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Lagos deaf church

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The Christian Holy Book, the Bible says: ‘let everything that has breath praise the Lord’. I witnessed a faithful devotion to this exhortation during a visit to a church for the deaf in Lagos. With drumming and dancing the congregation was full of happiness and joy despite their disability. Watch video…

Nigeria bags second REDD+ programme funding

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The Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) of the World Bank has approved Nigeria’s REDD Readiness Preparation Proposal (R-PP). The approval was made at the FCPF’s 16th Policy Council meeting that held a week ago in Geneva, Switzerland.

About $3.6 million will be allocated to Nigeria to implement the R-PP.

According to Salisu Dahiru, head of Nigeria’s UN-REDD+ Programme, the main objective of the R-PP is to further improve institutional capacity for REDD+ Governance at the federal level as well as expanding the scope of REDD+ activities to two additional states that hitherto were not part of the initiative.

He did not disclose the states involved.

A couple of years ago, Nigeria accessed a $4 million grant from the UN-REDD, giving birth to the nation’s first REDD+ Readiness Programme that is being implemented within a three-year span (commencing from late 2012), allowing Nigeria to craft the REDD+ mechanism through an innovative, two-track approach consisting of actions at both federal and state government levels.

At the federal level, the programme will create basic technical capacities, develop strategic and policy frameworks for REDD+, and support the alignment of the country with international climate change and environmental negotiations and agreements.

At the state level, the programme will conduct strategy-development and demonstration activities on REDD+ in Cross River State, which Dahiru said

Salisu Dahiru, Head of Nigeria's UN-REDD Programme
Salisu Dahiru, Head of Nigeria’s UN-REDD Programme

has shown a determined political commitment for green development as well as being home to more than 50 percent of the tropical high forest remaining in the country. The best practice and lessons learned in Cross River will be used to roll out REDD+ in other states across the country.

Dahiru explained why the nation sought the FCPF financing: “In view of the scale of Nigeria and the complexity of developing a REDD+ system for the entire country, which has a federal structure with 36 states, the UN-REDD support needs to be coupled with additional financial and technical assistance, notably to reinforce the federal-level REDD+ capacities and to expand REDD+ to new states (using the best practice, models, policies and measures that Cross River State will develop and test). Nigeria is a member of the FCPF and FCPF co-financing seems necessary for the country to further its REDD+ process.”

REDD+ implies Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation plus conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks.

Just like the UN-REDD (United Nations Collaborative Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries), the FCPF is a window to finance the REDD+ programme.

The UN-REDD is a collaboration involving the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO).

UN decorates outstanding environment-friendly initiatives

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Ghanaian bamboo bikes
Ghanaian bamboo bikes

Seventeen activities that serve as shining examples of the enormous groundswell of action underway across the globe to address climate change were honoured on Wednesday at an Oscar-like ceremony at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Warsaw, Poland.

