The Chinese central government on Friday approved a plan that maps out major climate change goals to be met by 2020.
This was contained in a statement released on the website of the country’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).
The State Council, China’s cabinet, gave a green light to the plan which was proposed by the NDRC, the country’s economic planner.
China has pledged to reduce its carbon emission intensity, namely emissions per unit of GDP, by 40 per cent to 45 per cent by 2020 from the 2005 level.
It will also aim to bring the proportion of non-fossil fuels to about 15 per cent of its total primary energy consumption.
According to the statement, other targets include increasing forest coverage by 40 million hectares within the next five years.
It also said that the government would speed up efforts to establish a carbon emission permit market, under the plan, which also calls for deepened international cooperation.
The State Council said local governments and departments at all levels should recognise the significance and urgency in dealing with climate change and give higher priority to action on the issue.
China’s release of the action plan came just before a climate summit is to be held at UN Headquarters in New York on Tuesday.
At least 2,622 people have died in the worst outbreak of Ebola virus in history, which has so far infected at least 5,335 people in West Africa, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Thursday.
In an update on the epidemic, which is raging through Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia and has spread into Nigeria and Senegal, the WHO said there were no signs yet of it slowing.
“The upward epidemic trend continues in the three countries that have widespread and intense transmission – Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone,” the United Nations health agency said.
It added that a surge in Ebola in Liberia is being driven primarily by a continued increase in the number of cases reported in the capital, Monrovia.
Gov. Kashim Shettima of Borno on Thursday expressed optimism that the Nigerian military will soon end the Boko Haram insurgency in the country.
Shettima made the statement at the launching of the new 64 page e-passport in Maiduguri.
He said that the recent victory by the military in different encounters with the insurgents had brought back hope of ending the crisis soon.
“The military has brought back hope to the minds of the people with its renewed efforts in fighting the insurgents.
“With the recent victory, I belief that peace will soon be the restored and normalcy will return,’’ he said.
He commended the Federal Government for introducing the new passport, saying its introduction had placed the country among the best countries of the world.
“I think the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) deserve kudos for introducing the passport.
“This has made us proud as Nigerians, because the passport conformed to the best practices in the world,” Shettima said.
The governor also commiserated with the NIS for losing some of its men to insurgency in the state.
“The numerous sacrifices of your men in restoring peace in the state will not go unnoticed.
“For those who lost their lives accept our condolence,” he said.
Speaking earlier, the Borno NIS Comptroller, Alhaji Madu Musa said that the launching of new passport was part of government’s effort to prevent fraud in the issuance of passport.
He said the new passport was launched by President Goodluck Jonathan on July 30 in Abuja.
“The new passport is gender friendly; it takes care of low income earners and the aged.
“It also accommodates frequent travelers and forestalls identity theft,’’ he said.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the 64-page e-passport cost N20, 000, the 32-page cost N15,000 while the 32-page for 60 and above and below 18 years cost N8,750. (NAN)
The current Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa has heightened the quest for a deeper understanding of the molecular biology of the virus, which scientists say could be critical in the development of vaccines or antiviral drugs to treat or prevent hemorrhagic fever caused by Ebola.
Ebola virus
A team at the University of Virginia (UVA), USA, led by Dr Dan Engel, a virologist, and Dr Zygmunt Derewenda, a structural biologist, has obtained the crystal structure of a key protein involved in Ebola virus replication, in the nucleoprotein (NP) of the Zaire strain of Ebola virus.
The team explained that their structure reveals a novel tertiary fold that is expected to lead to insights into how the viral nucleocapsid is assembled in infected cells. The team said the structure could also provide a basis for the design of drugs to halt infection in humans, saying it is unique in the RNA virus world.
Derewenda said, “It is not found in viruses that cause influenza, rabies or other diseases. It distantly resembles the β-grasp protein motif found in ubiquitin, most likely the result of convergent evolution.”
Like many other related viruses, Ebola virus contains a negative-sense, single-stranded RNA that encodes seven different proteins, one of which is known as the nucleoprotein (NP) for its ability to interact with the viral RNA genome. It is the most abundant viral protein found in infected cells and also inside the viral nucleocapsid. While five of the seven viral proteins have succumbed to structural characterization by X-ray crystallography, NP so far has resisted such attempts, although analogous proteins from other viruses have had their structures analysed.
