President Muhammadu Buhari has said that his signing of the Paris<\/p>\n
Agreement on Climate Change has demonstrated Nigeria\u2019s commitment to a
\nglobal effort to reverse the effects of the negative trend.<\/p>\n
The President said this while addressing the opening of the meeting on
\nTaking Climate Action for Sustainable Development in New York, co-hosted
\nby Nigeria and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) as one of
\nthe Side Events of the 71st Session of the United Nations General Assembly
\n(UNGA71).<\/p>\n
President Buhari, had shortly before this event, signed the Paris
\nAgreement, where he committed Nigeria to reducing \u201cGreen House Gas
\nEmissions unconditionally by 20 per cent and conditionally by 45 per cent\u201d
\nin line with Nigeria\u2019s Nationally Determined Contributions.\u201d Describing
\nthe signing as historic, he had also expressed confidence that with
\nsupport from development partners, Nigeria will meet the above targets.<\/p>\n
The President also promised to ensure the ratification of the Paris
\nAgreement before the 22nd Conference of Parties to the UN Framework
\nConvention on Climate Change in Marrakesh, Morocco in November 2016.<\/p>\n
He stressed that it was to demonstrate his personal dedication to the
\nprocess of implementing the Agreement that he was hosting the side event
\non Taking Climate Action Towards Sustainable Development.<\/p>\n
President Buhari, who said he was privileged to have been part of the
\nParis Agreement, expressed appreciation to what he called \u201cthe genuine
\nefforts by President Francois Hollande of France in drawing global
\nattention to reviving the Lake Chad Basin,\u201d and for galvanizing the
\npolitical will that led to the global consensus in reaching the Paris
\nAgreement.<\/p>\n
The Nigerian President said his country\u2019s commitment to the Paris
\nAgreement is articulated through its Nationally Determined Contributions
\n(NDCs) \u201cthat strive to build a climate resilient society across the
\ndiverse terrain of Nigeria. We have instituted an Inter-Ministerial
\nCommittee on Climate Change to govern implementation of my country\u2019s NDCs,
\nthereby ensuring a strong cross-sectoral approach, coherence and synergy
\nfor Climate Action.\u201d<\/p>\n
President Buhari, while admitting that implementing the Roadmap will not
\nbe easy in the face of dwindling national revenues, however, indicated
\nthat both internal and external resources would be mobilized to meet
\nNigeria\u2019s targets, adding that the 2017 Budget will reflect Nigeria\u2019s
\nefforts to accord priority to realizing its NDCs.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn addition, we are set to launch our first ever Green Bonds in the first
\nquarter of 2017 to fund a pipeline of projects all targeted at reducing
\nemissions towards a greener economy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
While urging global support to transit to a low-carbon climate resilient
\neconomy, the President specifically reminded industrialized nations \u201cto
\nplay their role and deliver on their commitments on access to climate
\nfinance and technology transfer and help with capacity-building,\u201d adding
\nthat, \u201cExpectations are high for their leaders to deliver US$100 billion
\nper year by 2020 in support of developing countries to take climate
\naction, thus keeping the promise to billions of people.\u201d<\/p>\n
President Buhari, who thanked the Presidents of Chad, Cameroon, Democratic
\nRepublic of Congo and Niger for attending the event, also called on the
\ninternational community to \u201cgive special recognition to the plight of Lake
\nChad and support our effort to resuscitate the livelihoods of over 5
\nmillion people in the region. This will reinforce our efforts to
\nreintegrate the thousands of Boko Haram victims and returning Internally
\nDisplaced Persons (IDPs).\u201d<\/p>\n
The President noted that the Niger Delta region is a unique biodiversity
\nrich in coastal environment that is highly prone to adverse environmental
\nchanges occasioned by climate change, such as sea level rise, coastal
\nerosion, exacerbated by poverty and many decades of oil pollution leading
\nto loss of livelihoods and ecosystems.<\/p>\n
He added however, that \u201cthrough an integrated approach, implementation of
\nthe NDCs, and our efforts to clean up Ogoniland, we will improve
\nlivelihoods, protect the environment and take climate action, and ensure
\nthe implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
President Muhammadu Buhari has said that his signing of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change has demonstrated Nigeria\u2019s commitment to a global effort to reverse the effects of the negative…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":53407,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n