down. Those affected included the ones located in at Utorogu, Chevron Oredo, Oben gas-fired power plants, as well as Ughelli and Chevron Escravos power plants. Also included were the National Integrated Power Plants (NIPPs), including Nigeria’s largest power plant at Egbin, Olorunshogo 1 & 11, Omotosho 1 & 11, Geregu I & 11, Ihonvor and Sapele on the western axis and Alaoji on the eastern end.
Attributable reason for the inability of these hydro power plants to generate electricity is “shortage of gas supply to the thermal plants, with one of the hydro stations faced with water management issue. This has led to loss of over 2,000 megawatts in the national grid,” Sam Amadi, Executive Chairman of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), had said.
Of worry was the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC), to which the Shiroro Power Plant reduced the level of electricity supply to Abuja zone to just 15 MW from less than 200MW daily. Abuja is Nigeria’s Federal Capital City. This development is ridiculously mean, considering Nigeria’s position as an economy upon which other African countries depend.
 
Rethink Renewable Energy
This development calls for Nigeria’s rethink on energy to be directed at renewable energy sources, which include “sunlight, wind, water, biomass, tides and geothermal heat,” says Yusuf Ganda, a solar engineer with Sokoto Energy Research Centre.
“A total of 1.5 billion individuals (a quarter of world’s population) are without electric power, mostly concentrated in Africa and South Asia,” said a source.
In a recent presentation at the World Conference of Science Journalists (WCSJ) in Seoul, South Korea, the Project Leader of Smart Villages Initiatives (a not for profit organisation), Dr. Bernie Jones, said: “Energy means food security, democratic engagement, health and social welfare, education and local business that brings about integrated development.” This, he stated, is because the access to energy brings about them with ease.
According to him, while solar home systems are now being used “for micro-enterprises – mobile phone charging, hairdressing, guest houses, village cinema and entertainment in Tanzania (East Africa),” micro hydro is being used in Sarawak (Malaysia) to provide 24-hour, round-the-week of electricity “to supplement power of district health centre.”
This is the same in India where solar water pumps are used to irrigate without grid-determined hedging. Smart Villages Initiatives is evaluating how to deliver energy access to rural communities in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
In order to meet the growing energy demand, especially in rural areas, exploration of alternative energy sources becomes imperative. Also, in order to check rural-urban drift, renewable energy is important in improving energy access, especially for rural dwellers.
That renewable energy is making impact in rural areas in developing countries in areas for households, lightening and entertainment. This is enough for African nation’s, especially Nigeria to follow suit. “The ‘productive uses’ of renewable energy can increase incomes and provide development benefits to rural areas,” said Ganda.
The German Development Bank-KFW’s recent allocation of N34,600,000,000 to advance renewable energy efficiency projects and technical assistance for the Nigerian power sector is a welcome development. It will go a long way in addressing the need for Nigeria to think of alternative energy sources that would provide more reliable power sources, for even the rural populace.
Nigeria’s renewable energy sources are abundant but untapped. Held as responsible for the development, which must be looked into by Nigerian government, include “policy and regulation, financing and investment, public awareness, quality and standards, poor resource database, etc.” These have stood as impediment for access to renewable energy in Nigeria.
By Abdallah el-Kurebe
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