The projects were selected as 2013 Lighthouse Activities under the Momentum for Change initiative of the United Nations Climate Change secretariat.
Taking place in countries across four continents, the activities showcased range from both small, entrepreneurial solutions, such as a women-led project that builds bamboo bicycles in Ghana, as well as large initiatives, such as a financing scheme in the Philippines to unlock resources needed to address climate change. Each of the activities is driven by people who are passionate about providing climate change solutions for their cities and communities.
To help celebrate and recognise the achievements of the 2013 Lighthouse Activities, attendees at the gala event were treated to inspiring speeches, powerful photos, inspirational videos and a rousing musical performance by Rocky Dawuni, Goodwill Ambassador for the Global Alliance of Clean Cookstoves.
“These activities shine a light on the work being done throughout the world to build a low-carbon, resource efficient world,” said UNFCCC Executive Secretary Christiana Figueres. “Not only are these activities tackling climate change, they are also generating health, financial and social benefits in the communities where they take place. They are true beacons of hope, demonstrating what happens when innovation and passion come together to address the biggest challenge of our time.”
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the innovative ideas of the Lighthouse Activity representatives are helping people around the world respond to climate change: “Momentum for Change shines a light on local efforts to address the impacts of climate change. These initiatives are delivering profound economic, social and environmental benefits and demonstrating the power of innovative finance and the potential for long-term transformational change by women and urban poor. They deserve to be scaled-up and replicated.”
Selected from a pool of 252 worthy applications, the 17 Lighthouse Activities honoured at Wednesday’s ceremony were:
*  Australia: 1 Million Women, building a movement to get one million women to take small steps in their everyday lives to cut greenhouse gas emissions
*  Bangladesh: Climate Change Adaptation and Disaster Risk Reduction, a women-centered initiative to address extreme weather conditions in vulnerable communities
*  China: The China CDM Fund, supporting low-carbon growth and climate resilience through levies on clean development mechanism projects
*  Ghana: Recycle not a Waste Initiative, empowering street youth to turn recyclable waste into a low-carbon business opportunity
*  Ghana: Bamboo Bikes Initiative, women leading on climate change by building high-quality bamboo bicycles
*  Multi-regional: Redavia, leasing affordable solar farms without up-front capital investment or long-term obligations
*  Multi-regional: The Adaptation for Smallholder Agriculture Programme, spearheaded by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) channeling climate finance to smallholder farmers to build their resilience to climate change
*  Guatemala: Alliance for International Reforestation: Women Farmers in Guatemala, planting trees to sequester carbon and improve farming techniques
*  India: Pollinate Energy, bringing solar energy to Bangalore’s slums while creating green jobs
*  India: Community Based Micro Climate Resilience, building flood-resilient and affordable homes
*  Kenya: The BOMA Project, enabling vulnerable women to adapt to climate change by building small businesses
*  Liberia: Fostering Innovative Sanitation and Hygiene, providing fecal sludge management services in poor areas, capturing biogas and reducing methane emissions.
*  Mexico: ECOCASA, unlocking financing to build low-carbon housing and increase the number of “green” mortgages.
*  Mozambique: Public Private People Partnerships for Climate Compatible Development, empowering the urban poor to design and implement activities to adapt to climate change
*  Philippines: Sustainable Energy Finance Program, an innovative financing scheme to unlock resources needed to address climate change
*  South Africa: Food & Trees for Africa, fostering women’s leadership through planting trees and raising awareness about climate change
*  Sudan: Low Smoke Stoves Project, providing mico-financing opportunities to replace polluting cook stoves with energy-efficient cook stoves
The 2013 Lighthouse Activities were selected by a 16-member, international advisory panel as part of the secretariat’s Momentum for Change initiative, which is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and The Rockefeller Foundation, and operates in partnership with the World Economic Forum.

Fulfill water, sanitation commitments, report urges Nigerian govt

Open defacation
Open defacation

As the World marked this year’s World Toilet Day on Tuesday, a new report jointly published by the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council,  WaterAid and Unilever has called on governments, including that of Nigerian, to keep their promises and implement the commitments made at national, regional (AfricaSan, SACOSAN) and global levels (Sanitation and Water for All).

Furthermore, they must significantly increase financial resources to the sector, use these resources wisely and ensure that the most marginalised and vulnerable people are targeted.
Presenting the report titled: “We Can’t Wait” at a United Nations event in New York, the three bodies called on governments (of both developing and donor countries) to strengthen the sanitation sector and bring the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target on sanitation back on track as an immediate and urgent political priority.
In the report, UN Deputy-Secretary General, Jan Eliasson, and Paul Polman, Unilever Chief Executive Officer, declared: “One person in three lacks access to adequate sanitation. The result is widespread death and diseases – especially among children – and social marginalisation. Women are particularly vulnerable. We simply cannot wait. By acting decisively we can now make a positive impact on global health, education, women’s safety, social equality and economic growth for generations to come”.
The report listed a number of recommendations to include: Sanitation should be integrated into education policy supported by sufficient resources and concrete plans; All schools should have adequate sanitation facilities including hand washing facilities and separate toilets for boys and girls with access for students with disabilities; Specific provision should be made in schools to establish proper menstrual hygiene management facilities; and, Hygiene promotion is featured as an important part of the school curriculum from primary level.
However, in a  reaction to the report, Nigeria’s Water and Sanitation Media Network expressed regret that the Nigerian government has failed to fulfill any of the 26 commitments it made at the high level meetings.
’Nigeria has not fully achieved any of the 26 water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) commitments it voluntarily made in several high level meetings between 2000 and 2012. These commitments made at four high level meetings between 2000-2012: the World Summit in Johannesburg 2000; United Nations Assembly, New York in 2010; African Sanitation and Hygiene Conference, eThekwini in 2011; and the Sanitation and Water for All meeting in Washington, in 2012; but none of them have been fulfilled so far by the Nigerian government,” said the Water and Sanitation Media Network in a statement signed by his Chair, Babatope Babalobi.
Babalobi
Babalobi

