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Tag: COP 28

  • COP 28 and the allure of Dubai to Nigerians

    COP 28 and the allure of Dubai to Nigerians

    By Magnus Onyibe

    Just as flowers are drawn to butterflies, Nigerians are similarly captivated by Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE). To the ordinary Nigerian, Dubai embodies a fusion of London, Paris, and the bustling metropolises of New York and Los Angeles.

    The convergence of Nigerians in Dubai for the ongoing COP28 extends beyond a typical climate change conference. At this event, the most significant threat to humanity in the current century is under discussion, and over 100,000 delegates from 92 countries worldwide, including scientists, political figures, and business leaders, are participating in this discourse.

    The primary objective of the 1,411 Nigerian delegates attending COP28 in Dubai was not solely focused on discussing strategies to address environmental concerns and safeguard the planet. Many critics were astonished that, amid the profound economic challenges faced by the populace resulting from the economic reforms—specifically, the elimination of subsidies on petrol pump prices and the devaluation of the naira by the current administration—there appeared to be a lavish gathering in Dubai. Nigerian public office holders were perceived to be indulging in extravagant activities at the expense of limited public funds, causing widespread disapproval.

    But it appears that the prevailing perception is not entirely accurate. So it is crucial to convey the truth to the public in order to dispel any misconceptions regarding the substantial participation of Nigerians in COP 28. This could have helped avoid the erroneous belief that the extensive attendance was merely for frivolous purposes and an unwarranted expenditure of public funds

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    Clearly, public outrage was largely fuelled by opposition parties, with Peter Obi, the 2023 presidential candidate of the Labour Party, also known as OBIDIENTS, spearheading the effort. He asserted that the government had funded the attendance of the 1,411 Nigerian citizens registered by Dubai authorities.

    Following the controversy sparked by the erroneous assertion, pertinent authorities have since clarified that government funds supported only 422 delegates, with 63 hailing from the presidency. Despite this clarification, a substantial number of Nigerians still find the figure excessive, vehemently denouncing it as an imprudent utilization of public resources.

    Meanwhile, this is not the first time that President Tinubu’s administration has found itself under scrutiny due to issues related to Dubai. Following his attendance at the G-20 summit in India, President Tinubu made a stopover in Dubai as part of an investment drive.

    After productive discussions with Dubai leaders, President Tinubu’s spokesman, Ajuri Ngelari, officially announced the uplifting news that the visa ban for Nigerians traveling to Dubai had been lifted. This announcement was met with widespread enthusiasm and optimism.

    Upon the revelation that the young man’s assertion was unsubstantiated, it became evident that he had pre-emptively jumped to conclusions. Diplomatic matters of such magnitude typically require time to fruition, and the subsequent backlash was substantial.

    It seems the aftermath of this incident had not subsided when a new development emerged concerning the purportedly inflated count of Nigerian attendees at COP28.

    Let’s be unequivocal in stating that there is merit, rather than fault, in opposition parties scrutinizing the ruling party. This is an inherent aspect of democracy and is fundamentally advantageous for Nigerians.

     Holding their political leaders accountable for financial prudence is essential.

    As the Indian anti-colonial nationalist and political ethicist Mahatma Ghandhi posited, “Honest differences are often a healthy sign of progress.”

    The public is rightfully demanding greater fiscal responsibility and transparency from those who occupy influential positions in the corridors of power, symbolized by name plates adorning offices in Aso Rock Villa, the presidential seat of power, the National Assembly (NASS), governors’ mansions across the 36 state capitals, and state houses of assembly.

    Upon careful reflection, it is indisputable that Nigerians possess an abundance of energy, enthusiasm, and proficiency in pursuing both business and pleasure. This inclination is notably exemplified by the significant number of individuals flocking to Dubai.

    The Offshore Technology Conference (OTC), an annual event situated in Houston, Texas, USA—the epicentre of America’s oil and gas industry—has consistently attracted a significant number of Nigerian entrepreneurs.

     This gathering serves as a hub for seeking lucrative business partnerships and franchises from prominent oil and gas corporations, which actively establish a significant presence at the conference.

    I can personally attest to the fact that numerous successful business ventures in Nigeria owe their inception and growth to opportunities secured during the OTC. So, the conference has played a pivotal role in breathing life into these enterprises, contributing significantly to their current thriving status.

