The Federal Executive Council yesterday approved the ratification of the Doha amendment of The Kyoto Protocol, which concerns the United Nations framework convention on climate change.
Minister of State-Environment, Ibrahim Jibril disclosed this to Journalists while briefing them on the outcome of this week’s meeting of the Council, presided over by Vice President YemiOsinbajo.
He said: “The Federal Ministry of Environment presented a memo which was taken and approved, for the ratification of the Doha amendment of the Kyoto Protocol. This Protocol concerns the UN framework convention on climate change, which is a major global issue across the world now. The Protocol was crafted in 2004 and Nigeria is a party to that and the initial period of commitment of the Kyoto Protocol was from 2008-20012 and after that, the new segment now is 2013-2020.”
The Minister explained that the essence of the protocol is to commit advanced countries to mitigate the effects of gas emissions on developing countries.
“The essence of this protocol is to commit advanced or developed countries that are most industrialized and are at the forefront of production of gas emissions, which are harmful to the environment, leading to climate change and therefore causing global problems environmentally. While they emit more than we the developing countries, that’s why the world met in Doha, to look at the issue and to ensure that the developed nations are compelled to take responsibility for their actions the Doha Amendment of the Kyoto Protocol is essential to assist countries like Nigeria, who are developing and who are not producing any significant emission but are suffering the consequences. We are all aware of flooding that we experienced this year and this has been going since 2012.
According to the Minister, by ratifying the protocol, Nigeria and other developing countries stand to gain a lot in form of financial assistance and access t technology.
“The benefit Nigeria stands to gain from this Doha Amendment of the Kyoto Protocol is that, first of all, once the amendment is ratified as we want it to be, there will be access to financial assistance which will help in motivating and adapting to impact of climate change.
“Secondly, there will be access to technology and capacity building and there will also be networking with other nations and organizations, who are more advanced and can be of help to us as a country and lastly, continuation of flexible mechanisms and contribution to global efforts as no one country has the solution for this problem alone. So the idea is to team up and then get the developing countries to be assisted effectively,”he explained.
Jibril said is in the interest of Nigeria to get the agreement ratified, adding that the next stage will be for the Attorney General of the Federation, AbubakarMalami to provide the instrument of ratification, which will be signed later by the President and be deposited at the United Nations headquarters in New York.
