ICEED

NAICOM disbands monopoly of agric insurance

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 07:59 +0000

National Insurance Commission, NAICOM, has disbanded the monopoly of Nigerian Agricultural Insurance Corporation, NAIC from the exclusivity of agricultural insurance in the country as the commission has open its doors to other underwriters willing to go into the lass of business.

Commissioner for Insurance, Mr Fola Daniel made this known recently at a two training programme organised by the insurance regulatory body for Journalists in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, titled, ‘Development of Micro-Insurance Market in Nigeria.

Daniel explained that NAIC cannot be able to contain the huge opportunities in agricultural insurance in the country hence the need to give other insurance companies the leverage to emplore that business.

“At the moment, it seems NAIC Act has conferred on NAIC the exclusive right to insure all subsidised agricultural risk;” however, opportunities still abound in the areas of commercial unsubsidised agricultural risks”.

“The commission shall give appropriate consideration to underwriters desiring to underwrite agricultural insurance under the relevant provisions of the law. Existing underwriters are well advised to take advantage of the capacity already accumulated by NAIC,” he said.

He equally pointed out that as means of attaining sufficient capacity for large risks, the commission shall actively support pool arrangements, co-insurance and facultative reinsurance placements.

He said that NAICOM was willing to permit other insurance companies that desired to take on the class of insurance that falls under micro-insurance.

According to him, “The development of agricultural insurance is another area the commission is very concerned about. Although, the Nigerian Agricultural Insurance Corporation (NAIC) seems to have the exclusive right to all subsidized agricultural risks in the country by virtue of the Act that established it, huge opportunities still exist in the areas of commercial unsubsidized agricultural risks.”

By Favour Nnabugwu

UNDP partners BoI, others on bankable emissions reduction projects

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 12:06 +0000

SEEKING to reduce energy generation’s contribution to emission of greenhouse gases and climate change, stakeholders in the country have been advised to explore opportunities inherent in bankable emissions reduction projects.

The projects are promoted by United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) under the energy efficiency project, which is aimed at opening up investments in emissions reducing projects such as structuring wind, solar, bio-mass, geothermal and small-scale hydro-power projects.

Last week, a three-day training titled: ‘Renewable Energy Project Finance’ organised by UNDP Nigeria Country Office in collaboration with Bank of Industry and Euromoney Training was held in Lagos for financial institutions on the risk assessment and allocation in renewable transactions, green credits, tax credits, Carbon credits, trading markets, cash flow analysis for renewable deals, debt and equity alternatives for financing renewable energy.

UNDP Deputy Country Director, Mr. JanThomas Hiemstra drew attention to a recently released statistics of the poverty rates in Nigeria that the energy need for the populace that fall within this statistics is paramount. He expressed satisfaction that UNDP through the Implementing agency BOI was implementing the Access to Renewable Energy Project.

BOI managing director, represented by the GM Operations, Mr. Austin Jo-Madugu, stated that within the overall framework of increasing access to modern energy services, the strategy for the Access to Renewable Energy Programme is aimed at fostering pro-development energy services by facilitating an expansion of renewable energy services accessible to MSMEs, renewable energy investments by building up capacity within the financial sector, as well as, among users and providers of energy services, promote policies and institutional frameworks for an inclusive renewable energy market development.

“We believe bankers will be able to understand how to structure and access renewable energy projects in Nigeria, this we hope would allow for more financing of such project in Nigeria. He explained that the three days training is one of the activities of the Access to renewable energy project, which is housed by the Bank of Industry.”

Megan Rapp from USAID in her presentation on loan guarantees explained how USAID is willing to partner with financial institutions in Nigeria so that they can access loan guarantee that can be used to reduce the risk of renewable energy projects.

Project Manager BOI/UNDP AtRE, Mr. Segun Adaju gave an update of the BOI/UNDP Access to Renewable Energy project adding that the objectives of the project was to build capacity of MSMEs to incorporate renewable energy options either as a business in and of itself, or as service for business development.

