The Minister of State, Ministry of Environment, Sharon Ikeazor has urged developed countries to honour its 2009 pledge of mobilizing $100billion per year by 2020 to support climate action in developing countries.
The minister the cash was pledged by develop countries for Africans and other developing countries to come up and support their climate adaptation and litigation methods, as the government is hoping these pledges come through soon. She also said the $100billion is partly loan and grant as the modalities will be worked out with the countries involve.
Ikeazor disclosed this during a briefing on COP26 in Abuja, stating that recent announcement including President Joe Biden’s pledge to double US climate finance have brought developed countries closer to honouring the pledge. However the government needed to do more to restore credibility and strengthen trust between developing and developed nations.
Read Also; Let’s engage more on transition to net zero emissions, Osinbajo tells COP26 president-designate
She said considering that Africa is at the receiving end of climate change impacts, the focus will be to strengthen the nation’s ability to adapt to climate change impacts. Also another important element for discussion at COP26 is the question of how to deal with economic and non-economic harms caused by climate change impacts which cannot be avoided through adaptation or mitigation, known as loss and damage.
The minister noted that the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD) focuses on conservation, sustainable management of forest and enhancement of forest carbon stocks in developing countries. Also the convention recognises the importance of conserving forest carbon stocks and enhancing carbon sinks.
Nigerian position on REDD is result based actions should flow automatically once REDD monitoring, reporting and verification process is completed. Push for technical and financial support for REDD and implementation to continue.