The UVA team produced the Ebola protein using an engineered form of Escherichia coli bacteria as a protein factory. This allowed them to identify the boundaries of two globular domains and to crystallize the unique C-terminal domain spanning amino-acid residues 641 to 739. The study revealed a molecular architecture unseen so far among known proteins, the team says. There is existing evidence that the newly characterized domain is involved in transcription and the self-assembly of the viral nucleocapsid. As such, the results obtained by the UVA team will be useful in deciphering precisely how these various functions are accomplished by the virus; such a detailed description offers up a potential target for the design of anti-viral drugs.
The wait for the anticipated medicine for the deadly Ebola Virus Disease may be over in November, as a medicine for its treatment may be unveiled then.
Although, the medicine, according Gamhewage, would be used in treating health workers, it adds to the positives being recorded in the battle to curb the current Ebola outbreak.
She said this is the outcome of not less than 11 candidate drugs being tested for protection against the virus, some of which are serum based.
Meanwhile, the Lagos EOC incident manager has said that “as at September 18,” there should be only one person left to follow up on, out of the 366 primary and contacts of the late Liberian that were initially under surveillance in Lagos State.
He also emphasised during the interview that there is no Ebola in the Nigerian community, explaining that everybody that has had the disease stemmed from one person, the Liberian.
Nonetheless, outcomes of the recent Ebola Virus Disease outbreak in Nigeria and other countries have shown that about 50 per cent of those infected have survived to the delight of the World Health Orgnaisation (WHO), other agencies and experts that have been working to tame the disease since it broke out in West Africa this year.
Information from the WHO have disclosed that the total number of probable, confirmed and suspected cases in the current outbreak of Ebola virus disease (EVD) in West Africa was 4366, with 2218 deaths, as at September 7, indicating an over 50 per cent survival rate in the affected countries.
This is happening at a time scientists have obtained further insights about a key protein involved in the Ebola virus replication, a further boost to the body of knowledge on the virus and the way it acts.
As at Tuesday last week, no new case of Ebola was recorded in Nigeria, as the total number of confirmed cases remained 19 (15 in Lagos and 4 in Port Harcourt). Twelve out of all confirmed cases have so far survived, indicating an over 63 per cent survival rate in the country.
WHO puts the total survival rate across all affected countries in the recent outbreaks at over 47 per cent, a significant reduction from the over 90 per cent death rate reported among infected persons in previous outbreaks.
WHO Risk Communication expert, Dr. Gaya Gamhewage, who spoke about the global delight on the positive outcomes in the latest interventions, said, “In the past emphasis was on the fact that 90 per cent of those infected die. The story has, however changed, as about 50 per cent of those infected are surviving.”
Gamhewage, who was speaking to Nigerian journalists during a workshop on Ebola Communication held in Lagos, said this is happening even in countries whose health systems are far weaker than Nigeria’s.
The incident manager of the Lagos Ebola Emergency Operation Centre (EOC), Dr. Kayode Oguntimehin, also shares similar optimism.
Speaking in an interview, Oguntimehin said, “What we have proven is that Ebola is not a death sentence. Majority of those who have died are those who were in a very bad state. Likewise, majority of those who have been discharged are people we caught very early.”
Poor access to Reproductive Health has emerged as a major reason youths in Nigeria are unable to develop intellectually.
The issue, which was highlighted in the pilot of the Nigerian Academy of Science (NAS) Youth Development Project on Social/Youth Development, and Reproductive Health, topped a myriad of others ranging from lack of access to good education to disconnection from main stream development agenda.
Coordinator of the NAS programme, Prof. Akinyinka Omigbodun, who spoke on some of these limitations faced by the youths in Nigeria said, despite making up 70 per cent of Nigeria’s population, they are faced with “poor or non-existent access to functional education, high unemployment rates, exposure to conflicts, vulnerability to adverse sexual and reproductive health outcomes, including gender-based sexual violence,” stating also that 60 per cent of them live below the poverty line.
Presenting further outcomes of the pilots held in Ekiti and Nasarawa states of Nigeria, Omigbodun said an unimaginably high number of Nigerian youths are faced with the worst consequences of early sexual exposure, poor teaching and learning environments among others.
This, he said, is further exacerbated by poor information flow, adding that “The main sources of information for youths on both puberty (53 per cent) and reproductive health (56 per cent) were school teachers,” despite that they preferred such were from family members, health workers and the media in that order of preference.
The situation, according to the NAS finding, is made dire by poor science teacher to science student ratio, which currently stands at 1:8 in Nigeria.
