TheCable

Despite directly impacting our communities, health and livelihood, climate-related reports usually take a back seat to dominant news beats like politics and business. Climate Watch aims to ensure you never miss important stories on climate change and actions being taken towards limiting its impact.

Here is a round-up of last week’s climate stories:

• Ahead of COP27 in November 2022, the incoming Egyptian presidency of COP27, the United Nations (UN) regional commissions, and the UN climate change high-level champions for COP26 and COP27 are jointly organising a series of regional forums to accelerate financial flows to the projects needed to reduce emissions, build climate resilience, and advance the 2030 sustainable development goals (SDGs). Taking place across Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean regions, the five forums are a targeted initiative to drive greater public and private investment in the regions where the need is greatest. The first forum is at the meeting of the African group of negotiators for COP27 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on August 2 to 4 while the rest will take place across other concerned regions of the world.

• President Muhammadu Buhari has appointed Salisu Dahiru as the pioneer director-general (DG) and chief executive officer (CEO) of the national council on climate change. This comes months after the president, as a way of solidifying Nigeria’s pledges and its commitments to the Paris agreement, signed the climate change act. Expectations of the new DG and his profile can be found here.

• The Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) has called for the review of the national water resources bill to accommodate the concerns of all states. The forum made the call in a communiqué on July 27 signed by its chairman, Kayode Fayemi, governor of Ekiti. Fayemi said the reintroduced bill did not adequately address the interests of the states and was inconsistent with the provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. TheCable had reported how the bill was passed in 2020 by the green chamber but was later withdrawn following criticism that trailed the decision of the lower parliament. The bill had sought to bring water resources — both surface and underground — and the banks of the water sources “affecting more than one state”, under the control of the federal government.

• Mangrove Marathon, an ecosystem advocacy group, has called on government at all levels, multinationals and other stakeholders to be involved in saving Nigeria’s mangroves. Jerry Chidi, chief executive officer (CEO) of the group, made the call on Saturday shortly after the climax of the “10 kilometres Awareness Run/Fun Walk, Warri 2022”. Addressing journalists, Chidi described mangroves as one of the nature-based solutions to tackling climate change, saying that fishes depend on resources from the mangrove and that sealife cannot survive without it. Muhtari Aminu-Kano, director-general (DG), Nigerian Conservation Foundation, said the essence of the event was to educate the people that mangroves are not just plants, but also vital to society. By protecting the shorelines, they preventing flooding and other disasters, he added. Over 200 athletes across the country participated in the event.

• Kabiru Getso, commissioner for environment, Kano, has lauded Hassana Bala, a female street sweeper, for hard work and rewarded her with N10,000. Getso gave the award on Saturday when he led the state task force committee on sanitation to monitor the monthly environmental sanitation in Kano, the state capital. He said the woman had been reported to be discharging her duty with diligence since a portion was given to her for cleaning. “We received a report that she even sweeps her portion even at night and ensures that it is clean at all times,” he said. Getso called on other sweepers to be always committed to their work and tasked them to emulate Bala to keep Kano clean and healthy, thus preventing waste from falling into drains. He also said the ministry would officially recognise her to encourage others.