By Innocent Onoh
Nigeria has taken a major stride towards the development of its First Biennial Update Report (BUR1) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) when stakeholders gathered last week in Keffi, Nasarawa state, to authenticate the document.
The validation of the draft text likewise signaled the close of the project, which commenced in April 2015 with the meeting of the Local Project Appraisal Committee (LPAC). The Conference of Parties (COP) to the UNFCCC adopted at the COP16 in 2010 in Cancun, Mexico, the BUR for the purpose of enhancing reporting of climate change mitigation actions and their effects.
Consequently, Nigeria, as one of the non-Annex1 Parties under the UNFCCC, has the obligation to prepare and submit every two years, reliable, comprehensive, consistent, comparable and transparent BUR to the COP.
The Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Environment, Dr. Shehu Ahmed, while declaring the session open, restated the ministry’s commitment to implementing the overall mandate of the Climate Change Convention and its Protocol. “The present administration acknowledges that inaction is even far more expensive as it will hinder the actualisation of Mr. President’s Change Mantra and the Sustainable Development Goals,” he said.
The Director Department of Climate Change, Federal Ministry of Environment, Dr. Yerima Tarfa, in a welcome address, expressed the nation’s delight to be involved in the exercise as, according to him, it underlines Nigeria’s contribution towards fulfilling the reporting obligations under the UNFCCC. He noted that it gives the country an opportunity to communicate its low carbon development efforts in a transparent manner.
According to Dr. Tarfa, consequent upon the validation, the endorsed document would be submitted for the commencement of the ICA process, “where it will be reviewed, analyzed and subsequently published on the UNFCCC website.
