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UNEP strengthened to implement Rio+20 agenda

Michael Simire
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Starting from  an office above a supermarket 40 years ago, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has been modernised into a strengthened and upgraded institution better able to meet the challenges and opportunities of the 21st century.

The decision, by ministers of the environment meeting at the UNEP Governing Council, implements the call by Heads of States and governments in the “Future We Want” forged at the close of Rio+20 conference last June in Brazil.

Governments have also backed more predictable, stable and increased funding for UNEP from the UN Regular Budget by 2014, apparently underlining increasing confidence in UNEP’s ability and role to deliver the environmental dimension of sustainable development.

Ministers meeting for the first time under universal membership of 193 member states – again as a result of the decisions taken and adopted last year at Rio+20 and the UN General Assembly later in the year – adopted a welter of other decisions relating to the way UNEP will operate and work as the global platform for environmental policy-making and action over the coming years and decades.

Governments called for  the transformation of the existing Governing Council into a UN  Environment Assembly of UNEP and to build stronger links between UNEP’s science-based Global Environment Outlook process and its ministerial meetings—further implementing the call  by member states at Rio+20 to strengthen the science-policy interface.

Steiner

Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General and UNEP Executive Director, said at the close: “The theme at this historic, universal membership Governing Council was Rio+20: From Outcome to Implementation—and that was precisely what happened over the past five days”.

“Ministers responsible for the environment implemented the strengthening and upgrading of UNEP to an institution better equipped and resourced to serve the planet and its people to meet the ever growing challenges posed by ecosystem degradation to the growth of greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere while catalysing transformational change to seize the equally fast growing opportunities for a sustainable development path change,” he said.

“Meanwhile ministers responsible for the environment took also took forward the wider implementation of the Rio+20 outcome document—the Future We Want—across a broad sweep of issues and actions from support for 30 countries to make a green economy transition; building a stronger science-policy interface, and strengthening the exercise of environmental laws to fast tracking action on persistent and emerging issues, support for renewable energy under the UN climate convention and the decade long initiative on decoupling natural resource use from economy growth—in short the 10YFP,” said Steiner.

“Heads of State at Rio+20 grasped the sobering science, laid out in reports like UNEP’s Global Environment Outlook-5, and put in the foundations for new pathways and new directions to achieve a sustainable century—here ministers and delegations from over 150 nations have been the architects and designers of an evolved UNEP with greater authority, impact and pathways to deliver the Future We Want,” he added.

Among the wealth of other decisions taken at the first Universal Membership of the UNEP Governing Council were:-

·A UNEP-led consortium will host and coordinate the Climate Technology Centre and Network (CTCN) which will be the implementing arm of the Technology Mechanism of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

The CTCN will work on leap-frogging the technical and financial hurdles to the even greater take-up of clean and renewable energies to low carbon transportation and energy efficient buildings.

·Full operationalisation of a decade-long initiative to decouple economic growth from unsustainable use of natural resources and pollution generation–the 10 Year Framework of Programmes for Sustainable Consumption and Production Patterns (10YFP for SCP).

The UNEP-hosted initiative will assist countries in areas from sustainable public procurement, lifestyles and education to sustainable buildings and construction and sustainable tourism, including ecotourism—again bringing from outcome to implementation other key aspects of the Rio+20 Future We Want.

·Governments also decided to convene in October this year an intergovernmental diplomatic conference to formally adopt the Minamata Convention on Mercury that was agreed  in January in Geneva under a UNEP-facilitated negotiation–again a further implementation of the Rio+20 outcome document.

The mercury treaty, aimed at reducing releases and emissions of a notorious health-hazardous heavy metal from source such as artisanal small-scale mining, medical equipment and power stations, will open for signature at the conference in Japan en route to ratification and coming into force.

Inclusive Green Economy

The summary by the President of the Governing Council, Hassan Abdel Hilal, Minister of Environment, Forests and Physical Development, Sudan, noted that many ministers called for a driving forward of the Green Economy in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication.

Several suggested that efforts should initially focus on areas where fast action might happen soonest including in area such as energy, water and agriculture.

UNEP unveiled the Partnership for Action on a Green Economy (PAGE) in order to implement the outcomes of Rio+20 and meet the needs of countries keen to join such a transformation.

PAGE, which will initially support 30 countries on Green Economy work, is backed by UNEP, the International Labour Organization (ILO), the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR).

Sustainable Development Goals

The meeting also discussed the role of the environment in the post-2015 agenda and the discourse surrounding the development of a set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which was informed by the presence of Amina J Mohamed, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s Special Adviser on Post-2015 Development Planning.

·In his summary, the President observed that many representatives observed that UNEP should play an important role in promoting environmental sustainability in the proposed goals and post-2015 agenda

·They also that achieving sustainable patterns of consumption and production should be one of the SDGs

Environmental Law

Governments also gave a big boost to environmental law, building on the UNEP-convened World Congress on Justice, Governance and Law for Environmental Sustainability held during Rio+20 last June.

·Ministers and delegates today asked UNEP to lead the United Nations system and support national Governments in the development and implementation of environmental rule of law including boosting information disclosure, environmental auditing and independent dispute resolution.

Medium-Term Strategy and Budget

A medium-term strategy for UNEP’s work up to 2017 was also adopted focusing on themes outlined in the Rio+20 outcome across seven priority areas while approving a more detailed work plan for the organization for 2014-15, which provides for strengthened responsiveness to country needs and more funds for direct activities including via a re-structuring of elements of UNEP’s finances to be more stable and predictable via an increase to be approved from the UN Regular Budget.

From the Launch of Cutting Edge Reports to World-Class Meeting of Youth, Judges and Women Environment Ministers and Leaders

In advance and during the Governing Council UNEP launched a series of reports and hosted awareness-raising events and meetings of other stakeholders aimed at improving the science base available to policy makers, prompting further transformative action, and highlighting key issues the organization will be working on in 2013 and beyond.

