Nigeria urges parties to save Kyoto Protocol

AS a gloomy cloud continues to hang over the Kyoto Protocol (KP) at the on-going climate change conference in Durban, South Africa, Nigeria remains hopeful that last minute negotiations would save the agreement.The KP is the only legally binding international agreement that commits developed economies to reduce emission of greenhouse gases responsible for climate change, to pre-1990 levels.Nigeria's Minister of Environment, Mrs. Hadiza Ibrahim Mailafia, has expressed hope that a last-minute deal would be reached on the protocol, just as she urged all parties to avert the death of the agreement on African soil.Meanwhile, the United Nations Under-Secretary General and Executive Secretary of the UN Economic for Africa, Abdoulie Janneh, has discarded assertions that Africa might not be able to absorb all the resources it needs for climate change as a 'false debate that should not be taken very seriously.'Janneh, who was responding to a question during a panel discussion on climate finance at the ongoing Durban conference (COP17), said that there were sufficiently robust structures on the continent to handle any funds that African countries might receive tocurb the negative impacts of climate change.Mailafia said: 'I don't want to think about the absence of the Kyoto Protocol, and that is because we have very high hopes, and we have been working very hard on it.'On gas flaring in the Niger-Delta, the minister said the Nigerian government was working hard to end gas flaring and cut carbon emissions, especially in the oil and gas sector.She said: 'With gas, we can generate a lot of energy, instead of flaring and wasting it. We are working with legislative arm of government, to bring out very strong policies and regulations. We had earlier set a target of 2015, and we are working hard to see if we can meet that target.'In a similar vein, the minister said structures were being put in place to clean up the oil spill in Ogoni land.She said: 'The oil companies have accepted responsibility for that (the Ogoni spill) there is an immense political will, a very strong one to address these issues. Nigeria is a democratic country, and people have voices and rights. The Ogoni people and all Nigerians, more than ever before, now know that this is the time to act. Thirty years is a long time to clean up a place but of course that tells you the enormity of the damage that has taken place in that land.'Meanwhile, Nigeria's efforts to fight climate change has received a boost, with the United Kingdom announcing a 2.9 billion package to fund adaptation projects in Africa.Nigeria has been pencilled down to get 150 million from the fund.The deal was made known after bilateral talks between the United Kingdom's Minister of State for Climate Change,Mr. Gregory Barker, and Mailafia on the sidelines of COP 17.
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