Nigeria’s vice president, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, has outlined 5 goals that should be achieved by COP 28 which is expected to take place in Dubai from November to December 2023.
According to a statement from the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity (Office of the Vice President), Laolu Akande, this was made known by Osinbajo while delivering a speech at a meeting on the African Carbon Markets Initiative (ACMI) at the Rockefeller Foundation in New York, over the weekend.
Osinbajo said that the Federal Government is working towards tackling the country’s climate change issues.
VP’s 5 proposed deliverables by COP 28
Osinbajo during his address said, “We passed our Climate Change Act, earlier this year, and together with Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL) and Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet (GEAPP) have also developed our own net-zero energy transition plan.
“By COP 28, we need to be able to show real results. I would propose that by COP 28, we should be able to deliver the following 5 things:
- At least 5 countries should have developed country activation plans. Nigeria will be one of them.
- We should have Advanced Market commitments of over $1 billion
- We should be developing new projects based on new methodologies and realities of Africa like diesel replacement credits
- We should be scaling up more than a dozen project developers or carbon credit suppliers as they would be known then
- And most importantly, by COP 28, we should have retired more than 40 million carbon credits on the continent.”
“Hopefully, we will make more progress in the effort to significantly scale up over the next 24 months. Given the positive benefits of the ACMI, this feels like it should be an easy conversation.”
While responding, the US Presidential Envoy on Climate Change, Senator John Kerry, said it is possible to create a high-integrity carbon market in a way to address climate change and African development aspirations. Senator Kerry also added that the developed world must be able to step up the support on the climate crisis and expressed delight that all parties are joined together to develop financing.
Why this matters: Data from Climate Transparency shows that over 140,000 people die each year in Nigeria, predominantly in rural areas, as a result of outdoor air pollution, due to stroke, heart disease, lung cancer, and chronic respiratory diseases.
- This is due to the significant use of traditional energy sources such as fuelwood, charcoal, agriculture residue, and animal dung, and exposure to high sulfur content from black carbon pollutants emitted from vehicles.
- The data also shows that Nigeria’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have increased by 11% between 1990 and 2017.
- The data however noted that the government has set climate targets to unconditionally reduce emissions by 20% by 2030 below business as usual or 45% by 2030 conditional on international support.
- As of 2020, Nigeria’s largest driver of overall GHG emissions is CO2 emissions from fuel combustion. After increasing significantly in the first half of the last decade, CO2 emissions from fuel combustion stabilized around 2015.
- The transport sector, at 61%, is the largest contributor, followed by other energy-related sectors and industries, at 13% and 12% respectively.
For the record; Other attendants at the high-level meeting included the President of the Rockefeller Foundation, Dr. Rajiv Shah, CEO of Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL); Ms. Damilola Ogunbiyi; CEO, GEAPP, Simon Harford, Senior Executives at Rockefeller Foundation; United States Government and United Nations officials, as well as other industry experts and potential financial partners.
