What Nigeria stands to gain at COP28 in Dubai
The connotations and denotations surrounding the ongoing Convention of Parties (COP) with Nigeria being described as having recorded the highest number of registered delegates from Africa at the ongoing COP28 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates should be accorded with less priority.
Our focus as the most populous black nation in the entire globe should be the positive impacts of the summit on our environments considering the fact crude oil is the major source of revenue to national coffers. Therefore, the activities surrounding extraction, mining and operational processes of oil production and even the mining Sector must be properly dealt with and these are some of the areas of concentration by the Federal Government led team by President Bola Tinubu.
According to a list published by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Nigeria is also third-highest overall in number of delegates at the conference.The provisional total for COP28 indicates that 81,027 delegates registered to attend the summit in person. With a further 3,074 attending virtually, this takes the overall total to 84,101, a report released on Friday. The figure is 30,000 more than those who travelled to Sharm El-Sheikh in Egypt for COP27 in 2022, the previous largest in an almost 30-year history of summits.
The positive aspect is that Nigerians participating at the summit will have a broadened knowledge on the activities of climate change affecting the country and this will be spindown through policies formulation and implementation by the government.
Peeping through the article written by Special Assistant to Mr. President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Temitope Ajayi argued that those with sufficient understanding and knowledge on climate matters know that issues around the subject have layers and multiplicity of factors that require experts from various fields. There are lined-up technical sessions on financing climate actions at sub-national levels, regions and local governments. State Governors from Nigeria such as Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos, Dapo Abiodun of Ogun, Umo Eno of Akwa-Ibom have been really busy with their officials at COP28, making presentations, speaking at panel sessions and pitching some of their sustainability projects to development partners and investors.
According to him, multifaceted stakeholders from different countries including Nigeria are on ground in Dubai because they don’t want decisions that will affect them to be taken without pushing their own agenda. It is the reason delegates from China and Brazil are over 3,000 respectively. China is one of the world’s biggest polluters and Brazil is at the centre of global climate debate with her Amazon rainforest. These two countries know important decisions that will affect them will be taken and they have to move everything to be fully on ground and ensure they are fully represented by their best brains at every level of discussion and negotiation.
Like former President Muhammadu Buhari and other African leaders who demanded fair deal and climate justice for Africa at previous UN Climate summits, President Tinubu is leading the charge at COP28 on behalf of Nigeria and the rest of the continent, demanding from the West that any climate decision and action must be fair and just to Africa and Nigeria in particular, especially the debate around energy transition. President Tinubu has been unequivocal in his position that Africa that is battling problems of poverty, security and struggling to provide education and healthcare to her people cannot be told to abandon its major source of income which is mostly from extractive industries without the West providing the funding and investment in alternative and clean energy sources. President Tinubu and other officials on the Federal government delegation are in Dubai for serious business not jamboree. Our President has been very busy representing our country well. Since Thursday morning when he arrived Dubai, President Tinubu has spent not less than 18 hours daily in attending very important sessions, pushing our national agenda whilst holding bilateral and business meetings on the sidelines.
On the part of the Federal Government, the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris clarified that the delegation sponsored by the Government to attend the Convention of Parties (COP) 28 in Dubai is on serious business and not jamboree. He explained that the country’s participation in the summit is in line “with our status as Africa’s leading sovereign voice and player in climate action.”
According to the Minister, out of the 1,400 Nigerian delegates attending the COP28, only 422 persons are sponsored by the government. Listing the numbers he revealed that National Council on Climate Change has 32, Federal Ministry of Environment = 34, All Ministries = 167, Presidency = 67, Office of the Vice President = 9, National Assembly = 40 and Federal Parastatals/Agencies = 73 participants.
In noting the importance of the summit, the minister emphasised that “Nigeria as the biggest economy and most populous country in Africa, with a substantial extractive economy and extensive vulnerability to climate change, Nigeria has a significant stake in climate action, and our active and robust participation at COP is therefore not unwarranted. The Convention of Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is the world’s pre-eminent Climate Change Conference, attended this year (COP-28) by more than 70,000 participants and delegates from over 100 countries.
“Nigeria’s representation is very much in line with our status as Africa’s leading sovereign voice and player in climate action. Parties to this Convention from Nigeria include government officials, representatives from the private sector, civil society, the voluntary sector, state governments, media, multilateral institutions, representatives of marginalised communities, and many others.”
According to him, it is imperative to point out that the overall Nigerian delegation to COP-28 comprises Government-sponsored (Federal and State Governments) and non-government-sponsored participants (from Private Companies, NGOs, CSOs, Media, academia, etc).COP-28 presents an array of investment and partnership opportunities for the various sectors affected by climate change, and Nigeria is already benefiting from its ongoing participation, as demonstrated by the following: Nigeria and Germany signed an accelerated performance agreement to expedite the implementation of the Presidential Power Initiative (PPI) to improve Nigeria’s electricity supply. President Tinubu hosted a high-level meeting with stakeholders and investors on the Nigeria Carbon Market and the Electric Buses Rollout Programme on the margins of the COP28 climate summit.
“The President unveiled the Nigeria Carbon Market Activation Plan, co-chaired by the Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Mr. Zacch Adedeji, and the Director-General of the National Council on Climate Change (NCCC), Dr. Dahiru Salisu.
“The Electric Buses program is only the first step in a series of innovative, clean, modern, and sustainable initiatives across diverse sectors, all aimed at simultaneously addressing climate change-related challenges, reducing carbon footprint, modernising infrastructure systems, and positioning Nigeria as an attractive destination for global investments.”
He maintained that Nigeria stands to benefit from the Loss and Damage Fund established during COP-27 in Egypt and formally operationalised at the opening plenary of COP-28 in Dubai. The Fund will provide substantial non-debt financing to support countries most affected by the impact of climate change. Hundreds of millions of dollars have already been pledged as contributions to the Fund. The President also met the President of UAE to concretise engagements between the two countries. This is aside from the bilateral talks held with several countries and multilateral partners.
There should be highlighted that, over the years, Nigeria has firmly demonstrated its climate action credentials by being the first African country to launch its Energy Transition Plan, the first African country to issue a Sovereign Green Bond, and one of the first to pass national climate change legislation.
It is pertinent to note that beyond the number of sponsored delegates being argued and trending on social media, Nigerians should beam their searchlight on collective benefits from various stakeholders cutting across public and private sectors, communities and socio-ethnic gains of the masses from the ongoing Convention.