He also gave a rundown of activities that the project management team have embarked on to include the interactive session with financial institution and the Investment forum that provided as interface between project developers and financial institutions. At these forums there was a resounding call for capacity development.

The participants came from Bank of Industry, Access Bank, FCMB, UBA, Zenith Bank, Skye Bank, Sterling bank, Keystone Bank, Unity Bank, Nexim Bank, StanbicIBTC, Nefund, Aterios Capital and MBC Securities.

The Guardian

‘Govt must urgently respond to climate change’

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 12:27 +0000

The Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Climate Change, Eziuche Ubani, wants the government to do more towards adverse climate change in the country. He talked with DAKA TERHEMBA in Abuja. Excerpts:

HOW would you assess the response of the government to the issues of climate change?

We haven’t done our best in terms of proper responses. And that goes back to our lack of understanding of the climate change mitigation in all its ramifications.

This is a new concept of development that challenges carbon driven developments. In the carbon driven development, you have this cold power plants, you have gas being flared when we are trying to extract petroleum from the ground. We have various mining activities without proper care for the environment. Over time it has been found by science that the unbridled injection of carbon into the atmosphere has consequences.

Some of these gases stay up over 100 years before they dissolve. Even those that go to the ground don’t actually dissipate or dissolve, they have a long life and they have consequences. Some contaminate underground water. The ones that go to the atmosphere like carbon have the potential to impact the ozone layer, which is why we have shifts. Impacting the ozone layer means that there is distortion in the balancing, resulting in varying weather patterns.

The impact has become worse over time and exacerbated by the various human activities. The quest for man to live has contributed to these distortions, and combined with the pressure on resources by the increase in population. It is a circle and there are fears that we may approach a tipping point where this balance can no longer be maintained. We recklessly exploit natural resources and then emit more gasses into the atmosphere and then it can no longer hold. There are predictions that s cities very close to the coastline may over time be submerged because of the warming of the sea.

The issue is that some countries have understood this danger and are working out how to respond to it.

We on our own have not done enough. I don’t see evidence of understanding of what the issues are in place, and then the interconnectedness at the highest level of policy and power. I do not see evidence of any effort being made to mainstream efforts to mitigate adverse climatic changes. I do not see that in our budgets, I do not see it in the way we do our physical planning in the urban sphere and in a built up environment. I do not see that in the way we practice agriculture or water management or in the way we carry on our businesses.

How should the country address these issues for example in the area of budgeting?

We have to shorten the learning curve. There has to be some awareness about what this issue is. This is something that is in our immediate experience. The kind of flooding and erosion we have experienced have become very frequent and much more dangerous. We have seen prolonged periods of rainfall in certain areas, and inundation of coastal areas from sea by the sea and all that. What we need to do is to have the awareness that there are changes in the environment and that we need to understand the causes.

We need to understand the actions that we need to take in the policy process to be able to address them at the national, state and council levels. We have to check the way we hand permits for logging in the rural areas for example. This is just one example of the things that require changing. These are the sorts of action as opposed to the understanding of the causes and what we need to do.

There needs to be a policy on climate change. I believe that one is being done now. Then we need to mainstream climate change mitigation in our budgets. We need to bring that into our development process to say that for instance in 2020 or 2050 we would have driven down carbon emission to a particular level. Then we need to create institutions that would govern climate change mitigation. This is the governance architecture that we need to put in place, which we do not have now.

Is the budgetary allocation suitable to address the issues bothering on climate change mitigation in the country?

It is not sufficient. This year for instance, the department of climate change in the Ministry of Environment has a budget that is under N500 million. And then they have a whole country to deal with. But it is not just about the budget set aside for climate change. It is for the line ministries whether in agriculture, transportation, aviation, water resources to make their budget climate change mitigation-compliant. This means embracing programmes that would contribute to the quantum of efforts to bring down Nigeria’s emission of Green House gases or to respond to those changes that we know. Rather than just budgeting, like that to say, they can also say that okay they are planting a number of trees to bring down carbon emission. Those are not quite in place now.