    Based on the aforementioned, there is a strong likelihood that Nigerian participants at COP 28 in Dubai, currently facing criticism from the online community, might soon transition into green energy entrepreneurs. This transformation, anticipated to stem from ongoing efforts to cultivate business relationships in the renewable energy sector, has already started manifesting.

    Already, Oando Clean Energy (OCEL), a subsidiary of Oando Energy Resources, has announced the matching of the federal government’s promise at COP28 to acquire 100 electric buses for mass transit as part of her efforts to reduce carbon emissions, aggravating the climate change crisis.

     So OANDO will be delivering 50 electric buses to Lagos State, and the rest will be deployed to states across the country, including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT.

    Also, as part of the COP28 agenda, a Loss and Damage Fund was launched, and over a trillion dollars has so far been raised in pledges.

    It is fortuitous that Nigerian Tariye Gbadegesin, a Harvard University-trained expert, has been appointed the Chief Executive Officer and CEO of the Climate Investment Fund, which is a platform for securing financial support to combat the climate crisis.

    Does that not represent a positive outcome for our country in the manner that Wally Adeyemo is the deputy security of the US Treasury?

    Meanwhile, Nigerians, driven by their entrepreneurial spirit, stand poised to contribute substantively to our economy based on the alliances and partnerships that they may develop from being involved in COP28. Their participation in conferences abroad often translates into increased productivity and the creation of much-needed employment opportunities for our youth.

    Given the current unemployment rate in our country, which has reached an unprecedented 54%, the infusion of entrepreneurial energy is vital. That is more so because it is this pressing concern about unemployment that is likely contributing to the potency of the social media advocacy campaigns, because, as conventional wisdom goes, the idle hand is the devil’s workshop.

    As we are all well aware, private sector initiatives operate independently of the multilateral agreements established by the government of Nigeria with various countries and supranational agencies during COP28.

    While addressing a global audience, President Bola Tinubu, alongside other world leaders at the conference, explicitly pledged to cease gas flaring in the oil-rich Niger Delta. It is widely known that gas flaring is a significant contributor to climate change, and its adverse effects are being experienced globally, with the burden disproportionately affecting less affluent regions.

    Happily, a prominent gas development company, CarbonAi, has signed an MoU with Oando during COP28 for a partnership towards the commercialization of the gas currently being flared from the company’s oil and gas operations.

    There is likely to be more aligning themselves with more Nigerian firms dedicated to oil and gas exploration and contemplating a visit to Nigeria to explore opportunities for participating in the untapped potential of the abundant gas and related resources.

    COP28 stands out as a pivotal event, especially considering Dubai’s historical significance as a haven for Nigerians prior to the imposition of the visa ban on the country. It is noteworthy that an impressive delegation of 1,411 attendees participated in COP28, demonstrating a collective effort to forge partnerships and engage in discussions with other nations.

    Clearly, the primary focus was on addressing the pressing issue of climate change, a global challenge that disproportionately affects the African continent.

     Basically, Nigeria did not attend COP28 in vain, as it did not return empty-handed. Contrary to the narrative pushed by opposition parties that has remained bellicose, particularly in light of the recently concluded elections, Nigeria’s active engagement in COP28 has proven to be a fruitful endeavour.

    • Onyibe, an entrepreneur, public policy analyst, author, democracy advocate, development strategist, sent this piece from Lagos.

  • Africa & COP 28: Shunning sugar-coated diplomatic lullabies

    Africa & COP 28: Shunning sugar-coated diplomatic lullabies

    By Matthew Abah-Enyi

    One of Africa’s most widely embracing words of wisdom is the one that says he whose father was a victim of the preying lion would flee from the bush-rat that spots the lion’s type of hair stripes to avoid belated regrets after death. Poor and vulnerable island nations most of which are from Africa participating at the ongoing Conference Of the Parties to the United Nations Framework on Combating Climate Change (COP28) in Dubai need to be adroitly apprehensive and guided against a repeat of past diplomatic manoeuvrings around the conference tables that saw them going back home after the event with “hollow achievements”.

