*As France promises 6bn euros for renewable energy in Africa
Oscarline Onwuemenyi
02 December 2015, Sweetcrude, Abuja – President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the submission of the country’s Intended Nationally Determined Contributions, INDC, to address climate change to United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, UNFCCC.
Nigeria’s INDC was approved by the President on November 26 and submitted to the UNFCCC on November 28, ahead of Monday’s opening in Paris of the United Nations Climate Change conference, widely known as (Conference of Parties) COP 21.
A statement by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr Femi Adesina, said the 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, GHGs, emission reduction post 2020.
He said the action plan announced by the Federal Government represented a fair and meaningful contribution to address climate change and equally reaffirmed Buhari’s commitment to an economic transformation which, he said, placed inclusive green growth as key priority for this administration.
Adesina said, “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.”
President Buhari puts Nigeria’s target on cutting greenhouse emissions arrived at after extensive consultations with stakeholders at 45 per cent by the year 2030.
He said: “On our part in Nigeria, we undertook an extensive and participatory process of multi-level consultations with a cross section of stakeholders within the different tiers of government towards determining our national contributions to global mitigation reduction.
“Based on national considerations, Nigeria intends to attain the mitigation reduction objective of 20 per cent unconditional and 45 per cent conditional below the Business as Usual level of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions by 2030.
“It is our expectation that this nationally-determined ambitious target given our national circumstances and developmental requirements will eventually pass the green test.”
Buhari reiterated that the Paris Agreement must be legally binding, all-encompassing and sustainable for it to be universally applicable, result-oriented, and in all effective.
“The Agreement we reach here must also be a fair, multilateral and rules-based regime guided by science with an overall aim of ensuring the right to equitable access of every country of the world to sustainable development,” he declared.to develop renewable energy and replace climate-harming fossil fuels.
In the meantime, President François Hollande of France has said his country will give African countries two billion euros over the next four years.
Hollande was speaking on the sidelines of a UN climate conference in the outskirts of Paris.
“France will devote six billion euros between 2016 and 2020 for electricity provision on the continent of Africa. Two billion euros will be spent on renewable energy.” he said.