From left: Dr. Oladoyin Odubanjo, Executive Secretary, Nigerian Academy of Science (NAS); Professor Oyewale Tomori, President, NAS; Professor Alfred Adegoke, keynote speaker; Professor Akinyinka Omigbodun a Fellow of NAS; Professor Temitayo Shokunbi, Academic Secretary, Biological Sciences, NAS; and Professor Domingo Okorie, Academic Secretary, Physical Sciences, NAS, at a Media Roundtable for the NAS-Youth Development and Reproductive Health Programme, in Lagos on Wednesday, 10th of September, 2014
Professor Alfred Adegoke of the Faculty of Education, University of Ilorin, Ilorin, who stressed the link between the poor youths development in Nigeria and Reproductive Health, said the events in Nigeria is not isolated, as premarital sex is globally, becoming more widespread.
He said many who become sexually active at an early age do not know how to protect themselves during sexual activity, adding, “One third of the sexually transmitted infections (STIs) contracted each year globally are among women and men younger than 25 years of age.”
Highlighting the critical indicators of the Reproductive and Sexual Health of young people as presented in National Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS, 2008), he said, “The median age at first intercourse was 17.7 for women and 20.6 for men.”
According to Adegoke, this also increases the risk of new HIV infections, as it has also been found that only seven per cent of young men and women in Nigeria had been tested for HIV and received their results within the 12 months before the survey.
On how to get the country back on track, the programme stated the need for increased awareness and enlightenment on risky sexual behaviour and its effects through school health programmes. It also urged increased awareness on effects of substance abuse, use of peer educators in schools, as well as creation of opportunities to encourage parental and religious involvement in addressing and educating youths on reproductive health matters.
The battle to contain the human to human transmission of Ebola virus in Nigeria continues, especially through the neighbouring countries.
But is a fresh outbreak of the disease possible through animal sources?
I traveled to Osun State ,South Western Nigeria and it was business as usual. Locals preparing bush meat with their bare hands and eating bush meat to prove to our cameras that they are free of Ebola virus.
It was interesting to hear what the traveling customers who pull over to buy had to say to support of bush meat consumption irrespective of the recent alert to stop pending when Ebola outbreak ease off.
More than $1bn (£618m) is needed to fight the West Africa Ebola outbreak – a tenfold increase in the past month, the UN’s Ebola co-ordinator has said.
David Nabarro made the announcement as the World Health Organization (WHO) described the health crisis as “unparalleled in modern times”.
It has killed 2,461 people this year, half of the 4,985 infected by the virus, the global health body said.
There has been criticism of the slow international response to the epidemic.
Later, the US president is to announce plans to send 3,000 troops to Liberia, one of countries worst-affected by the outbreak, to help fight the virus.
A host of rural community dwellers in Delta State is benefitting from an initiative designed to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emission, save time and money spent on firewood, curb respiratory diseases and enhance the education of the girl-child.
Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta State
A collaboration involving the Climate Change Department of the Delta State Ministry of Environment, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Ecobank is improving household energy efficiency through the provision of locally fabricated eco-stoves in some rural communities.
The scheme, which is an offshoot of the state’s Women Climate Change Adaptation Project, commenced recently with community mobilisation and sensitisation in the three communities of Emonu, Ebor and Ugono-Orogun in Ughelli North Local Government Area (LGA) of the state.
The later phase of the project, which held 11th to 12th September 2014, entailed training/orientation of local stakeholders on the production of the stoves at Ebor Orogun Community, which was facilitated by officials of JIL Environmental Services and EnviruMedic.
Representatives of the project promoters: left to right: Okon Ekpenyong, Deputy Director, Energy Commission of Nigeria (ECN); Muyiwa Odele, Team Leader, Envieonment/Sustainable Development, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP); Felicia Edun, Permanent Secretary, Delta State Ministry of Environment; Famous Ajemrona, Regional Head, Edo/Delta, EcoBank; Emmanuel Duku, Area Manager, Delta Central, Ecobank; and, Ese Patricia Okogu, Finance Manager, BOI/UNDP Access to Renewable Energy (AtRE) Project, Bank of Industry (BOI)
Permanent Secretary, Delta State Ministry of Environment, Felicia Adun, described the training and production of energy efficient eco-stoves as one of Quick Win Projects for mitigation and adaptation to climate change being executed in vulnerable communities. Others are tree planting to form a green belt, installation of bio-sand water filter and biodigesters, provision of solar water heater, solar borehole treatment plants and solar refrigerators in primary healthcare centres across the state.