Is there a policy on Climate Change now?

The Ministry of Environment has finished work on that. It is just left for the Minister to take it to Council for adoption. It is when they do that it can be adopted as Nigeria’s climate change policy.

What do we expect when it is adopted?

When it is adopted, perhaps we would have put down one of the major instruments for addressing climate. The efforts to bring down green house gases are encapsulated in the policy and the responsibilities due to those agencies and line ministries are specified there. For instance, the climate change policy takes the view that Nigeria needs to continuously bring down its consumption and dependence on fossil fuel that is petroleum and all of that. This means that there is something that we need to do over the years, to say for instance that by this year we should have brought this down by this quantity based on the efforts that are made by the programmes that are run by the ministries. We can say for instance that in 2030 Nigeria’s clean energy contribution to the overall Nigerian energy mix should be about 30 per cent or 40 per cent, which means that Nigeria will now shift investment from electricity as we know it to investing in solar power, investing in bio-mass, use of bio-diesel and bio fuel and all that.

How can the states be involved or is this just is climate change an issue that can be addressed only at the national level?

The issue of environment is a concurrent issue in the constitution. The Federal Government cannot actually legislate for the states. But the matter is that states are working at their pace. There are states that are doing something. Lagos, Kaduna and to some extent Delta and Cross River states are doing things along the requirements and dictates of climate change mitigation efforts. But everybody cannot be said to be marching at the same pace. The learning curve of the governors is also different, some are deep and some are shallow. So, not all the states are on one page on that issue.

Over grazing has been mentioned as a cause of climate change. What can be done to address the movement from a grassland to another by the nomadic Fulani cattlemen in search of grazing areas for their herd?

The only way to raise cattle is not to continue to move in the bush. There are new and more acceptable ways of doing it. They can be compelled to be in some kind of location where some incentives are provided for the to grow pasture. In some extreme cases like the case of the people in Iceland, over time they had so much sheep and this was threatening their land, and efforts to agriculture in other areas. They budget on what each farmer can produce and said for example that you cannot have more than a number of herds of cattle so that you don’t put too much pressure on land. It was done and the people obeyed.

They Fulani have to embrace mechanised farming or we have to devise other ways for which we can grow pasture much more quickly so that in a very small area they can grow a lot of pasture that would sustain a large number of their livestock. These are ways that are managed through issues like irrigation. If there is irrigation in a place that means that they can have pasture. There are lands for pasture that are always carved out after every budget for the government to rehabilitate so that livestock farmers can graze their cattle there.

This certainly is capital intensive and how can the illiterate nomadic farmer flow with such an idea?

It is feasible if we understand the dangers posed by adverse climate change. If we don’t do things today and decide to leave them for tomorrow, the cost and consequences will be bigger. The choice before us is to say, let everybody continue to produce and graze and then let the desert be coming. Let us be having desertification up to a point we are not able to even grow or raise one herd of livestock.

Author of this article: DAKA TERHEMBA

SAVE THE DATE - OFFICIAL LAUNCH OF THE NIGERIAN ALLIANCE FOR CLEAN COOKSTOVES - MARCH 20, 2012

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 15:48 +0000

The Partners of the Nigerian Alliance for Clean Cookstoves have scheduled a new date for the Official Launch of the Nigerian Alliance.

The new date is Tuesday March 20, 2012. More information will be provided soon.

A funeral for the Kyoto Protocol?

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 14:09 +0000

I met Vijay Iyer yesterday. Vijay is the World Bank’s Director of Energy and Sustainable Development. He told Honourable Eziuche Ubani and me a funny story. Ubani had asked him what his assessment of the negotiations was. “Are we making progress?” he asked. Vijay smiled. He asked if we had noticed how everybody is so nice to each other here at the climate change negotiations. Ubani and I didn’t know why. He told us that it was normal for people to be kind to each other during funerals. “The climate negotiation in Durban is like a funeral for the Kyoto Protocol”, he said.

