United States, Nigeria partner on mitigating climate change impacts

Sign MoU on reducing Greenhouse Gas emissions from agric sector
With Lagos projected to be wiped off by 2050 (28 years from now) due to the impacts of climate change, President Biden’s Special Envoy on Climate Change, John Kerry, yesterday, said the United States “put $12 billion on the table” to help countries reduce obvious impacts.

Already, most cities in Nigeria are faced with erosion, with people becoming homeless due to rising sea level. But while 80 per cent of the world’s emissions come from 20 countries, the U.S. inclusive, 48 sub-Saharan African states are responsible for only 0.55 per cent.

Article 9 of the Paris Agreement, which most countries of the world signed, insists: “Developed country Parties shall provide financial resources to assist developing country Parties, with respect to both mitigation and adaptation in continuation of their existing obligations under the Convention.”

Sadly, however, this funding has remained dismal.

Speaking, yesterday, in Abuja, Kerry said Nigeria is one of the countries in Africa that would suffer the most from the consequences of climate crisis.

Kerry, during a visit to Minister of State for Petroleum, Mr. Timipre Sylva, said emissions from Nigeria or anywhere in the world would affect Mother Earth.

“So, how do we work on it together? What do we do? Well, the problem of the climate crisis is the emissions,” Kerry said, noting that there’s a need to fight the development.

He said: “What we don’t want to have happen is that Nigeria and other countries make a decision that they’re going to build out a capacity infrastructure that is going to undo what we’re trying to do and set us back. Now, we had a huge amount of agreement in our conversation.

“The minister made it very clear to me that Nigeria intends to be thoughtful about these 10 years. But beyond that, realising that we have this cushion here, we have a few years during which gas will be part of the transition. No question.

“But after you get past those 10 years or so, everyone is going to have to be on a glide path where you’re reducing emissions, because otherwise, we can’t reach net-zero by 2050.”

Across Africa, most stakeholders have expressed the need to allow Africa use its hydrocarbon resources to develop, given the level of under development, poverty and funding required for cleaner energy. But climate change activists are worried over that.

Kerry said the U.S. would double the amount of money going into adaptation and resilience, adding Biden has put together the “President’s Emergency Programme for adaptation and resilience, and it has put $12 billion on the table, as part of that programme, to help countries be able to do what we need to do to reduce the obvious impacts of the climate crisis.”

Also, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development signed a letter of intent with the U.S. government to reduce Green House Gas emission from the agriculture sector by 74 million tonnes by 2030.

The letter was signed by Kerry and Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Abubakar Mohammed.

Mohammed said the agricultural sector was selected as one of five sectors to implement the Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) action plan, through climate smart agriculture.