    As negotiations on Climate Change dependent existential issues such as the national boundaries of island nations and the economies of sub-Saharan African countries are tabled and debated, African leaders must mobilize to avoid the hooks that carry the baits which lured them into grooving along the paths on which COP26 and the resultant Paris Agreement emanated from. On the pages of the Paris Agreement which were literally idolized by the industrialized nations even before it was made public, the word “Agriculture”, the main stay of African nations’ economies, employing millions of their citizens, was never mentioned, not even once. This was diplomatically fostered on the agreement’s pages at a time desertification was galloping at the speed of 0.6 kilometres per annum from the already conquered northern region of Nigeria towards its southern region in response to Climate Change effects, and Lake Chad’s shores were receding at alarming speed, all of which facts and figures had been unloaded on COP26 tables. 

    At the end of the summit, all that African leaders could point at in their bags as they returned home to their famished nations whose majority of citizens lived on less than one US dollars per day-far below the UN’s own recommendation for human life quality level- were the application of diplomatic yeoman-ship to placate the attendees. Loss and damages, the cliché for long overdue demand for funding empowerment for vulnerable nations to recuperate from years of onslaught of climate change disasters was ostentatiously GRANTED a new status called STAND ALONE!

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    Indeed the continent has continued to stand alone as it has been buffeted by years of economic losses since the grant of the well sung status. National insecurity and insurgencies that have combined to threaten countries of the Lake Chad region’s existence on the world’s map have been nurtured to birth and find fertile recruitment grounds amongst youths rendered jobless and out of schools by climate change-hastened environmental degradation. African nations are presently entrapped in the crystal-coloured lullaby of submitting what amounts to their dizzying Internally Determined Reduction Plans and waiting for pass marks while about 80 percent of their population are not sensitized enough to comprehend the document.

    Meanwhile, adequate funding of Loss and Damages recovery needs of Africa remains a mirage. The abysmal rate of the continent’s population’s awareness on climate change personal liabilities find rueful justification in the low level of their continent contributions to Worldwide Climate Change Gas Emission rate which stood at three percent at last time I looked.

    The well-grounded reasons why African leaders and their climate change vanquished peoples must prepare for war without lethal weaponry but environmental activism on the scale of a social revolution, includes and mainly surrounds the facts and figures that have been unearthed by the theory of the Social Cost of Carbon (SC-CO2). The theory came about as a result of humanity’s need to make all-inclusive rules to guide the emission and reduction of carbon dioxide in view of the self-extinction roles its uncontrolled emission poses to life on earth’s surface. Upon scientific establishment of its possibility and urgency, the theory sought to establish the economic value of carbon dioxide emitted by a geographical entity or organization. Various aspects of life that impact on carbon dioxide production and emission were taken into consideration. Factors such as health hazards, economic losses suffered through agricultural losses and lifestyle enhancement ones such as heating and air-conditioning were all considered. Emissions were quantified in metric tons while the US dollar was the monetary value adopted. Scientifically powerful agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency of US were put together to establish the SC- CO2. Consequent to this endeavour, published documents on SC- CO2 for the years covering 2015-2050, calculated in 2014 at the unit cost of each metric ton established that in 2015, the cost per metric ton would be between $20 and $120 at various quantum of emission and discount rates; up to 2050 when it would cost between $29 and $240 per metric ton.

    Very interestingly, based on this facts and figures, using the 2015 SC-CO2, at the average discount rate of 3%, at $40 per ton of emission, the United States of America, which emission figure for the year 2013 stood at 6,673 million metric tons of carbon was responsible for the total emission whose SC-CO2 stood at frightening figure I implore the reader to tap out on his or her calculating machine in view of its security implications. This was the background in 2016, when, the then election result humbled Barak Obama decided to undertake an act of constriction on the altar of the Green Climate Fund by ordering a remittance of $500 million being the second instalment of a $3billion commitment to a $200billion budget for climate change activities leading up to COP26.