The only legally binding agreement to reduce the emissions of harmful gases that cause global warming met its slow and painful death here in the beautiful South African city of Durban. First, it was the Americans that rejected this treaty in 1997. And because the treaty excluded developing countries, some of the world’s biggest polluters, China, India and Brazil were also left off the hook. Today, the combative American congress is less likely to accept any binding obligation to reduce their emissions, especially if China and the big developing economies are left out of the deal.

Before the Durban conference, Japan’s position was already very clear. The world’s third largest economy will not be part of any renewal of this deal, if China and the fast growing developing economies are left out. But it was Canada that took the oxygen out of any hope that this treaty will be renewed. The announcement that Canada will not be part of a second commitment period for the Kyoto Protocol unplugged the life support from the only binding agreement to reduce emissions that result in the sort of floods that hit Lagos and Ibadan this year.

For our Nigerian delegates and some NGOs, the Kyoto Protocol has become a strong emotional issue. We have been told that this is the main concern for the African Group and the Group of 77 and China. And since our national delegates have been told that we have no national interests in these negotiations except to support Africa, many loiter around this expansive conference centre with their heads down. In corridors, cafeterias, side events and shopping malls, wherever you find Nigerians, it’s all talk about Kyoto this, Kyoto that.

A new agreement or renewal of the treaty to reduce global emissions in a substantial way would be of benefit to Nigeria. But a new Kyoto treaty that binds only a handful of countries that together make up less than one quarter of global emissions is meaningless to Nigeria. Any agreement that leaves out the two biggest emitters – China and the United States is not in Nigeria’s interest.

For a long time, the big developing economies of China, India and Brazil has been hiding behind our back. Yes, of course, many of them still have poor people in their country. We also accept that rich countries have contributed historically to the build up of these harmful gases. But it will be mindless for us to accept that countries who today pile up the bulk of these dangerous gases should not be obliged to reduce them consistent with their national circumstances. But because our leaders are out of touch with our own interests and realities, we are told to support China and India and sing the songs of African solidarity when our house is on fire.

Perhaps we should talk about some other things. The Nigerian delegation was livid today because our minister, Mrs Hadiza Ibrahim Mailafia made a good speech to the plenary. In her speech, she listed the accomplishments of the government on climate change. Particularly, the minister told the world audience that the National Assembly has passed the Bill to Establish the National Climate Change Commission and that President Goodluck Jonathan will soon sign this bill into law.

The rest of the world cannot understand why the President cannot sign the climate commission bill one year after the national assembly forwarded it to him. That the minister committed the president to signing the bill is a positive sign. The world will hold her to her word.

Ewah Otu Eleri Executive Director, International Centre for Energy, Environment & Development

Green growth on the agenda

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 12:51 +0000

Yesterday, I attended a side event. For most delegates and NGOs, side events at the climate change negotiations are the main events. This is where countries, inter-governmental organisations, companies and research institutes present latest policies, programmes and ideas on solving the climate problem. It is an excellent place to learn, get inspired and network. So today, the Republic of South Korea held a side event on their green growth programme.

South Korea has made green growth the centrepiece of its long-term development programme. The first speaker, Dr. Han Seungsoo, the former prime minister of the Republic of South Korea and chairman of the Global Green Growth Institute defined green growth as the national quest for economic growth that is compatible with low emissions of harmful greenhouse gases. This is a radical thought.

Traditional economic thinking assumes that rapid economic growth and high greenhouse gas emissions are natural bed fellows. In expanding national income and lifting people out of poverty, developing countries will have high energy intensities and will expand their carbon emissions, the argument goes. Green growth strategies combine high economic growth with lower emissions.

The side event had an impressive line up. It had Sir Nicholas Stern, Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics and Lead Author of the influential Stern Review of Economics of Climate Change. According to Nicholas Stern, green growth represents a new industrial revolution comparable to what happened in the 19th century. Investments in clean technologies and processes will drive the economic growth of the future. Economies that fail to modernise its energy technologies and processes will stunt and face atrophy.