A UNEP-World Health Organisation report on endocrine-disrupting chemicals unveiled new science on this subset of chemicals, which affect the hormone systems of humans and animals.

·Many such chemicals are untested for their effects, and The State of the Science of Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals called for more research to understand fully the associations between these chemicals, found in many household and industrial products, and specific diseases and disorders.

UNEP and the Food and Agricultural Organization off the UN’s  Think.Eat.Save. Reduce Your Foodprint campaign on cutting food waste hosted a reception dinner for hundreds of policy makers. The campaign is in support of the UN Secretary-General’s Zero Hunger Challenge.

·The reception highlighted the scale of waste in Kenya and globally by preparing the meal from almost 2,000 kilogrammes fruit and vegetables that had been rejected by UK supermarkets for cosmetic reasons.

Young people representing over 100 countries at the UNEP Tunza International Youth Conference, which took place in Nairobi a week earlier, issued a statement to the Governing Council calling for governments, business, cities and civil society to support UNEP’s campaign.

·The Tunza youth statement also called for reduced food waste and loss to be a post-2015 development target as a Sustainable Development Goal.

Also on the topic of the global food system, the UNEP-commissioned report Our Nutrient World laid out how humans—in pursuit of greater food production– have in many areas altered the natural flows of nitrogen, phosphorus and other nutrients, causing a web of water and air pollution.

The UNEP Year Book 2013 highlighted the accelerated melting of sea ice in the Arctic, urging caution on moves to take advantage of the retreating ice to exploit resources and open up shipping routes.

·It also highlighted a spike in the illegal wildlife trade that has sent the numbers of elephants and rhinos poached soar – an issue that UNEP and its related conventions such as CITES are bringing to the attention of the global public.

·During the meeting for example UNEP signed an agreement with Shanghai, one of the world’s most-populous cities, to promote awareness among the city’s citizens of negative consequences of the illegal wildlife trade.

Women Environment Ministers

The day before the Governing Council got underway, the Network of Women Ministers and Leaders for the Environment (NWMLE) and UNEP hosted the second High-Level Gender Forum.

The forum participants called upon ministers and environmental leaders to have dedicated officials for coordination of related gender and environment programmes and agreed to send a consolidated proposal on gender actions to be forwarded for consideration by UN Secretary General’s High-level Panel of Eminent Persons on the Post 2015 Development Agenda.

·The women ministers also requested nations to support the ratification of the Minamata convention on Mercury, which opens for signing in October.

Other highlights included:

·The launch of a collaboration with the Global Off-Grid Lighting Association to replace millions of kerosene lamps, candles and flashlights used worldwide with modern solar lighting and reduce the estimated 74 million tons of annual carbon emissions from fuel-based light sources commonly used in developing countries;

·Celebrations of the first anniversary of The Climate and Clean Air Coalition, a global initiative to significantly reduce emissions of black carbon, methane and other substances known as short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs) that since its launch has been joined by 27 countries, bodies like the  European Commission and the World Bank and 28 non-state organizations;

·The signing of an agreement with HRH Princess Lalla Hasna of Morocco, Chairwoman of the Mohammed VI Foundation for the Protection of the Environment, on youth engagement;

·Dozens of media roundtables and side events on issues such as the Green Economy, poverty and environment linkages, Sustainable Consumption and Production, renewable energy, climate change, REDD+, sustainable transport, and the post-Rio+20 environment and Sustainable Development Goals.

A tale of two dams

Michael Simire
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The Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET) has warned that the rains will be intensive this year and that communities located along the Niger River basin should brace up for more flood.

NIMET officials gave the prediction recently while presenting the agency’s report of this year’s rainfall expectations. They put the commencement of the rains from February running through June, with a lull between early October and late December across the country.

Last year’s episode is still very fresh in our minds. It was a national disaster. Numerous communities were overrun by flood as major rivers, swollen from weeks of torrential rainfall and release of water upstream, overflowed their banks. Thousands were displaced and they had to be accommodated at relief camps established at several locations.

The incident started when the Benue River flooded adjourning communities. The river was said to have been distended by large volumes of water released upstream at the Lagdo Dam in Cameroon.

Since 1982 when the dam was built in Lagdo town on the Adamawa Plateau in the Northern Province of Cameroon along the course of the Benue River, lowland communities in north-eastern Nigerian states (of Borno, Adamawa and Taraba) especially those located downstream within the River Benue drainage basin are usually flooded whenever water is released from the reservoir.

Last year was not an exception as the floods submerged hundreds of settlements in Adamawa State, killing people and displacing thousands of families. Many were reportedly missing. The entire upper and lower Benue River basin was extensively flooded.

The deluge spread to other parts of the country, this time due largely to the Niger River’s flooding.

Concerns were also raised over what looks like a disaster waiting to happen. Ironically, it also concerns Cameroon, where the notorious Lake Nyos is located.

Scientists fear that the protective walls of the lake are weakening and could collapse at any time and, in the process, free its large volume of water, which is expected to flow along a course from its native Cameroun into neighbouring Nigeria, where settlements will be extensively flooded.

Now, proposals have been put forward to address both Cameroon-related scenarios, but with little achieved in terms of these ideas seeing the light of the day.

For instance, following an agreement involving Nigeria and Cameroon in 1980, the Nigerian government committed to building a dam along the course of the Benue River, ostensibly to contain the gushing water released upstream from Lagdo Dam and curb flooding and attendant destruction of property and loss of lives.

In 1981, a shock-absorber dam was designed. Tagged the “Dasin Hausa Dam,” the multi-purpose facility was, besides cushioning the effect of the Lagdo Dam flooding, supposed to generate some 300mw of electricity and irrigate about 150,000 hectares of land (and provide crop tonnage of 790,000 tons in Adamawa, Taraba and Benue states). Similarly, it was meant to provide employment opportunities for 40,000 families and make available navigational route of the Benue River to the Niger Delta.

