175 NATIONS SIGN PARIS AGREEMENT, 15 RATIFY TREATY

PC: UNEP
In support of the Paris climate agreement adopted by the United Nations last December, 175 countries have signed the Paris Agreement at a ceremony at UN Headquarters.

The ceremony which held the first day the Paris Agreement was opened for signature, marked the initial step to ensure the agreement enters into force.  The agreement will enter into force 30 days after 55 countries accounting for 55 per cent of global emissions deposit their instruments of ratification.

According to United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, “The world will have met the requirement needed for the Paris Agreement to enter into force if all 175 countries that have signed today take the next step at the national level and join the Agreement.”

Fifteen countries submitted their ratifications during the signing ceremony, including small island developing countries that are on the frontlines of climate impacts.

Several countries announced plans to join the agreement in 2016, including Australia, Argentina, Cameroon, Canada, China, France, Mali, Mexico, Philippines, and the United States.  Other countries, including Brazil, the European Union, and the Russian Federation, pledged to swiftly work to complete the necessary steps for joining the agreement.

“I am very pleased to see so much support and political momentum to move the Agreement forward,” said the Secretary-General. “The spirit of multilateralism is strong” – he added.

The Secretary-General stated that participation by so many countries, and the attendance by 55 world leaders, along with leaders from civil society and the private sector, leave no doubt that the world is determined to take climate action.

French President François Hollande, who hosted the Paris climate conference, said his country would take the lead to set a price on carbon.

There was strong business engagement at the Signature Ceremony, and United Nations Global Compact Executive Director Lise Kingo called on companies around the world to set an internal carbon price at a minimum of $100 per metric ton over time.

“The Paris Agreement sends a clear signal that business and investors must put climate at the heart of decision-making,” said Ms. Kingo. “We believe that setting a $100 internal price on carbon is one of the most effective ways to drive climate deep into corporate strategy and investment. While leading companies have taken steps to price carbon, we need to see an ascent in ambition and price across the board.”

PC: UNEP

Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), said: “Today is a remarkable, record-breaking day in the history of international cooperation on climate change and a sustainable future for billions of people alive today and those to come.”

Figueres added, “The urgency now is to implement the Paris Agreement’s visionary pathways at a speed and scale that can deliver the next crucial steps; namely a swift peaking of global emissions, a climate neutral world in the second half of the century and the building of resilient countries and communities for every man, woman and child.”

The Paris Agreement marked a watershed moment in taking action on climate change.  After years of negotiation, countries agreed to limit global temperature rise to below 2 degrees Celsius, while pursuing efforts to keep temperature rise to 1.5 degrees.

Even as the agreement was adopted, countries recognised that present pledges to reduce emissions were still insufficient to reach these goals.  The Paris Agreement mandates regular meetings every five years, starting in 2018, to review progress, and to consider whether it is necessary to increase ambition.

ACTION AGAINST DESERTIFICATION IN NIGERIA

The Great Green Wall project office in Nigeria has collaborated with United Nations’ Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) to organise a Capacity Assessment Workshop on Action Against Desertification (AAD) in Sokoto state, North west Nigeria.

At the opening ceremony, the Director General, National Agency for Great Green Wall (NAGGW), Mr. Goni Ahmed, said that as a framework of action for rural development, the Great Green Wall programme is important to rural families and is designed to improve the sustainability, integration and adaptability for dryland agricultural practices to enhance crop production, livestock and fisheries, promote commercialization and marketing of agricultural products, enhance accessibility of farmers, pastoralists and other land users to agricultural funds, increase security and accessibility to basic resources by affected people especially women among others.

Mr. Ahmed said the NAGGW approach to the rural development will include provision of opportunities for the grass roots to participate fully in the development programmes and getting the beneficiaries to queue into the development process. He reiterated the Agency’s commitment to sharing and exchange of research based knowledge, local knowledge, values and practices, and mechanism for exchange of and dissemination of technological information.

The DG remarked that FAO has been one of Nigeria’s strong partners on the Great Green Wall projects across Africa, noting that similar workshop was organized a year ago by FAO in Niamey, Republic of Niger on Baseline Assessment and Ongoing Monitoring of Agrosilvopastoral System of which five staff of the Agency participated. He also noted participation of women and the youth at the workshop, adding that women are very good managers of natural resources and the youth, vanguard of positive change.

The DG was represented by Mr. Saminu Ado, Head of Afforestation Programme Coordinating Unit (APCU), Kano state.

The FAO Representative, Dr. Louise Sethwaelo stated that FAO's approach will help overcome hunger and poverty, ensure sustainable management of resources, building resilience of local communities and landscapes across the globe. She said capacity development is at the core of FAO's global mandate, stressing that the Organisation supports member countries to build their capacities for better policy formulation and strategy development, implementation of programmes, monitoring and evaluation, including support to communities to ensure sustainable livelihoods.

The Action Against Desertification (AAD) which is a support project to achieve the objectives of the Great Green Wall for Sahara and Sahel Initiative (GGWSSI) project, is a Pan African Programme launched by African Union, with the aim of addressing land degradation and desertification in the Sahara region, boost food security and support communities to adapt to climate change. Dr. Sethwaelo was represented at the event by FAO’s Assistant Representative, Mr. Rabe I. Mani.

Great Green Wall Initiative as an integrated action related to issues affecting people's livelihoods in the sahara and sahel, has one of its goals to address the menace of degradation and desertification in the region by engaging the rural communities.

The AAD intervention is being implemented in Nigeria to cover two main very populated basins - the Sokoto basin with one site in Basanta/Tangaza community of the state and the Chad basin in Jeke community of Jigawa sate and Maluri community in Bauchi state.

In attendance at the workshop are representatives from NAGGW (Nigeria), FAO (Ethiopia and Rome), FAO (Nigeria), NOA, WIA, BUK, State Ministries of Environment, Water Resources, Animal Resources, Animal Livestock, NAGGW Niger, NGO's and community members from the GGW corridor.