BUHARI SIGNS PARIS AGREEMENT; SAYS NIGERIA WILL REVERSE EFFECTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE

Source: pointblanknews.com

President Muhammadu Buhari has said that his signing of the Paris

Agreement on Climate Change has demonstrated Nigeria's commitment to a

global effort to reverse the effects of the negative trend.

The President said this while addressing the opening of the meeting on

Taking Climate Action for Sustainable Development in New York, co-hosted

by Nigeria and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) as one of

the Side Events of the 71st Session of the United Nations General Assembly

(UNGA71).
President Buhari, had shortly before this event, signed the Paris

Agreement, where he committed Nigeria to reducing “Green House Gas

Emissions unconditionally by 20 per cent and conditionally by 45 per cent”

in line with Nigeria's Nationally Determined Contributions.” Describing

the signing as historic, he had also expressed confidence that with

support from development partners, Nigeria will meet the above targets.

The President also promised to ensure the ratification of the Paris

Agreement before the 22nd Conference of Parties to the UN Framework

Convention on Climate Change in Marrakesh, Morocco in November 2016.

He stressed that it was to demonstrate his personal dedication to the

process of implementing the Agreement that he was hosting the side event

on Taking Climate Action Towards Sustainable Development.

President Buhari, who said he was privileged to have been part of the

Paris Agreement, expressed appreciation to what he called “the genuine

efforts by President Francois Hollande of France in drawing global

attention to reviving the Lake Chad Basin,” and for galvanizing the

political will that led to the global consensus in reaching the Paris

Agreement.
The Nigerian President said his country's commitment to the Paris

Agreement is articulated through its Nationally Determined Contributions

(NDCs) “that strive to build a climate resilient society across the

diverse terrain of Nigeria. We have instituted an Inter-Ministerial

Committee on Climate Change to govern implementation of my country's NDCs,

thereby ensuring a strong cross-sectoral approach, coherence and synergy

for Climate Action.”
President Buhari, while admitting that implementing the Roadmap will not

be easy in the face of dwindling national revenues, however, indicated

that both internal and external resources would be mobilized to meet

Nigeria's targets, adding that the 2017 Budget will reflect Nigeria's

efforts to accord priority to realizing its NDCs.
“In addition, we are set to launch our first ever Green Bonds in the first

quarter of 2017 to fund a pipeline of projects all targeted at reducing

emissions towards a greener economy,” he said.
While urging global support to transit to a low-carbon climate resilient

economy, the President specifically reminded industrialized nations “to

play their role and deliver on their commitments on access to climate

finance and technology transfer and help with capacity-building,” adding

that, “Expectations are high for their leaders to deliver US$100 billion

per year by 2020 in support of developing countries to take climate

action, thus keeping the promise to billions of people.”

President Buhari, who thanked the Presidents of Chad, Cameroon, Democratic

Republic of Congo and Niger for attending the event, also called on the

international community to “give special recognition to the plight of Lake

Chad and support our effort to resuscitate the livelihoods of over 5

million people in the region. This will reinforce our efforts to

reintegrate the thousands of Boko Haram victims and returning Internally

Displaced Persons (IDPs).”
The President noted that the Niger Delta region is a unique biodiversity

rich in coastal environment that is highly prone to adverse environmental

changes occasioned by climate change, such as sea level rise, coastal

erosion, exacerbated by poverty and many decades of oil pollution leading

to loss of livelihoods and ecosystems.
He added however, that “through an integrated approach, implementation of

the NDCs, and our efforts to clean up Ogoniland, we will improve

livelihoods, protect the environment and take climate action, and ensure

the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).”

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