“This explains why 35 million Nigerians still defecate in the open, about 90 million are without access to safe drinking water, and 130,000 under-five Nigerian children die annually from preventable water borne disease,” he added.

Some of these unfulfilled commitments include: Harmonisaiton of water and sanitation policies; Promoting WASH in schools; Intensify increasing water and sanitation budgets by 15 percent; Ensuring that at least 0.5 percent of the Gross Domestic Product is earmarked to promoting sanitation and hygiene; Declaring access to water and sanitation a human right; Encouraging state and local governments to create budget lines for sanitation; Scaling up community-led total sanitation in the 36 states; Increasing national access to improved sanitation to 65 percent by 2015; and, Increasing national access to improved water by at least five percent by 2014.
The body therefore called on the Federal Government in Nigeria to keep its promises and initiate practical policies, programmes and projects to develop the country’s WASH sector, and improve access to WASH services.
On the occasion of the 2013 World Toilet Day celebration , the Water and Sanitation Media Network urged the Nigerian government to stop “talking the talk” but  start “walking the talk” because, according to the organisation, “33 million people are without toilets, over 868,000 Nigerian children die each year, about a quarter of which are from water related and vaccine preventable diseases such as pneumonia, diarrhea, meningitis and measles. And, according to a United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) report, Nigeria may not achieve the MDG water target before 2046 and that of sanitation by 2076.”

Oladipo: Why Nigeria needs climate commission

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Prof. Oladipo
Prof. Oladipo

An environmentalist, Professor Emmanuel Oladipo, has said that Nigeria still has a lot to do in terms of protecting the environment.

Oladipo observed that there is desert encroachment up north of the country while gully erosion was fast degrading and destroying the environment.

Professor Oladipo who once taught Geography at the Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, called for an immediate establishment of what he calls “ Climate Change Commission or Agency” to handle climate change in Nigeria with every sense of seriousness.

He argued that Nigeria exists and lives in a limited and fragile environment made up of many components requiring a great deal of management for its preservation, warning that “the environment is very critical and determines whether we survive or not”.

He also observed that land does not grow, but that the Nigerian population is growing at an alarming rate thereby posing more danger ahead.

Oladipo, who represented Nigeria on the Global Committee on Science and Technology of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), said desertification is not only due to changes in climatic conditions but also a function of how humanity manages the environment.

“The more we utilise a particular land to get products out of it over and over without putting back into that land, definitely reduces its productivity. If we continue to use the land this way with the several climatic changes taking place, the land will not yield much and therefore becomes degraded. In some instances it is washed away and becomes mere sand. The wind piles this up and turns to sand dunes. So desertification is the gradual process of the inability of humanity to use land in a productive and sustainable way. In some parts of the extreme north of Nigeria, the land has been totally degraded,” he explained.

“Otherwise after a while, like we have in some areas of Maiduguri now, even digging wells will not give us water any more. And. So my interest has been to help propose ways by which to manage our land in which government has to really greatly invest to ensure that agricultural practices in these parts of the country are not withering the land to the extent that it becomes completely degraded,” he added.

Nigeria is party to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The body, over the years, has worked to bring to global agreement to reduce the amount of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions which are responsible for the increasing changes in climatic conditions witnessed around the globe today. As a result of being a member of this Convention, there are many obligations that Nigeria has to fulfil.

The National Communication to the UNFCCC was one of such obligations that Nigeria had to fulfil on climate change. Professor Oladipo also facilitated the production of that first communication to the UNFCCC. He remarked that though Nigeria has made appreciable achievement on climate change, much was still being expected from the country.

