Thursday, 28th March 2024
To guardian.ng
Search
Breaking News:

Nigeria needs $140b for climate change commitments, says World Bank

By Charles Coffie Gyamfi Abeokuta
14 February 2017   |   4:20 am
World Bank Practice Manager for Environment and Natural Resources, Benoît Bosquet, speaking at a workshop in Abeokuta, Ogun State on “Climate Change Knowledge Immersion...

• FG to launch green bonds for exercise

World Bank has said Nigeria needs $140 billion to achieve its climate change commitment and control its impact on the country through the Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) of the Paris Agreement.

World Bank Practice Manager for Environment and Natural Resources, Benoît Bosquet, speaking at a workshop in Abeokuta, Ogun State on “Climate Change Knowledge Immersion,” said this is the defining challenge of the time in Nigeria and Africa.

According to the expert, the African continent is particularly vulnerable, maintaining that climate change could increase poverty headcount by 100 million in 2030.

The workshop was organised by the Federal Ministry of Environment in collaboration with the World Bank for State Ministries of Environment in the southern part of the country.

Bosquet said that it was important for Nigeria to immediately start fulfilling its part of the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change agreed to by 195 countries of the world, “otherwise climate change could negatively affect agricultural production and cause more deaths.”

He advised that the benefit of early action to deal with climate change outweighs the cost. On what to do to control climate change, he suggested “Zero deforestation by 2020, best practices of agriculture, renovating of three to five per cent buildings per year, good public transportation system and low carbon industrialization.”

The Minister of State of Environment, Mr. Ibrahim Usman Jibril disclosed that the government is set to launch the green bonds to finance climate change commitment.

He said that the bond would be launched in Lagos in March by Acting President Yemi Osinbajo, stating that the Federal government had developed a draft “Guidance Note on Climate Change for states,” which would help to build capacity for effective states’ response to climate change.

0 Comments