1) President Issues Climate Change Action Plan: President Mohammadu Buhari’s action plan for tackling climate change, laid out at the United Nations sponsored Climate Change Summit, is intended to foster foster low-carbon, high growth economic development path and build a climate resilient Nigeria. However, the plan is lacking in implementation details.

2) Government Plans Expansion of its Green Bonds Program: Nigeria plans to develop a more robust sectoral action plan, expanding the scope of sovereign Green Bonds in line with upward review of its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) made under the Paris Agreement. This embodies the country’s efforts to reduce emissions and to adapt to the effects of climate change to include the water and waste sector by 2020. If fully implemented, these efforts will pave the way for a low carbon economy and result in about 50% reduction in emissions. At the same time, the economy will grow at an average annual rate of 5% by 2030. This represents an important milestone in tackling the challenges of climate change. 

The signing of Green Bonds MoU by the Nigerian Stock Exchange occurred at the annual meeting of the World Federation of Exchanges in Singapore on Wednesday, October 9, 2019. The Nigerian Green bond market received international recognition following the issuance and listing of the ₦10.69bn Federal Government sovereign green bond in December 2017.

The MoU established an agreement for the Nigeria and Singapore stock exchanges to collaborate on sharing best practices and organizing joint initiatives in their respective markets. In a statement in Lagos, the NSE was quoted as saying that the partnership reinforced its drive to foster the growth of sustainable finance in Nigeria. (Environews) 

Over the past several months Nigeria has undertaken several important stakeholder engagement and capacity-building events including:

1) Nigeria Youth Roundtable on Climate Action: The pressing need to engage Nigerian youth creativity by partnership is essential in meeting the country’s climate change goals.   The Nigeria Youth Roundtable on Climate Action held in June was an important milestone in engaging Nigerian youth.

2) Ministry Hosts Meeting of Environmental Activists: Recently the Honorable Minister of State, Ministry of Environment, Sharon Ikeazu, also hosted youth activists in Civil Societies (CSOs) to show the readiness of Nigerian government to listen to youth views about climate change. (Environews.org)

3) A five-day capacity building workshop for National Reporting on the GHGs Inventory and Mitigation was held in Abuja from August 19 to 23, 2019.  Internet of Things (IoT) is expected to support the smart sustainable city vision, aiming at the seamless integration of advanced ICTs in support of urban services. Smart sustainable cities supported by IoT, are seen as an ideal arrangement for providing solutions to climate change by reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and improving the quality of life (QoL).

4) World Symposium on Climate Change Adaptation: The “3rd World Symposium on Climate Change Adaptation” event held in September 2019 was a joint initiative by the Federal University of Technology in Akure, Nigeria, Manchester Metropolitan University (UK), and the Research and Transfer Centre “Sustainable Development and Climate Change Management” of the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences (Germany), in cooperation with the International Climate Change Information Programme (ICCIP). The event focused on “climate change adaptation to address poverty and ensure sustainable livelihoods” and made progress of this rapidly expanding field. (Africa news.space)

Nigeria has several national level climate change plans but little or nothing is being put in place to help homes and communities implement these plans. An effective monitoring and evaluation system to assess the effectiveness of climate change policies is greatly needed.

Write to Mrs. Sharon Ikeazor and Dr. Yerimah Peter Tarfa

Dear Madam/Sir,

Your effort so far is commendable. We are asking for a workable and sustainable climate change implementation plan that has clear goals and a system for assessing the ability of Nigeria to meet these goals. Thank you.

Send Action Alert Message to:

The Honorable Minister of State for Environment,

 The Federal Ministry Of Environment Headquarters

(After Federal Ministry Of Power Works & Housing)

The General Director, 

Department of Climate Change;

Ministry of Environment,

Mabushi,

Abuja

e-mail:petertarfar@hotmail.com

Learn More:

https://www.ndcs.undp.org/content/ndc-support-programme/en/home/our-work/geographic/africa/nigeria.html

https://www.dailytrust.com.ng/nigeria-must-lead-on-climate-change.html

http://climatechange.gov.ng/nationally-determined-contribution-ndc-implementation/