“It is true that Nigeria currently has now a National Policy on climate change and has a National Plan of Action to Respond to Adaptation. However, policies are not enough. The implementations are very critical and that is where the country is not pushing enough. A lot of attempts have been made to create a climate change commission or agency for government to attach a significance importance to issues of climate change. Two times, the House has passed the bill, but the Presidency has not accented to it. Establishment of this commission or agency would demonstrate to the world that Nigeria is serious on issues of climate change,” Oladipo explained.

It is recalled that last year, Nigeria witnessed devastating effects of flooding. Part of the cause of the flooding can be linked to changes in the climatic condition.

“There is the need for Nigeria to look inwards as a nation and put in place strategic action plans that can help the country adjust to changes in the climatic conditions. It is worthy of note that a recent report by the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) demonstrates that Nigeria is not likely to be out of the woods yet as far as climate change is concerned,” he concluded.

By Nkechinyere Itodo

Will decision on REDD+ emissions verification emerge in Warsaw?

REDD_redLouis Verchot is normally an optimist, but even he is doubtful: “It’s been four years since the debate on measuring, reporting and verifying (MRV) carbon emissions started and yet we still see disagreements on how to make decisions.”
Verchot, a research director at the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), is referring to the meeting that never was. Earlier this year, the Subsidiary Body for Implementation – the group charged with implementing and financing decisions by the 190 nations involved in the annual UN climate talks – was blocked from meeting by Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, which were more than a little annoyed at being ignored at the conclusion of last year’s climate meeting in Doha.
It is symptomatic of a wider problem of division between countries – a problem that has also been stalling progress on verification of carbon emissions as part of a scheme to reduce emissions from deforestation (REDD+), in which developed countries provide financial incentives to developing forested countries to keep their trees standing.
Russia’s impasse didn’t stop all progress at the Bonn meeting. The Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA) prepared a draft decision on how to verify REDD+ emissions before money is disbursed and also developed a detailed outline of technical reporting requirements.
The science behind calculating carbon emissions is now strong, but the politics of verifying measurements is complex. A decision needs to be reached in Warsaw as “next year we’ll really be thinking more about the new agreement (to replace the Kyoto Protocol) and phasing in what has (already) been done with REDD+,” says Tony La Vina, negotiator for the Philippines.
Until recently, it wasn’t just politics holding up progress at UN meetings.
When the idea of an international scheme for reducing emissions from deforestation was first floated at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change’s 7th Conference of the Parties (UNFCCC COP7) in 2001, it was rejected because, among other reasons, it was perceived to be too difficult to calculate the emissions avoided by keeping forests standing.
But since COP11 in Montreal in 2005, when developing countries again raised the idea as part of their contribution to addressing climate change, various tools, ideas and concepts had been developed to resolve the technical problems and figure out ways to make the necessary calculations – even in countries with low capacity and few data. But as no country is yet at the stage of REDD+ where verification is needed, there are still three to five years to experiment.
Developing countries (such as Brazil) are objecting to having costly, independent verification of emissions imposed on them by donor countries (such as Norway, the United States, Australia), which need to tick the boxes to ensure taxpayers’ aid money is being spent wisely.
They have a point. Many developing countries do not have the technical capacity to engage in complex reporting and verification schemes. And verification costs money.
Developed countries also have a point. Development aid finance is not designed to support this type of funding – lump sum payments for achieving emission reductions.  Development finance must achieve objectives and contribute to non-carbon benefits (such as poverty alleviation and biodiversity conservation), says Michael Dutschke, director of Biocarbon Consult, an international network of policy advisors for planning and implementation of market-driven climate change mitigation.
“An agreement on verification in Warsaw will only relate to a minor share of REDD+ funding under the UNFCCC (for example, the Green Climate Fund, which is not yet operational),” he says. “All other bilateral dealings, even those of multinational institutions like the World Bank, are subject to contractual law anyway, and will have their own MRV requirements.”
Countries reached a compromise in Bonn and tabled an internal review process for discussion in Warsaw. If adopted, it will require all countries seeking to receive payments based on a reduction of emissions to:
·         submit a report estimating their carbon emissions to the UNFCCC every two years based on the latest IPCC greenhouse gas inventory guidelines.
·         submit a technical annex on the methodologies used to calculate the reference (emission) level and emissions for the reporting period (see here for our line-by-line analysis of SBSTA’s draft technical annex).
·         have their report reviewed by a technical team of experts, including a developed and developing country expert from the UNFCCC roster who will assess it for transparency, consistency, completeness and accurateness.
·         work with the review team to clarify issues and provide additional information.
“Countries can now actually see what kind of information they will have to provide and can internally assess how burdensome it would be to provide that information,” Verchot says.
The draft decision is weak in two areas:
·         It is not clear on how a country would be required to respond to a negative reviewer and at the moment any negative judgments only need to be “noted it in the summary report”.
·         It does not specify how policies and policy changes should be addressed in the country reference level and whether the technical team of experts has the right to assess these or to give advice to the government. 
So what is the likelihood of a decision in Warsaw?
If the Subsidiary Body for Implementation impasse continues, verification discussions may be pushed late into the second week (and we may have another overtime COP on our hands).
But if the verification debate looks like it will kill the negotiating process, it is better to be less ambitious and only agree on rules of reporting, says Markku Kanninen from the University of Helsinki.
“Countries only have one and a half years to agree on the next climate treaty. Forget about verification, forget about payments at this stage. Just agree on principles – that countries will report emissions and that countries reducing emissions will get compensated. All the details can be pushed into the next phase.” 
The stalemate harks back to the fact that REDD+ was designed as a market-based mechanism, he says. “There will be no strong carbon market unless there is a strong commitment from industrialised countries to reduce emissions.”
But the rules of the game seem to be changing. The past few decades, marked by the division of countries between Annex I and Annex II, rich and poor, North and South, developed and developing may no longer be appropriate, with the draft compromise on emission reductions a sign of things to come, says Verchot.
“The Kyoto era is almost over; the next climate agreement will mandate both developing and developed countries to take action on curbing emissions. Things are starting to change but the proof of the pudding will be in the eating. If money changes hands with this system then it will be a change.”