    Former president, Donald Trump’s consequent repudiation of the Paris Agreement, taken together with the end results of COP27, President Biden’s present body language and electoral rating as well as the Republican Party’s anti-climate change lobbies and antagonism towards climate change sciences are all germane issues African leaders need to put before themselves and dispassionately address behind closed doors as they hit Dubai and COP28. They are called upon to ensure their adequate representations at the all-important Agreement Drafting Tables upon which intangible “grants” as metaphor for failed ambitions can be dressed in the toga of COP26 “achievements”. In further justification for the clarion call for Africans to begin to prepare for a social revolution on climate change rights issues, the nexus between the quantum of greenhouse gases being emitted by supper polluters and the economies of vulnerable nations need to be highlighted even if belatedly for the recording cards of hunger-demobilized African environmental activists. As Nigeria’s Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala holds sway at the World Trade Centre, ensuring that only the right quality of products are allowed into the international market, her compatriot investors in Nigeria and other African nations continue to dig deep into their products quality enhancement and pay roll budgets to purchase diesel gas to power private sources of energy away from their epileptic national supply grids heavily crushed by inadequate generation and distribution fund.. On the other hand, the investor in China, USA, EU28, and the other 10 worst-polluter-nations in that order, continue to wax stronger at improving their products qualities in rest minded assurances of steady supplies from their national power grids that supply state-subsidised energy to weapons and air-conditioner manufacturing industries which combine to pump up to 70 percent of greenhouse gases into the collective atmosphere annually in vexatious comparison to Africa’s collective emission annual[ rate of less than 40 percent.

    • Abah-Enyi sent in this piece from Jos. He writes via windsoundafrica@gmail.com

  • The road to COP 28

    The road to COP 28

    By Tosin Samuel Afeniforo

    Sir: The planet is standing at a crossroads, and as the 28th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Climate Change (COP 28), which will take place at the Expo City Dubai from November 30 to December 12, approaches, it is worryingly clear that the climate crisis continues to defy global efforts aimed at mitigation and adaptation. The global community is still having difficulty making real headway in the fight against the looming calamity of the climate crisis, despite many pledges, agreements, and promises.

    It is impossible to overemphasise how urgent the situation is; rising global temperatures, frequent and severe natural disasters, drought, wildfires, the melting of the ice caps and ocean acidification are all signs of a planet in trouble. The overwhelming body of scientific evidence indicates that human activities, particularly the combustion of fossil fuels, are what are causing these grave changes in the earth’s climate.

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    The worldwide community has experienced periods of optimism and aspiration in the run-up to previous COP conferences, with pledges for less carbon emissions, increased investments in renewable energy, and plans to safeguard vulnerable areas. However, it is painfully clear when we reflect on the years that have passed since the start of these conferences that words and vows alone will not be enough to keep us from the brink of environmental catastrophe.

    The absence of legally binding agreements and enforceable mechanisms is one of the most obvious obstacles to effective global action. While international agreements like the Paris Agreement have gotten countries to the negotiating table, many of these pledges are toothless because there are no severe penalties for breaking them. These agreements are voluntary, which enables nations to give short-term economic gains precedence over long-term environmental stability.

    In addition, the disproportionate burden of responsibility continues to be a significant roadblock to our collective efforts. The industrialized world has historically been the main source of greenhouse gas emissions, thus developing countries legitimately argue that they should shoulder a larger portion of the financial and technological burden. But because of the slow pace of resource sharing and technology transfer, vulnerable nations are left to deal with the effects of a crisis they played a lesser role in creating.

    The situation is made more difficult by vested interests and national politics. Despite the rising scientific consensus and an informed public, some people still use climate change denial and delay strategies. The transition to a low-carbon economy is being slowed down by influential lobbying groups and sectors with a stake in maintaining the status quo.

    Given these challenges, COP 28 must mark a critical turning point. Beyond empty rhetoric, the international community must take concrete steps to reduce carbon emissions, invest in infrastructure for renewable energy, and give priority to actions that will help humanity adapt to the effects of climate change. We require a comprehensive and equitable structure that holds nations accountable for their commitments and supports the most vulnerable populations.

    A crucial part is also played by individual activities. Governments, businesses, and people all need to incorporate sustainable practices into their daily lives. Every step contributes to the fight against climate change, from reducing individual carbon footprints to encouraging businesses to prioritize environmental responsibility.

    The world must face the reality that climate catastrophe is not a problem that can be solved in the future as we prepare for COP 28. It is an urgent matter that demands a prompt and determined response. The time for half-measures and hollow promises is over because the future of our planet is on the line. The path to COP 28 needs to be built with sincere commitment, cooperation, and a common resolve to overcome the enormous obstacles the climate catastrophe offers.

    Tosin Samuel Afeniforo, IUSS Pavia, Italy.