The project site is the Dasin Village of Fufore Local Government Area of Adamawa State.

Cameroonian authorities insist that they will continue to release excess water to avoid the dam’s collapse. According to a source, since the release of excess water from Cameroon cannot be stopped, construction of the Dasin Hausa Dam remains the best option.

But the construction of the dam is yet to be embarked upon.

However, the authorities have commenced work on the Kashimbilla/Gamovo Multipurpose Dam project in Taraba State, which will serve as a buffer upon the event of an earthquake and the collapse of the Lake Nyo’s wall.

The dam can generate 40mw of electricity with the capacity for expansion to 60mw. It is located between Kashimbilla and Gamovo on River Katsina-Ala in Takum Local Government Area of Taraba State.

Upon completion, the dam is expected to measure 35m in height, 1,585m in length and 150m width with reservoir capacity of 500mcm, irrigate an area of 2000ha and treat 60,000m3 of water to supply 400,000 people.

Government officials have variously expressed satisfaction at the progress of work on the project.

Contract for the construction of the dam and associated structures was awarded to Messrs Setraco Construction Company (SCC) Nigeria Limited in 2007 with a revised contract price of N60.63 billion for the multipurpose development of flood control, water supply, hydropower supply, irrigation, tourism and fishery potentials.

The dam, which is said to be 40 per cent completed, has an expected completion date of April 2014.

It is imperative for the Federal Government to build the Dasin Hausa Dam to cushion the effect of water released by Lagdo Dam. The original design and feasibility study that was done in 1982 will to a large extent be outdated and should be improved upon.

The authorities should likewise ensure that funds are released as scheduled to ensure speedy completion of the Kashimbilla/Gamovo Dam.

Off-grid lighting: How Nigeria can save money, oil -UNEP

Michael Simire
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Off-grid lighting: How Nigeria can save money, oil -UNEP

If Nigeria used modern off-grid lighting solutions, the country could save over $1.4 billion annually, according to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

Nigeria is considered the largest potential off-grid lighting market in Africa.

The report adds that replacing all of the kerosene, candles and batteries used annually for off-grid lighting would save Nigeria the equivalent of 17.3 million barrels of crude oil.

In addition to saving money and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, phasing out kerosene lamps and candles greatly reduces risks from burns, fires, and respiratory illnesses caused by indoor smoke.

Eliminating the need for flashlights powered by disposable batteries will also greatly reduce hazardous waste disposal in landfill and related environmental damage, noted the study.

Although solar LED systems have a higher initial cost than traditional fuel-based lamps, the payback period can be very short due to the high running costs of fuel-based lighting systems.

The UNEP assessments show that the payback period in most countries is less than a year, and sometimes just a matter of months, depending on the cost of the LED system and the local price of kerosene.

They are the first studies of their kind to analyse the magnitude of financial savings, health benefits, development and carbon emission reductions that a coordinated global transition to modern and sustainable off-grid lighting solutions can deliver.

Replacing the millions of kerosene lamps, candles and flashlights used worldwide with modern solar lighting can provide an increasingly low-cost solution to reducing carbon emissions, indoor air pollution and health risks, and boosting green jobs, UNEP stated.

UNEP also announced a new strategic partnership with the private sector to facilitate a market shift towards energy-efficient, off-grid lighting and to reduce the estimated 74 million tons of annual carbon emissions from fuel-based light sources commonly used in developing countries.

The collaboration with the Global Off-Grid Lighting Association (GOGLA) will see the launch of an international effort to accelerate the deployment of enabling policies towards sustainable off-grid lighting.

To underscore the new partnership, the UNEP-led en.lighten initiative has unveiled new national assessments for 80 countries on the economic and environmental gains that can be achieved through a shift to solar-powered alternatives.

The studies show that if Kenya, for example, replaced all fuel-based lighting with solar-powered light emitting diode (LED) systems, the costs would be repaid in only seven months, due to major fuel savings.

Kenya currently spends around $900 million per year on off-grid lighting, and fuel-based light sources in the country are responsible for over 2.3 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions per year.

“Replacing the world’s 670 million kerosene lamps with cleaner, safer solar-powered lighting represents a major opportunity to deliver across multiple fronts, from cuts in global carbon emissions, health risks from indoor air pollution, support for green technologies and the generation of green jobs,” said UN Under Secretary-General and UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner.

“UNEP’s new partnership with GOGLA strengthens our ongoing work with some 50 developing countries and leading lighting companies to move away from incandescent and other inefficient light bulbs. Supporting both sustainable off-grid and on-grid lighting can bring about major financial savings in a short time, as well as additional educational, health and environmental benefits towards the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals,” added Mr. Steiner.

“GOGLA is the industry advocate for promoting clean, quality off-grid lighting systems that benefit society and businesses in developing and emerging markets,” said Wolfgang Gregor, Secretary-General of the Global Off-Grid Lighting Association (GOGLA).

“We want to ensure that decision-makers and government officials are aware about the importance of modern off-grid lighting solutions and recognise the potential of this multi-billion-dollar market. This will lead to the implementation of policies that address product quality standards and environmental issues and create sustainable employment.”

Globally, over 1.3 billion people live without access to electric light. Some 25 billion litres of kerosene are used annually to fuel the world’s kerosene lamps, which costs end-users a total of up to $23 billion each year. This has an even higher price tag if government subsidies are taken into account.

New Initiative on Off-Grid Lighting in West Africa

UNEP is also launching a new programme in cooperation with the German government to work directly with West African countries to accelerate a transition to sustainable, off-grid lighting.

On average, 76 per cent of the population in West Africa lacks access to electricity and spends up to 20 per cent of the household budget on kerosene for lighting. Efficient off-grid lighting systems are available in the region and can deliver high performance, affordable and better quality lighting.

Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Co-operation and Development (BMZ) is providing support to UNEP to facilitate the development of a regional policy to enable the penetration of sustainable off-grid lighting solutions in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) region.  GOGLA will contribute to this initiative by providing the industry insight necessary to assist with the development of policies and programmes.

The joint effort supports the UN Secretary-General’s Sustainable Energy for All initiative and its goal of achieving universal access to modern energy services by 2030.

Key facts

  • Over 1.3 billion people worldwide live without access to electric light
  • There are approximately 900 million inefficient off-grid light points in use
  • Annual global expenditure on kerosene for lighting may be as high as $23 billion, for candles up to $7 billion and on batteries for flashlights up to US$2.5 billion
  • Consumers in Africa spend between $12 – 17 billion annually on fuel-based lighting
  • Consumers in Asia spend between $9 – 13 billion annually on fuel-based lighting
  • Solar lighting systems source energy from the sun so there is no running cost and no emissions when in use
  • Solar LED systems improve the quality of light and eliminate the health risks associated with fuel-based lighting such as burns, house-fires, carbon monoxide, volatile organics, black soot and other air quality problems
  • The widespread use of modern, off-grid lighting technologies delivers significant socio-economic, health and environmental benefits including: new income generation opportunities for small businesses; longer hours and better illumination for studying; improved safety by reducing the fire hazard associated with flammable fuels; and improved health from less indoor air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions

The en.lighten initiative was established to accelerate efforts to reduce dangerous carbon emissions and the threat of global climate change around the world.   The initiative has set a target date for the global phase-out of all inefficient lighting by the end of 2016.

It is a public-private partnership led by UNEP and the Global Environment Facility (GEF) in collaboration with Philips Lighting, OSRAM, and the National Lighting Test Centre of China.

It also partners with other organisations such as: the Super-efficient Equipment and Appliance Deployment (SEAD) initiative on lighting; the World Bank/IFC’s Lighting Africa programme; and lites.asia to catalyse the global market to make a sustainable, permanent shift toward quality solar LED lighting systems.

The GOGLA was established to act as the industry advocate for the distribution of clean, quality lighting systems to replace fuel-based lighting. It is a neutral, independent, not-for-profit association created to promote lighting solutions that benefit society and business in developing counties.

Forced migration: Concern over displaced persons’ status

Michael Simire
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Makoko community is a clustered community of mainly fishermen and artisans that live on the shores of the Lagos Lagoon.

Makoko

With population explosion in Lagos, Nigeria’s megacity of about 18 million people, the residents of the community have been faced with threats of forced eviction and demolition of their homes.

The recent eviction which took place in July 2012, according to the Lagos State governor, Babatunde Fashola, was to make the state attain her megacity status and beautify the waterways being defaced by scattered, irregular shanties along the Lagos Lagoon shoreline.

The ensuing scuffle resulted in the death of a community leader who was shot by a Police officer, leading to a peaceful protest by residents to the Governor’s Office at Alausa to kick against their eviction. The residents argued that they have come to live and know the area as home because their forefathers lived there for decades.

Fashola told them that those residing under high tension electric wires would leave so as to ensure their safety. He described the Lagos Lagoon as a natural drainage for excess floodwater and that the continuous indiscriminate expansion of shanties on the Lagoon was shrinking it.

He added that, for Lagos to attain the much-desired megacity status, her waterways have to be clean and free for water transportation, which is being negated by the construction of shanties at Makoko.

Makoko residents are forced to move due to urban development concerns, but the Okun-Alfa community in Lekki at the Eti-Osa Local Government Area have been left with no choice but to relocate their homes as the rampaging Atlantic Ocean continues to erode much of the land that the once-thriving settlement stood. Experts have attributed the scenario to climate change-induced.

Okun-Alfa community hosts one of Lagos’ popular fun spots known as Alpha Beach but, in recent years, the area has experienced sea level rise and shoreline erosion that have washed away about 10km of land, threatening the community’s sources of livelihood: fishing and tourism.

Shoreline erosion at Okun-Alfa

According to the oldest man in the community, the 100-year-old Alhaji Mudashiru Atewolara, who passed on recently, he built five houses in his life time but only one still stands as others have been washed away by the advancing sea.

The ocean has also washed away the only tarred road that links the settlement with neighbouring communities, uprooted electric poles and leaving about 5,000 people without electrical power supply, washed away the fence of the only health care centre in the area and thus threatening the facility and leading to its abandonment.

The once-lively Alpha Beach that used to attract fun seekers at weekends and public holidays is now a ghost town. Business activities in the area have been paralysed to below 20 percent of what hitherto existed.

The infamous July 2011 torrential rainfall in Lagos got the entire neighbourhood flooded, including the access road linking the community with the Lekki-Epe Expressway, which further deteriorated and ultimately became inaccessible to vehicular traffic.

The community’s Baale, Chief Atewolara Elegushi, lamented the pollution of the underground water, saying that highly-publicised visits to the neighbourhood by Fashola and President Goodluck Jonathan have yielded no fruit.

Climate-induced migration was one of the topics discussed during a side event at the United Nations Climate Change Conference that held late last year in Doha, Qatar. Climate-induced migration is attributable to flooding due to excessive rain, continuous sea level rise as experienced in the small island countries, shoreline erosion, drought, hurricane, and poor crop yield (which leads communities to migrate to greener pastures in search of viable land for agriculture). Other factors that can force residents to migrate include urban development, earthquake and landslide.

A recent report states that, by 2050, one in every 45 persons in the world would have been displaced due to sea level rise, with India, Bangladesh, China and Nigeria having the highest population of 37.2, 27, 22.3 and 9.2 million people respectively.

When people have to migrate due to imminent danger, the issue of losing their ancestral homes, culture and root is quite challenging due to the emotional and psychological trauma they experience. They are also vulnerable to abuse and violence by their new hosts.

