Buhari okays action plan to tackle climate change

  President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the submission of the country’s

Intended Nationally Determined Contributions to address climate change to

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

According to a statement on Monday by Buhari’s Special Adviser on Media

and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, Nigeria’s INDC was approved by the

President on November 26 and submitted to the UNFCCC on November 28 ahead

of Monday’s opening of the United Nations Climate Change conference,

widely known as COP 21 in Paris.

Adesina said the approved Federal Government’s policy to address climate

change, as espoused in the country’s INDC, committed to 20 per cent

unconditional and 45 per cent conditional Greenhouse Gases emission

reduction post 2020.

He said, “The action plan announced by the Federal Government represents

a fair and meaningful contribution to address climate change and equally

reaffirms President Buhari’s commitment to an economic transformation

which places inclusive, green growth as key priority for this

administration.

“President Buhari is fully aware of the acute threat that climate change

poses to Nigeria’s development through flooding, desertification and

insecurity, and many of these accrue from weather-related natural

disasters.”


Adesina added that in Paris, the issue of Lake Chad’s current depletion,

which has become a cause for international concern, would be the major

focus of a meeting of the Lake Chad Basin Summit of Heads of State and

Government, which Buhari would attend with Nigeria’s delegation on

Tuesday.

According to him, Lake Chad is currently less than 10 per cent of its

original size and little of the remaining waters is in Nigeria.

He added that of an estimated 20 million people that lived on the Lake

Chad Basin as of 2013, about 11.7 million were in the North-East region

of Nigeria.

Also during the conference in Paris, Buhari is scheduled to participate

in the inauguration of International Solar Alliance by the Indian Prime

Minister and the French President, where he will seek international

partnerships to deliver Nigeria’s climate change response.