She said the projects are part of a programme tagged Territorial Approach to Climate Change (TACC), which seeks to reduce vulnerability of local communities to the “anticipated impacts of climate change and develop a low carbon and climate resilient society.”
The added: “The TACC programme thus far recorded a huge success as it has come up with very useful and tangible outputs such as the completion of a Biophysical and Socio-Economic Assessment of the nexus of Environmental Degradation and Climate Change in the state which has generated data and information necessary for an evidence-based policy making, programme planning and development.”
Team Leader, Environment/Sustainable Development at the UNDP, Muyiwa Odele, described climate change as a global phenomenon that is not limited to only Nigeria. Saying that women are mostly affected by the effects of climate change, he reminded the gathering of the extensive flooding in 2012 that effected several states including Delta.
But, according to him, climate change also offers an opportunity for people to become owners of their own destiny.
He said: “You need a lot of resources to do this, hence this partnership. You are being trained now so that you can manufacture the stoves yourselves. If you now know how to make the stoves, you can make them for yourselves, and even make more to sell to other people and make money for yourselves.
“But take note that it is your project, not ours. So you need to keep and preserve it well.”
Regional Head, Edo/Delta, Ecobank, Famous Ajemrona, described the project as one of the banks numerous attempts to promote environmental upkeep. He added that the success of the project would encourage the bank to do more.
Ajemrona addressing the gathering
“So we charge you to pay a lot of attention to the training so that it becomes a success. If you do it well, Ecobank might have no choice but to establish a branch in this community,” he added.
A woman leader in Emonu Orogun Community, Grace Osajoku, while testifying to the eco-stove, said that she now uses considerably less firewood “to conveniently fry more bags of garri.”
She went on: “The eco-stove is really effective. As I fry garri, I don’t feel the heat or smoke anylonger. We are really very happy. Even the garri we fry using the eco-stove is better. However, we find it difficult to get the clay (for the manufacture of the stoves), especially when it rains. Now that we have experienced this, we do not wish to go back to our old ways of cooking.”
An already fabricated eco-stove with two burners and a chimney hole
Chief Executive Officer of EnviruMedic, Monday Itoghor, while demonstrating how the stove is manufactured, disclosed that the major raw material is clay, which is processed and moulded to a stove with the desired numbers of burners and a chimney that will direct the smoke away from human contact. He said one can be built within a week as time is needed for the moulded clay to set and dry.
Okun Alfa is a coastal community located in Lagos, South-West Nigeria, on the coastline by the Atlantic Ocean.
The community beach, known as Alpha Beach, used to be a popular tourist destination for many fun seekers at weekends and festive periods.
However, an increasingly worrisome ocean surge and shoreline erosion in recent years have claimed the beach and now threatening the existence of the community, with massive flooding which has destroyed property worth millions of Naira.
The surge has washed away powerlines and poles, throwing the entire community into darkness
The only primary health care centre in the community has been destroyed and abandoned by health workers as the raging sea eats away land and destroys buildings
The once-thriving and renowned Alpha Beach, which used to host diverse socio-economic activities as well as local and international concerts, is now a ghost town, with the local economy crippled.
Some residents of Okun-Alfa believe that the unrelenting surges is a consequence of the multi-billion-dollar Eko Atlantic project being undertaken by the Lagos State Government across an adjourning area of the Lagos coastline. The project is the development and construction of a high-brow mixed-use development proposed to inhabit some 250,000 residents among other commercial property ventures on lands that are currently being reclaimed from the Atlantic Ocean.
The project involves the reclamation of 10km of land from the ocean which would be used for the construction of a Dubai-like city in Nigeria’s economic capital. The state government is reported to have embarked on the project in a bid to protect the Bar Beach (where the reclamation is ongoing) and the adjourning Ahmadu Bello Road on Victoria Island, as well as the entire island, which experiences flooding when the ocean water surges. Observers claim that the project (Eko Atlantic City) does not follow the needed due diligence process. The purported Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) for the project has never been made public amid claims by civil society practitioners that the undisclosed EIA is either incomplete or does not exist. But state officials insist that the project is an adaptation measure designed to restore what has been lost to the Atlantic Ocean in the past and then prevent future losses.
Recently, the state government commenced the construction of a drainage channel that is expected to align with a nearby channel in another community. This will allow the flood water in Okun-Alfa to flow out into the Lagos Lagoon. Residents see the drainage construction as a source of relief from the hardship they have experienced whenever there is a heavy downpour and surge of the Atlantic Ocean.