World Bank warns that damages from extreme weather are rising

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Super Typhoon ruinsAs the global climate continues to change, the costs and damages from more extreme weather related to a warming planet are growing. While all countries are impacted, developing
nations bear the brunt of mounting losses in lives and livelihoods from increasingly severe floods, droughts, and storms.

“Typhoon Haiyan, the most powerful typhoon ever to hit the Philippines, has brought into sharp focus how climate change is intensifying the severity of extreme weather events, which hurts the poor the most,” said Jim Yong Kim, World Bank Group President. “While the immediate relief effort must be front and center of our attention today, such tragic events show that the world can no longer afford to put off action to slow greenhouse emissions, and help countries prepare for a world of greater climate and disaster risks.”

More can be done to help vulnerable countries adapt to climate change, as well as prepare for and respond to weather-related disasters, according to a new World Bank report released recently on the sidelines of the UN climate talks in Warsaw, Poland.

Titled “Building Resilience: Integrating Climate and Disaster Risk into Development,” the report looks at the gradual or slow-onset effects of climate change like sea-level rise, salinisation of freshwater sources and droughts, as well as extreme weather events like floods, heat-waves or cyclones.

Produced before Typhoon Haiyan left its deadly trail of destruction across the Philippines, the report describes the costs of weather disasters the lives and jobs lost as well as in losses and damages to private property and infrastructure, and their particular impact on the poor.

“Over the last 30 years, the world has lost more than 2.5 million people and almost $4 trillion to natural disasters. Economic losses are rising – from $50 billion each year in the 1980s, to just under $200 billion each year in the last decade. . And about three quarters of those losses are a
result of extreme weather,” said Rachel Kyte, World Bank Vice-President for Sustainable Development. “While you cannot connect any single weather event to climate change, scientists have warned that extreme weather events will increase in intensity if climate change is left unchecked.”

With a focus on lessons from World Bank Group experience, the new Bank report calls for national governments and the international development community to work across disciplines and sectors to build long-term resilience, reduce disaster risk and avoid unmanageable future costs.

The main findings include:

·         Loss and damages from disasters have been rising over the last three decades, from an annual average of around $50 billion in the 1980s to just under $200 billionn each year in the last decade. According to the reinsurance company, Munich Re, data, total reported losses from disasters are estimated at $3.8 trillion in the period from 1980 to 2012 with 74% due to extreme-weather.

