In order to address climate change in Nigeria, the United States government has signified they are ready to intervene in helping the country.
According to U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, Mr John Kerry, the United States is ready commit 200 million U.S. dollars to start-up processes on Clean Energy Demand Initiative to help address climate change in Nigeria.
Kerry, made the commitment when his team paid a courtesy visit to the Minister of Environment, Mr Mohammed Abdullahi, in Abuja on Tuesday. Kerry, who also signed an Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the minister on the initiative, said the programme started in Glasgow.
According to him, the initiative is a way by which companies and countries can make decisions to implement buying or production of green products. He confirmed that the programme would provide job opportunities and develop the economy as well as promote a healthy environment in the country.
“The initiative will also accelerate marketplace creation, so that it will help transition programmes faster and help to achieve a clean energy economy as well as dealing with climate crisis”.
“The minister has agreed in the letter of intent. We have 200 million dollars at the moment committed to the startup in the process of safety”.
Kerry said the initiative would take a lot of billions of dollars and trillions of investment in the country.
”We talked today about the ways in which we can be helpful to bring major amount of capital to the table with technology to help Nigeria move faster to the clean energy economy. That is the future and all of the citizens of Nigeria will benefit from cleaner air. I will like to explore with you and listen to you to think through how we can work together as you implement your own climate change. As you also think about the long term future and sustainability for Nigeria, for Africa, we will like to explore with you on how we can increase the ambition that you have set out already in your Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC).
“I congratulate you. Nigeria is taking a lead towards COP 27 and it is an opportunity to reduce emissions and deal with the climate crisis. So, on that note, the initiative is a very important effort to try to send a signal to the marketplace and to bring your businesses to the table. We are going to work together. I’ve got a good team here. We are all working on this programme every day, trying to figure out the road ahead and I look forward to hearing your thoughts about that”.
The minister said the MoU would help Nigeria to participate in the clean energy demand initiative being supported by the U.S. government of which the essence was to ensure healthy and clean energy is accessible in the country.
The announcement could not have come at a better time as it was only last week when leaders from African nations called to Western leaders for support on climate change. Senegalese President and African Union chief Macky Sall and Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi said wealthy countries are responsible for most CO2 emissions and should rise up to the challenge of supporting less wealthy nations.
The leaders were speaking at the Africa Adaptation Summit in the Netherlands, which comes two months before the crucial COP27 climate conference in Egypt this November.
“I cannot fail to note with a touch of bitterness the absence of the leaders of the industrialised world,” Sall said at the opening of the event. “Because these are the main polluters of our planet and it is they who should finance adaptation.”
The Senegalese leader added that it was “not just the fate of Africa that is at stake but the fate of humanity and the future of the planet.”
Tshisekedi of the Democratic Republic of Congo also commented, “I deplore the absence of the leaders of the industrialised nations and the private sector who are, as we know, the greatest polluters. The African continent has the smallest impact on climate change, but paradoxically suffers the majority of its consequences”.
Former UN chief Ban Ki-moon also added that as the continent of Africa emits just some three percent of global CO2 emissions, there is a moral duty to help African countries adapt.
The summit is the first in a series of meetings to focus on helping Africa adapt to climate change, bringing together the African Union, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Netherlands-based Global Center on Adaptation. The objective is to raise around $250 million in capital to attract investors in adaptation programmes.