Nigeria’s Environment Minister, Hadiza Mailafia, while addressing the African Group during the Doha summit, stated that two-thirds of states in Nigeria were flooded last year (2012), leaving many to abandon their homes and migrate to higher grounds and some accommodated in emergency relief camps, where there were cases of raping of some of the internally-displaced females. Similarly, limited supplies of basic needs made people to resort to the use of sex as weapon of survival.

Due to development of urban areas in Brazil, some people were forcefully evicted to give way for the construction of modern stadiums, in the build-up to the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics Games to be hosted by the country.

Reports have it that about 170,000 people have been affected by this construction in Brazil, which has made some view the international games as a pain rather than a thing of joy and pride in hosting two of sports’ highly-rated events.

Since the earthquake in Haiti in 2009, more women have been sexually abused and exploited, said CNN 2012 Hero recipient Marla Villard-Appolon. This made her start a rescue mission to rebuild the confidence of the abused women through her programme that received international support by CNN.

The status of these migrants has brought about border migration, division of nation/states, which can cause fascism and xenophobic tendencies among their host, such as the case in Nepal, The Philippines and Vietnam. The migrants could also be exploited due to immigration and labour laws in their new country.

It will be wise for victims of climate- and urban development-induced migration to be considered and planned for because, with the increasing world population and growing effect of climate change, there would soon be a generation of classless/statusless citizens.

 

By Tina Armstrong-Ogbonna

Journalists to train on mapping environmental issues

Michael Simire
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Environmental science journalists organisations from Brazil, Europe, Latvia, Nigeria, Philippines, and Romania are collaborating to organise training sessions under a programme being supported by the European Community.

Faleiros

Tagged “Flag It!”, the project will teach young journalists how to use digital tools to map environmental issues. Brazilian environmental journalist, Gustavo Faleiros (of O Eco), will facilitate the training sessions.

Funded by the European Community (EC) Youth in Action programme, the project is being executed by the European Youth Press (EYP), with Association O Eco – Brazil, Philippines Network of Environmental Journalists (PNEJ), Nigerian Association of Science Journalists (NASJ), Association of Students at Journalism and Communication Studies – Romania, and Forum for European Journalists Students – Latvia, as partner organisations.

The project entails four workshops that will hold in Rio de Janeiro (or Sao Paulo), Lagos, Manila and Bucharest between now and October 2013. Each workshop will feature two participants each from the partner organisations.

The conferences/workshops will hold thus: Brazil (27 May to 2 June), Nigeria (1 to 7 July), Philippines (9 to 14 September) and Romania (7 to 13 October). At the end of every workshop, participants are expected to write stories (that will be published on the Flag It! website, and other news media). The EYP will take care of the expenses of all participants at the forums. Writers of the best articles from each participating country organisation will be sponsored to attend the 2013 UNFCCC Climate Change Conference scheduled to hold in November in Warsaw, Poland.

CNN profiles Jibunoh, explorer and environmentalist

Michael Simire
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African Voices, a permanent exhibition that examines the diversity, dynamism, and global influence of Africa’s peoples and cultures has profiled Dr Newton Jibunoh, a trailblazing explorer, environmentalist and historian, who has dedicated his life to curbing the scourge of poverty caused by desertification.

Jibunoh

Environmentalist Newton Jibunoh is one of Nigeria’s renowned explorers. He witnessed extreme drought and famine on solo expeditions across the Sahara Desert and has been committed to finding solutions to desertification, a phenomenon where fertile land becomes desert. He has travelled the world to find solutions and set up a pilot project in the desert area of northern Nigeria. The interview was aired on the international news channel.

Dr Jibunoh in an interview with Vladimir Duthier, CNN Nigeria Correspondent, recounts his experience on his expeditions across the Sahara Desert and his efforts in curbing the scourge of poverty caused by desertification.. He has adopted the Fade Initiative (Fight Against Desert Encroachment) and also started a pilot project in the desert area of northern Nigeria outside Kano state.

“We found out that most of the initiatives that we developed to combat the encroachment of the desert will take somewhere to 30-40 possible 50 years to realise, especially if you want to bring some kind of a sanity to the whole arrangement of combating desertification,” he explained.

His partnership with Lagos and Kano state governments is as a result of his perceived need to start bringing in the younger generation that will bring about some kind of continuity to take this project to the next generation.

Jibunoh, is a PhD holder from the Nnamdi Azikiwe Universty in Awka and University of Benin, he has successfully driven across the Sahara Desert three times. His background is in Engineering with a specialisation in Soil Mechanics.

He worked for the Costain Group where he rose to Chairman/CEO, a position he held for 16 years. He is a Fellow of the Nigerian institute of Builders (NIOB), with over 35 years’ experience in the building and construction industry.

He has also acquired over 40 years of relevant experience in the environment, where he has carried out various research themed visits and survey works on desertification and went on a study tour to the Cold and Arid Regions Environment and Engineering Research Institute in China.

He was also part of a team that was sponsored by the United States Consular Office in Abuja for a two-week course at the University of Arizona. He is a member of the Federal Government’s delegate to Climate Change Conferences and has taken part in conferences held in Bangkok (Thailand), Copenhagen (Denmark) and more recently Cancun (Mexico).

An Emeritus Ambassador of Environment for Lagos State, some of his research work and findings have been documented in his books, “Me, My Desert and I” and “Bridging The Sahara Desert”.

Ogoni and the agony of a delayed clean up

Michael Simire
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When the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) report on the assessment of the Ogoni environment was released in August 2011, the world was astounded at the level of devastation visited on the territory by decades of oil extraction and pollution.

A polluted water body in Ogoniland

Ogoniland in Nigeria shot into international glare in the early 1990s when the people peacefully demanded an end to reckless despoliation of their land and waters. When the UNEP report was released there was a general sense of relief that at last a definitive study has been carried out in at least a part of the Niger Delta and that remediation steps would be taken to rescue the people from the impacts of the pollution.

Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC or Shell), the major polluter in the territory, paid for the study in a rather poetic turn of events, on the polluter-pays basis. If that was not an admission of culpability in the ecocide in Ogoniland, you may have to invent another word for the crime.