·         Weather-related economic impacts are especially high in fast-growing, middle-income countries due to increasingly exposed, valuable assets. The average impact of disasters equaled 1% of GDP over the six years from 2001 to 2006, ten times higher than the average for high-income countries.

·         The impacts are particularly crippling in smaller and lower-income countries that are least able to cope. Hurricane Tomas, for example, devastated St Lucia in 2010 and wiped out the equivalent of 43% of GDP. In the Horn of Africa, the extended 2008-11 drought, which at its peak left 13.3 million people facing food shortages, caused estimated total losses of $12.1 billion in Kenya alone.

·         Climate and disaster-resilient development can save lives and livelihoods and protect the poor from climate shocks. Early warning systems have been proven to save countless lives worldwide, and typically yield benefits that are four to36 times higher than initial cost outlay. Cyclone Phailin which hit Odisha and Andrah Pradesh in 2013 resulted in 40 deaths after years of disaster risk prevention and preparedness, compared to the 10,000 who perished during a similar event in 1999.

·         There are big pay-offs despite upfront investment costs. Disaster assessment experience suggests it costs 10-50% more to build safer infrastructure than to replace original structures. For large-scale infrastructure it can be substantially higher. For example, following the 2008 floods in Namibia investments were needed to elevate roads and improve drainage in flood prone areas. This carried a cost 5.5 times the replacement value of damaged structures.

Much is known already on how to build resilience, but better cooperation is needed among relevant agencies and disciplines. The World Bank and other partners have accumulated a wealth of global expertise in resilient development – but it requires better harmonisation of climate and disaster management agendas to prevent fragmentation of local capacity and global resources.

COP 19: African CSOs demand full implementation of agreements

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SONY DSCCivil society organisation (CSOs) across Africa have demanded that developed countries fulfil and implement their commitments under the UN climate convention, in order to fairly share a necessary “emissions budget,” and avoid catastrophic climate change.

At a press conference held immediately after the opening session of the 19th session of the UN Warsaw Climate Conference, the group said that Africa is in the frontline for climate change impacts.

“We watch with horror what has happened in the Philippines, and know that it is happening in our homes too,” Mithika Mwenda, the Secretary General of the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA), said.

“I don’t know how rich countries can ignore the facts being screamed by mother nature, nor the cries being made by the world’s poor – the time has come to cut climate changing causing emissions and to cut them deep,” Mwende said.

“Africans expect our governments to stand firm on setting an emissions budget, as recommended by the IPCC. They must then share this budget fairly, based on historical responsibility and capacities,” said Dr. Habtemariam Abate, from Ethiopian Civil Society Network on Climate Change.

Salisu Dahiru, Head of Nigeria's UN-REDD Programme, in Warsaw, Poland
Salisu Dahiru, Head of Nigeria’s UN-REDD Programme, in Warsaw, Poland

“These negotiations are about the emissions budget, whether governments admit it or not, they either negotiate to share that budget fairly, or they plan to exceed it,” Dr Abate added.

“African civil society has strong and clear proposals for how to deliver energy to those who do not have it whilst avoiding the trap of dirty fossil fuels and therefore allowing us to live within the emissions budget. Proposals include a globally funded feed in tariff – we expect such a measure to be adopted here in Warsaw,” Azeb Girmai, from LDC Watch, said.

“Warsaw can be the moment the world chooses clean over dirty energy and Africa will be leading in that choice,” Girmai, said. “African people need an international mechanism to address loss and damage from climate change. That’s the reality. We see it every day. Perhaps the rich only see it on television – well they need to turn it on, watch it, learn, and then take responsibility for the suffering their emissions have caused.” Robert Chimambo, from Zambia Climate Change Network, said.

“The best agreement on Earth won’t make a difference without implementation in the real world. That’s why a clear outcome in Warsaw must be drastically scaled up climate finance and technology transfer. Only if those commitments are met can African governments really believe that the rich world plans to act in good faith on any future agreement,” said Agnes Banda from Malawi, one of the most vulnerable countries.

