COP26
ABUJA – President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday took a position on the COP26 Climate Change Summit held in Glasgow, Scotland.
He said that many of the so-called rich and industrialised nations contributing significantly to global emissions were merely paying lip service to issues of climate change sustainability.
The president while buttressing his position, alleged that there was a grand plot by the world leaders to stop funding for fossil fuel, not minding that in practical terms, what this means is the phasing out of coal, which fuels electricity by as much as 70 percent in countries such as India and 86 percent in South Africa; stopping their banks from funding projects in the petroleum sector including gas and switching to electric vehicles; decarbonising polluting industries like cement and steel; creating forests to absorb carbon dioxide; and installing more solar power plants in a short period of time.
Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, who made a cursory assessment of the global summit, said it was disappointing that at the event which attracted one hundred and twenty presidents and heads of government from across the globe converging on Glasgow, Scotland to figure out how to slow down global warming, some of the world’s biggest emitters, China, with 11 percent contribution to global warming, and Russia did not register their presence.
Shehu said his principal, President Buhari, made a strong point that the summit wasn’t just about the regurgitation of Nigeria’s commitment to climate change but an important message to the rich nations of the world that we in Africa have heard enough of them talking their talk: it’s high time they walked their talk.
Also chiding the world leaders, the presidency noted that Nigeria-as did all the countries in developing world -came there to say we are eager to contribute to a greener planet, even though we are, for all practical purposes, non-emitters – Africa on the overall is responsible for a mere five percent of global emissions.
Buhari noted that Africa is nonetheless feeling cheated, oppressed and lied to by the rich nations.
He also took to his speech to criticise the rich countries, the major emitters which brought the world’s climate to this sorry state for making promises toward climate finance that till date, have remained hollow.
Buhari cautioned the world leaders that the goal of transitioning from fossil fuel to clean energy, reaching a net zero ambition for green house emission would require critical infrastructure to be in place in developing countries.
“Parties to the Paris Agreement are expected to transition from fossil fuel to clean energy and reach a net zero ambition for greenhouse gases emission.
“We agree that net zero ambition can lead to economic transformation across all sectors. It is a good ambition, but it requires critical infrastructure in place, including for renewable energy. Therefore, in Nigeria, it will take us longer time to get to net zero,” he said.
Making a case for financial support, the president stated that attaining national and global climate change goals would require adequate and sustained technical and financial support to developing countries.
He added that greater efforts should be channeled towards assisting developing countries to meet their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) commitments through the pledges made by the developed countries to provide at least $100 billion yearly.
The Nigerian leader noted that easier access to climate finance had become imperative because of the COVID-19 pandemic, which really battered the economies of developing countries.