The report showed a staggering level of pollution that would require 25-30 years of clean-up activities if there were to be a chance of real remediation.  Many people expected the government to declare Ogoniland a disaster zone. The Ogoni people waited to see some clean-up action. The Nigerian people waited to see some clean-up action. The international community waited to see some clean-up action. That the expected action was not forthcoming was a scandal of massive proportions.

Nothing was done until 12 full months rolled by. In other words, since the report was issued till that date, a full year was added to the estimated time needed to restore the Ogoni environment. But what was done after one year?

It took one year after it had been ascertained that there was no safe drinking water in Ogoniland and that the land itself was polluted to depths of up to five metres in places, for any whisper to be heard from the corridors of power.

The UNEP report set out simple emergency actions to be taken to ensure an acceptable clean up of Ogoniland. One of the key recommendations was that government should set up an “Ogoniland Environmental Restoration Authority.”  This authority was to have a starting fund of $1 billion. Rather than set up this body that would set about the restoration of Ogoni land, what government did was to set up what it calls the Hydrocarbon Pollution Restoration Project (HYPREP).  This project has succeeded in planting some pollution warning signposts in Ogoniland and billboards on oil thefts in Port Harcourt.

A cursory comparison of the recommended body and the entity that government created shows that something is critically wrong. Why set up a body that would restore rather than clean up pollution? Ogoniland is badly polluted as it is, to set up a body to compound the pollution is alarming, not amusing. Ken Saro-Wiwa, a stickler for correct concepts and sentences, would have written copiously on this twisted contraption if the jackboots had not wickedly truncated his life in 1995.

UNEP officials led by Erik Solheim, former Norwegian Minister of Environment and International Development and UNEP Special Envoy for Disasters and Conflicts, visited Nigeria early February 2013 to meet with government officials and some partners in Abuja and Port Harcourt. The purpose of the visit was to get a sense of what was being done with the UNEP Environmental Assessment of Ogoniland and to know what the next steps would be.

It is not clear what the team came away with, but we at least know that UNEP is committed to seeing the report implemented and Ogoniland cleaned.

In a statement issued by UNEP at the start of the visit, Solheim, who led the team, said: “With regard to Ogoniland, the UN system is committed to supporting the government throughout the entire process of implementing the recommendations of the report. On behalf of UNEP, I look forward to coordinated and collaborative action with our Nigerian and international partners in addressing pollution in Ogoniland.”

The Ogoni people are one of the most mobilised peoples anywhere in the world. The umbrella Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) enjoys a high level of support across the Ogoni kingdoms, has provided consistent leadership over the years and is well respected by the people. That is, despite some difficult moments, as would be expected of any serious movement.

The degree of cohesion of the Ogoni people provides an excellent template for government to set about the clean up of the territory in a transparent and easy manner. If there are to be difficulties it should be of the technical kind, not the socio-political varieties.

It is not too late for the government to scrap HYPREP and set up the recommended “Ogoniland Environmental Restoration Authority.”  We will call this the Authority for short.

HYPREP was a hasty creation to tell the world that at least one step had been taken, one year after the release of the UNEP report.

Government should not be shy to do the right thing. Steps taken in the wrong direction may be many, but keeping in that direction may not eventually lead to the right destination.  It is equally wasteful to insist on building on a faulty foundation.

Scrap HYPREP, set up the Authority. This Authority would then set about consulting the people, call mass meetings of the Ogoni people, circulate the popular (pidgin English) version of the summary of the UNEP report which can be downloaded from the UNEP website, present the strategy for the clean up to the people and transparently set out the budget outlay for the exercise. The Authority would have the Ogoni people endorse its broad plan and strategies for implementation and monitoring as well. The Authority should be domiciled in either the Ministry of Environment or in the Presidency. It should by no means be located in the Ministry of Petroleum Resources – a key polluter, through the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, in Ogoniland.

The extent of pollution and the need to ensure that the clean up is not an occasion for jobbers must be stressed. As UNEP acknowledges, the clean-up required will be complex and there may not be a single method of getting this done. Any delay means further reducing the quality of life and the life expectancy of the people that has already dropped to just over 40 years mainly due to the hydrocarbon pollution. Bloodshed and great sacrifices have been borne by the Ogoni people. The clean up of the territory is not an occasion for gambling.

The selection of consultants, contractors and the handling of the budget require very strict oversight. While we agree that it is possible to have officials in the Authority to handle the procurement and budgetary matters, it is believed that while the in-house crew play roles in those tasks, an agency such as UNEP should play major oversight roles. If this recommendation were accepted UNEP would not handle any of the clean up jobs, but would play a monitoring role.

We are yet to see the Senate and the House of Representatives taking up the clean up of Ogoniland as a critical issue of concern. They need to. It is their duty to should ensure that a proper Authority is set up and that there is adequate budgetary outlay for the tasks with both government and Shell putting the money on the table and having an umpire like the UNEP empowered to warehouse the funds.

Getting things on the right track is extremely urgent. As UNEP stated, “Continued delay in the implementation of the recommendations will not only undermine the livelihoods of the Ogoni communities, but will also cause the pollution footprint to expand. In the long run, the findings of the study itself will become dated, and therefore further assessments will be needed, causing additional delays.” UNEP hoped to “convey this sense of urgency to the stakeholders during” the mission. It would be another scandal if this sense of urgency gets ignored.

 

By Nnimmo Bassey (Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria)

UNEP engages stakeholders on Ogoniland restoration

Michael Simire
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The Special Envoy of the Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Erik Solheim, has restated the organisation’s determination to restore Ogoniland in the Niger Delta region in Nigeria. The communities in the region have been degraded by decades of pollution from oil exploration activities.

Protesters seeking speedy and transparent implementation of the report

The Envoy to Achim Steiner (UNEP Executive Director) also commended the Federal Ministry of Environment for its exemplary work in the country.

