By Jimoh Babatunde
The head of Nigeria’s delegation at the ongoing Conference of Parties (COP) of the United Nations Frame Work Convention on Climate Change taking place at Sharm El Sheikh in Egypt, Barr. Mohammed Abdullahi said Nigeria will push for loss and damage among other issues.
bars Mohammed Abdullahi, who is the country’s Minister of Environment, also expressed high optimism that the expectations of Nigeria and Africa at COP 27 will be achieved as issues that are of concern to them are already on the front burner of the agenda for discussions
“We are focused on ensuring that we bring the issue of loss and damage to the fore and we are already making progress in this regard, because during the Pre-Cop engagement the COP 27 President, Sameh Shoukry highlighted flood related issue with particular reference to Nigeria and Pakistan amongst other nations as one of the key issues on the agenda for discussion, already the issues of the flood are linked to loss and damage and that is of priority to us as a nation.”
Speaking further, the Minister added that Nigeria’s delegation will also focus on the African carbon market initiative as it tries to kick-start the framework for carbon trading, adding that similar attention will also be given to a noble issue called debt for climate swap aimed at call the attention of developed countries on the impact of their industrialization on the developing countries and the need for them to mitigate the impact on the continent of Africa and Nigeria in particular.
“In addition, Nigeria as the leader of the PAN African Agency for the Great Green Wall will focus on climate finance to support its activities in the Sahel Region particularly in the most endemic Northern states described as the front line states where there is fast approaching desert encroachment and of course wetland drying up, these and others are huge issues that we will be focusing on” Abdullahi affirmed.
Speaking on unfulfilled promises made to the developing countries by the developed countries during past COPs, the Minister stated that Nigeria will not take know it all approach but will align its position with the African agenda that was agreed upon at the Dakar meeting.
“Part of what we will do is to galvanize the action plan for Africa to push for a positive climate funding action from the developed countries, that is why the Nigeria Energy Transition Plan is aligned to ensure that we get the requisite funding for a smooth transition to renewables without which it will be very difficult to deploy infrastructure to support our mini-grid, deployment of solar and support bio-fuel.
African countries and developing countries indeed understand that funding is important in whatever position COP 27 will take,” Abdullahi posited.
Comments are closed.