BY CHIKA OKEKE, Abuja
The Federal Government has finalised plans to save N10 billion from Nigeria's participation at the forthcoming 29th edition of Conference of the Parties (COP 29) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
Scheduled to hold in Baku, Azerbaijan from November 11 to 22, 2024, the cost saving measures would be strictly implemented compared to the expenditure recorded during COP 28 in Dubai last year.
Special Presidential Envoy on Climate Action (SPEC), Chief Ajuri Ngelale stated this at the State House on Tuesday while briefing the media on Nigeria’s preparation for the climate conference.
Fondly called UN Climate Change Conference, the 21st edition of COP, which took place in Paris, December 2015 was a breakthrough for obtaining international commitment in addressing climate change.
It produced the landmark 12-page Paris Agreement that mandated all 195 negotiating countries to limit the global temperature to well below 2°C and make efforts to limit it to 1.5°C pre-industrial levels.
To enhance transparency, President Bola Tinubu has authorised the establishment of the Climate Accountability and Transparency Portal and other measures for efficiency and accountability.
Ngelale said: "President Bola Tinubu is fully aware of and sensitive to the economic conditions confronting our people, and as a result, he approved an audit of the expenditure profile of last year’s COP 28 climate conference. While there was deliberate misinformation regarding the delegation size, our investigation clearly identified inefficiencies that required immediate remedies.
"The President had approved that the Office of the Special Presidential Envoy on Climate Action in collaboration with the National Council on Climate Change establish the Climate Accountability and Transparency Portal (CAT-P) as a tool for every Nigerian to verify the number of delegates attending COP 29 later this year."
Former President Muhammadu Buhari signed the Paris Agreement on behalf of Nigeria on 22nd September, 2016 on the sideline of the UN General Assembly in New York since the country accounted for 0.57 percent of global emissions.
Every five years, each country is expected to submit an updated national climate action plan known as the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC's) that would highlight strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in line with the Paris Agreement.
As a signatory to the agreement, Nigeria has updated its NDC's by including additional sectors, targeted at reducing Greenhouse Gas (GhG) emissions.
Ngelale informed that all members of the delegation across the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) at the Federal and state levels, as well as the legislative branch of government would be captured on the transparent portal.
He hinted that Nigerians would have full-and-real-time access into the data concerning who will attend the conference and those the government will sponsor to COP 29.
The office of the SPEC is expected to serve as the lead negotiator on carbon market and management initiatives on behalf of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, with a mandate to integrate the work of the Intergovernmental Committee on National Carbon Market Activation Plan (NCMAP) into the climate action plans of the Federal Government and report directly to the President.
It will also serve as the supervisory interface between the Secretariat of the National Council on Climate Change (NCCC) and the NCCC Supervisory Council, which is chaired by the President.
Ngelale, who is also the Special Adviser to President Tinubu on Media & Publicity said that concerns were raised about the size of Nigeria’s delegation and the associated expenditures during COP 28 in Dubai.
In response to the lamentations, President Tinubu authorised an audit to fully understand and ascertain what happened and what must be done to ensure that such inefficiencies are not repeated.
According to him, the audit revealed significant wasteful expenditures at COP 28, including nearly $500,000 spent on a pavilion in addition to a number of wasteful sub-contracts and consultancies, among many other avoidable expenses.
"This review and resolution process is conducted with a view to ensuring that whatever is spent ahead of COP 29 has a function that will lead to the economic empowerment of our people and the economic development of our nation.
"Additionally, this will also ensure that anyone who is attending this conference has an economic imperative to be at that conference, engaging with companies, multilateral partners and stakeholders who will attract finance and opportunity into the country for the benefit of our people.
"Anyone who is not engaging in activities that are directly linked to the attraction of climate engagement, business opportunity, and ushering new finance into the country will not be part of the Federal Government’s delegation this time around," the Special Envoy added.
Ngelale explained that Nigeria's delegation will efficiently utilise the on-site delegation office with a time slotting system within the conference complex, which will cost less than 10 percent of the amount spent the previous year on the pavilion.
He said: "This is the change that Nigerians have asked for. This is the change that President Tinubu is giving to them."
This was contained in a statement by the Director, Information & Public Relations, Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr Segun Imohiosen on Tuesday in Abuja.
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