Erik told Environment Minister, Hadiza Ibrahim Mailafia, in Abuja at a meeting that he was in the country to engage key stakeholders on the anticipated work in the restoration of Ogoniland. He added that although Nigeria was leading in the exercise, the United Nations’ system had a variety of experts and scientists it was willing to deploy to assist Nigeria in any way.

Responding, Mailafia thanked the UNEP for its partnership and support through visits and interaction with the various communities in the area, leading to the writing of  the report.  She disclosed that the Federal Government had already made a lot of progress in the implementation of the report, and tried to carry all the communities along because, according to her, they have a lot at stake.

She described Erik’s visit as a “clarion call that we should move faster than we are moving now. But, I assure you that things are working,” she said.

Several years ago, UNEP released the “Environmental Assessment of Ogoniland” report, which highlights the unique challenges and complexities of Ogoniland.

Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC), a major oil prospecting firm, withdrew from the area and halted production in 1993 following several attacks against its staff. The communities have granted the company only limited access since then.

The organisation has expressed the hope that the UNEP report will be a catalyst for cooperation to address the challenges in Ogoniland and the wider Niger Delta. It likewise welcomes President Goodluck Jonathan’s initiative to set up a Presidential Committee to coordinate required actions by all parties.

Oil spill: Nigeria at threshold of new era

Michael Simire
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The National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) was established by Act No. 15 of 2006 as a deliberate and articulate response by the Federal Government to the persistent environmental degradation and devastation of the coastal ecosystem especially, in the oil-producing areas of the Niger-Delta region.

Effect of oil spill on a supposed water body

NOSDRA is statutorily empowered to co-ordinate oil spill management and ensure the implementation of the National Oil Spill Contingency Plan (NOSCP) for Nigeria in accordance with the International Convention on Oil Pollution Preparedness, Response and Cooperation (OPRC) 1990, which Nigeria has ratified. The NOSCP is a blueprint for checking oil spill through containment, recovery and remediation/restoration. It was drafted in 1981 and first reviewed in 1997, and further reviewed in 2000 and 2006.

NOSDRA is essentially mandated to play the lead role in ensuring timely, effective and appropriate response to all oil spills, as well as protect threatened environment and ensure clean up of all impacted sites to the best practical extent.

But the agency has been found wanting in effectively achieving stated objectives, no thanks to seeming limitations of its operation, ostensibly due to the lack of an enabling law that would empower it to prosecute oil companies against spillage and other environmental pollution in the country.

A NOSDRA official said recently: “The current situation of oil spillage and pollution cannot be properly put under control, because we are still waiting for the National Assembly to approve the amendment we requested, which will enable us punish oil companies engaging in oil spillage.”

According to him, the proliferation of laws against oil spillage notwithstanding, the country still lacks a clear-cut law and policy that would checkmate oil companies from abusing the ecosystem.

“As it is now, we don’t have serious laws meting out punishment to offenders when it has to do with oil pollution especially in the Niger Delta,” said the NOSDRA official, who was referring to the ongoing review of the NOSDRA Enabling Act (2006). A bill to that effect was sponsored by Senator Abubakar Bukola Saraki (Kwara Central), the Senate Committee Chairman on Environment and Ecology, who has underlined the need to tinker with the Act to conform to international standards.

He had frowned at NOSDRA’s call to Nigeria Agip Company Limited to pay the sum of N1 million as fine over Agip’s alleged failure to immediately contain, recover and clean up oil spill at its OB/OB Gas plant in Obrikom, Omoku, Rivers State. The Senator lamented that the fine imposed was not deterrent enough for such offence that has the potential to cause degradation of the environment and inflict long lasting damage to the health of the people living in the community.

He vowed that his committee in the Senate would review the enabling act establishing the agency to conform and strengthen its ability to deter bad behaviours and protect the environment while living up to world best practises on prevention of oil spillage in the country.

Amid claims by oil firms that over 70 percent of the spillage is caused by indigenes through sabotage, Saraki, however maintains that 50 percent of oil spills in Nigeria are due to corrosion of oil infrastructure including pipelines that are over 40-50 years old and therefore above integrity value, 28 percent of the spills are determined to be as a result of sabotage, while 21 percent result from production operations. According to him, negligence plays a major role in oil spills in Nigeria.

The bill on the subject has already undergone the First and Second Readings in the Senate. A Public Hearing on the bill held last November. The Leadership for Environment and Development – Anglophone West Africa (LEAD-AWA) played an active role during this session in Abuja by lending its voice to the debate.

An international non-profit organisation, LEAD operates a fellowship programme that gives emerging leaders the skills, knowledge and network of contacts to bring about transformational change for a sustainable future. Its Anglophone West Africa (AWA) programme is based in Lagos.

Two LEAD Fellows – Adeolu Odusote (an engineer based in Abuja) and Dr. Olawale Ajai (a lawyer and LBS Faculty) – represented LEAD-AWA at the daylong proceedings.

Indeed, according to LEAD-AWA Programme Director, Maureen Akintayo, the organisation’s intervention and concern was informed by “the role FEDEN/LEAD-AWA has played since 1992 in the enactment of similar policies and its furtherance of our sustainable development agenda.”

If the bill is eventually passed into law, NOSDRA will be re-designated as “National Oil Pollution Management Agency”, which is charged “with the responsibility to prevent, detect, minimise and respond to all spillages and pollution as well as gas flaring and leakages and other hazardous and obnoxious substances in the petroleum sector, coordinate private sector participation in oil pollution management, have access to the ‘Oil Spillage Liability Trust Fund’ as set up by law.”

According to the new provisions, the total of the liability of an oil spiller excluding removal costs incurred by him or on his behalf with respect to each incident shall not exceed N50,000 per barrel (for a tank vessel), N100,000 per barrel (a vessel of less than 3,000 gross tons), N150,000 (vessel of 3,000 gross tons), N250,000 (any other vessel), total of all removal costs plus N5 billion (offshore facility except a deep-water port), and N15 billion (onshore facility and/or deep-water port.

