Implementing NDCs: Federal Ministry of Environment Seeks to Partner Civil Society

- ‘Seyifunmi Adebote, Abuja

Speaking in Abuja, during the National Consultative Workshop on Nationally Determined Contribution and Talanoa Dialogue on 28th August 2018, Dr. Yerima Peter Tarfa, Director of Climate Change Department outlined three key roles that the government expect the Civil Society in implementing the Nationally Determined Contribution.

Dr. Yerima Peter Tarfa, Director of Climate Change Department 

“There are three things Nigeria hopes to achieve through the Talanoa dialogue. First is to harvest a presidential statement about the NDCs; secondly, to create a roadmap for national climate action, while the third is to harvest national input that can be distributed into group discussions to guide the operation and implementation of the Nationally Determined Contribution at local levels.”

Dr. Tarfa stressed the imperious role of Civil Society Organizations to assist the Federal Government of Nigeria through the Federal Ministry of Environment to achieve the aforementioned. The Nationally Determined Contribution seeks to reduce Greenhouse gas Emission by 20% unconditionally and 45% with international support across the key priority sectors; Energy, Oil & Gas, Agriculture & Land use, Power, and Transport.

Since 1992, when Nigeria became a Party to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate (UNFCCC), the Government through the Federal Ministry of Environment saw the need to set up a Department of Climate Change which has continued to address climate change in Nigeria at all levels.

Over the years, the country has continually joined the global community to adopt and identify with various agreements, parties, treaties, and dialogues focused on addressing the many consequences and adverse impacts of climate change in Nigeria. The most recent is the Paris Agreement (PA) which Nigeria ratified in March 2017, which was approved by the UNFCCC on the 16th May 2017 and entered into force on 15th June 2017.

In attendance at the workshop was the PACJA Secretary-General, Mithika Mwenda from Kenya; Priscila Achakpa, Executive Director of Women Environmental Program (WEP), Huzi Mshelia of Mshelia and Co., among other prominent environmental consultants and stakeholders across Nigeria.