PACJA released several briefs outlining their analysis, shared with other civil society observers, on the issues of: Equity, Markets, Pledge and Review (form of the post-2020 agreement), and Global Feed in Tariff.

A continental coalition of CSOs from diverse backgrounds in Africa, PACJA has emerged as a vibrant CSO platform on climate change and sustainable development. With a membership of more than 500 organisations and networks, the Alliance brings together faith-based organisations, farmers and pastoralists` groups, community-based organisations, non-governmental organisations, trusts, and foundations, among other sectors with a common goal of promoting and advocating for pro-poor, climate-friendly and equity-based responses to climate change.

Proper positioning to access Green Climate Fund

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Nigeria has taken up a campaign to build the capacity of national planners in order to strengthen the integration of climate change in national development plans and strategies. The initiative is based on a training module developed by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) office in partnership with the Department of Climate Change (DCC) in the Federal Ministry of Environment (FME).

According to the organisers, the training will be rolled out in the states to strengthen the country’s readiness and properly position it towards accessing the Green Climate Fund (GCF). This will likewise ensure that the facility is effectively utilised in alignment with national priorities. The training will also equip beneficiaries with the necessary skills for mainstreaming climate change into national and sub-national development programmes.

The GCF is a fund within the framework of the United Nations GCFFramework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) founded as a mechanism to transfer money from the developed to the developing world, in order to assist the developing countries in adaptation and mitigation practices to counter climate change. The GCF is based in the new Songdo district of IncheonSouth Korea. It is governed by a Board of 24 members and initially supported by an Interim Secretariat.

At a recent forum held in Abuja at the instance of the FME, UNDP, Economic Policy Analysis Centre (EPAC) and the National Planning Commission (NPC) to kick-start the scheme, policymakers and private sector players were given practical guidance on how climate change adaptation can be mainstreamed into development plans and strategies as part of measures to deal with impending climate threats in the country.

Participant trainees included representatives of FME, NPC, Energy Commission of Nigeria (ECN) as well as Ministries of Trade & Investments, Finance, Foreign Affairs, Health, and Women Affairs.

Director, CCD of the FME, Dr. Samuel Adejuwon, stated: “Let me reiterate that the ministry is committed to continuous delivery of robust leadership on national climate change governance and synergy with all stakeholders.”

Executive Secretary of the NPC, Ntufam Fidelis Ugbo, said that the Commission is determined to strengthen its on-going partnership with the FME and other relevant stakeholders in: promoting green growth through the global renewable energy system; adaptation of the protocols to Nigeria’s ecological uniqueness; pollution control and waste management; management of land degradation and desertification; environmental governance, sustainable use and conservation of natural resources; strengthening of institutional capacity of the relevant agencies, such as National Oil Sill, Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA), National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA) and National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA); and actualisation of the full implementation of the Great Green Wall (GGW) Programme in the frontline states of Kebbi, Sokoto, Zamfara, Katsina, Jigawa, Kano, Yobe, Borno and Gombe.

His words: “I wish to add that the issue of impact of climate change is not political, but a developmental issue that must be addressed collectively.  This was amply demonstrated by the 2012 floods which resulted to a huge human and material loss to the nation.  The impact provided a learning point for the nation.  It has become imperative to incorporate lessons from climate change in the design and implementation of our various development plans.”

Participants however lamented that awareness on issues of climate change is very low especially amongst vulnerable groups. They likewise frowned at the weak political will to drive climate change issues as well as a weak funding mechanism and institutional framework.

They urged government to put in place a system of dissemination of data and to embark on human and infrastructure capacity building for all aspects of mainstreaming climate change into national development.

The trainees clamoured the deployment of appropriate methods for the development of functional and sustainable database, adding that an elaborate advocacy and awareness programme should be embarked upon.

They resolved: “A coordinating institution should be established to oversee the mainstreaming of climate change into development activities. Apart from promoting activities that enhance energy efficiency and conservation, partnership should be strengthened with development partners, organised private sector and non-governmental organisations (NGOs).

“The authorities should also promote activities that will support green economy, increase industrialisation and reduce pollution and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. While establishing adequate funding mechanism, appropriate technologies should be developed for sound management of non-biodegradable and biodegradable wastes from ‘cradle’ to ‘grave’.”

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