Nigeria begins preparation of Third National Communication report on climate change

Fresh impetus was added to the drive in implementing the overall mandate of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and its Protocol, with the commencement of Nigeria’s Third National Communication (TNC) report.

The National Communication is a report that each party submits every four years to the UNFCCC secretariat. It provides information on emissions and removals of greenhouse gases and details of the activities undertaken to implement the Convention including status of climate change in the country.

Nigeria as a country has ratified the UNFCCC and submitted its Initial and Second National Communication reports in November 2003 and June 2014 respectively.

The Federal Ministry of Environment held a two-day stakeholders inception workshop organised by the Department of Climate Change (DCC) in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) recently, to create an enabling process to prepare and submit Nigeria’s TNC. The forum brought together Inter-Ministerial Committee on Climate Change (ICCC), Academia, relevant private sector organizations, NGOs, and the Media.

At the event, the ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Dr. Shehu Ahmed recalled that the country submitted an ambitious Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) of a conditional commitment 45per cent, and an unconditional commitment to further reduce GHG emissions by 20 per cent by 2030.

He revealed that activities towards the development of the sectoral plan and pipeline of projects to be submitted to the Green Climate Fund for funding have begun in the ministry.

The Permanent Secretary who was represented by the director, DCC, Dr. Peter Tarfa said: “Nigeria is highly vulnerable to the impact of climate change. It poses a serious threat to our national sustainable development, efforts to reduce poverty and the overall socio-economic well-being of our citizens.

“Preparing National Communication report on presents huge opportunity for the collection of climate relevant data that will help us to better plan our economies and also respond to global challenges of climate change and commitments. In fact, the Third National Communication should present an opportunity to transform the process from merely reporting to development of a strategic and policy support tool.”

Shehu pledged the commitment of the ministry in implementing the overall mandate of the climate change Convention and its Protocol. “We will continue to work towards the provision of adequate budgetary allocation for climate change activities. This present administration acknowledges that inaction is even far more expensive as it will hinder the actualization of the Sustainable Development Goals.”

UNDP Country Director, Mandisa Mashologu noted that UNDP in partnership with the ministry have over the years invested in the preparation, collection and validation of data on GHG emissions, which have resulted in the successful preparation and submission of Nigeria’s First and Second National Communications to UNFCCC.

According to her, the TNC will be building on the strong national capacities developed with the support of UNDP and lessons learnt over the years.