It shall not be a defence to show that the spill was as a result of accident or lack of deliberate intentions.

Similarly, the responsible party on any oil spill shall in all cases report an oil spill incident to the agency in writing, by fax or electronic mail not later than 24 hours after the occurrence of an oil spill in default of which the failure to report shall attract penalty in the sum of N10 million for each day to report the occurrence.

In the same vein, a gas pipeline or storage facility owner/lessee/operator is by the Act to report an unauthorised gas release or leakage incident to the Agency in writing, by fax or electronic mail not later than 24 hours after the occurrence of the gas leakage in default of which the failure to report shall attract penalty in the sum of N10 million for each day of failure to report the occurrence.

Furthermore, the failure to clean up the impacted site by a spiller, to all practical extent including the submission of action plan for remediation within two weeks of the occurrence of the spill, shall constitute an offence and, upon conviction, the oil spiller shall be liable to a fine not less than N3 million per day the spill is not cleaned up or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three years or an amount up to three times the costs incurred by the Agency as a result of such failure.

It is quite unfortunate that millions of Nigerians are struggling to make ends meet simply because their source of livelihood is impacted by what is going on in their land. It is indeed the destruction of the right of communities to live in a safe, decent and healthy environment.

According to observers, oil spills in the oil producing communities of the Niger Delta region in Nigeria have done great harm to both the people and their ecosystem. The spillage is estimated at more than 15 million barrels since oil production started in the late 1950s in the region. A United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) report acknowledges that some of the spills of the over 40 years had not been cleaned or remediated till date.

Experts say that the ruling penultimate week by a Dutch court that partially held Royal Dutch Shell responsible for pollution in the region has set a precedent for global environmental accountability because companies can now be tried in their home countries for their acts or omissions in their host countries.

The oil giant was ordered to pay damages to one farmer, though the court dismissed four other allegations against the company. The amount of damages to be paid would be announced at a later date.

The case was brought against Shell by the farmers and the Dutch arm of the environment watchdog group, Friends of the Earth. It is the first time a Dutch multinational has been taken to a civil court in the Netherlands in connection with damage caused abroad.

Maternal mortality and frightening reality

Michael Simire
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In the last couple of days, I have been so close to people who lost their loved ones in the course of childbirth.

The first was a friend’s cousin who went into comma after childbirth at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH). She died a month later, leaving behind husband and children, among other family members.

The other person was a stylist in a salon who died while giving birth to her fourth child. The painful part was that she was under 30 years and already had three children. She died with the baby as she could not be delivered of it.

As I ponder over these deaths I could not but wonder how rampant maternal deaths have become to women. Indeed, the needless deaths of women and children have continued despite global efforts since 2,000 when world leaders agreed to improve the standard of living of the common man, courtesy of the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Jude Osaze, whose relative was a victim, stated: “When I hear the statistics of women who die during childbirth in Nigeria, I doubt the statistics and wonder how they came about such an exaggerated record. But I’m now convinced that more women lose their lives during childbirth. Do you know that, in some rural communities, women patronise traditional birth attendants and some of these births and deaths are not documented?”

Yomi Pearse, in a similar situation with Osaze, said: “I lost my wife during childbirth even after all the antenatal and precautions taken to prevent her from dying. But, alas, my dear wife died giving birth. The baby survived but my precious wife is gone. Every time I look at that child, I regret getting her pregnant but that was meant to be our last child because we agreed on having three kids.

“Atinuike struggled till she could not fight any longer. She lost so much blood after delivering the baby and we had to buy six pints of blood but all to no avail. She died with a smile on her face. I wept day and night for weeks but it did not bring back my baby girl.”

Some cultures pride having many children as a big deal. Among the Mbaise people of Imo State, when a woman gives birth to 12 children, she is appreciated by the sacrifice of a goat/cow, depending on the wealth of the family. With the harsh economic realities and poor state of our health facilities, will a woman risk her life in the name of cultural celebration?

In as much as the Holy Book urged us to “multiply and fill the earth,” now men should consider many factors before getting their wives pregnant. I also know of a school of thought that believes that children bring progress and success.

My parents named me Uzoma which, according to my mum, was informed because my birth ushered in economic advancement for my dad. My mum said that my dad bought his first Peugeot car after my birth.

As Africans, in as much as we hold strongly to our belief system/values, should we sacrifice our sisters, daughters, wives, in-laws, cousins and nieces in the name of childbearing, when it is obvious that the odds are against her getting pregnant and having safe delivery?.

The God-factor is inevitable when miracles happen, when a lady could have been written off by science and medicine.

But daily, many lives are lost during childbirth across Nigeria. The only reason we might not know or feel it is because it is not “close to home”, that those who die are not our immediate relatives.

It is now a common trend for most Nigerians that can afford it to go abroad for child delivery. I know of a friend who gave up suing a hospital for the death of his sister during childbirth because, according to him, the more the case dragged in court, the more he got frustrated and the pains intensified.

How committed are our government officials to fight towards improving maternal care?

Sometime last year, I sat in a committee to determine the fate of our women as regard safe delivery and I saw that politics was more important than the improvement of maternal care and child mortality.

I will sing the praises of Governor Segun Mimiko of Ondo State, who established a specialist hospital to ensure safe delivery. The Abiye Hospital that I visited last year in Akure, the state capital, aims to improve maternal health and reduce child mortality.

It is time for more government actions in ensuring that our healthcare facilities are worthy of receiving new lives during childbirth and not snuff out lives from both mother and child.

May a death of a woman at childbirth “close to home” not bring forth the reality – that one in every 10 women lose their lives during childbirth.

Safe delivery is the right of every woman in Nigeria and not the reverse, a situation that has now become a testimony in our places of worship.

By Tina Armstrong-Ogbonna

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