Ministers and senior government officials from Brazil, Ethiopia, Korea and UAE took turns to present their national green growth economic programme. Today, Paul Kagame, the president of Rwanda will be here to present his country’s green growth development plan. A Nigerian, Dr Chukwumerije Okereke of the University of Reading led this important work for Rwanda.

As I listened to these leaders speak on their new economic strategies, I couldn’t keep my mind from drifting back home. No country in the world has a stronger case to embark on a green economic strategy than Nigeria. Korea was motivated to make green growth its official development plan because 93% of its energy requirements were imported. The development of clean energy technologies will save energy, create new industries and ensure growth in employment.

In Nigeria, we almost have no price to pay for this economic transition. Green growth in terms of converting the over 15 billion cubic meters of natural gas flared annually into power production is practically our only hope for boosting power supply and revving up a double digit growth. And we can also reposition agriculture as the engine of growth and employment by massive dam infrastructure expansion and proper management of existing ones. Accompanied by new financing programmes put in place by the Central Bank of Nigeria, Nigerian agriculture will be transformed. And we would have protected our farmers from the uncertainties created by the impacts of climate change.

As I listened, one other thing that struck me was how far climate change has left the shadows of the environment. Not long ago – in many countries, action on climate change was the prerogative of environment ministries. Today, in India, China, Rwanda, Kenya – you can go on, the office of prime ministers and presidents have taken over national action on climate change. When the National Assembly began work on the climate change commission, we thought Nigeria was blazing the trail. But we were not. The bill passed by the National Assembly to establish this office under the president is still wasting away on the president’s table.

In times like this, I miss people like Chukwuma Soludo, with all his imperfections - people who can see far into the future and have the courage to summon a government to action.

Ewah Otu Eleri Executive Director, International Centre for Energy, Environment & Development

Climate change conference - designed to fail?

Tue, 06 Dec 2011 15:38 +0000

I finally arrived Durban yesterday – at the beginning of the second week of the United Nations Climate Change Conference. I had spent the last week in Bangalore at an event organised by the International Renewable Energy Agency, the inter-governmental agency for the promotion of renewable energy. IRENA brought together about fifty leaders comprising entrepreneurs and experts to gauge where we are in addressing barriers to the growth of renewable energy.

We got into town early enough to soak in the breathtaking beauty of this Indian Ocean city with its endless beaches and lush landscape. But we arrived too late for registration at the Albert Luthuli International Conference Centre, the venue of the climate change conference.

I joined a shuttle bus to my hotel alongside delegates and some NGOs. Beside me was Antonio. He was from Chile and works for a government agency. This was Antonio’s first COP – the annual Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. He told me he had been here since the beginning of the two-week conference. But the whole event seems too overwhelming and confusing. It feels like hundreds of meetings going on at the same time. Antonio told me he had attended a number of negotiation meetings, but he had come out more confused. Hours upon hours are spent on procedural issues and fine language.

I had followed developments in the Durban negotiations from Bangalore. Strangely, you have a better chance of tracking these negotiations away from the mad rush of fifty-five simultaneous negotiation tracks attended by over 10,000 delegates from 194 countries. With several online publications and newsletters you can feel the pulse of the negotiations thousands of kilometres away.

I asked Antonio and the others on the bus what the mood of the negotiation was like. Are we close to any tangible agreements? I asked. It will be awful if the first COP on the African soil will result in a disaster.

We all knew that an agreement on the reduction of the emission of dangerous gases into the atmosphere is not within reach in Durban. In a way, existing agreements make global response to climate change dependent on mandatory emission reductions from rich countries and similar actions to be taken by developing countries on the basis of financial transfer from rich countries.

The only big hope for Durban was therefore an agreement to launch the Green Climate Fund already established by the Cancun Accord last year. But this hope is now shaky. Several countries are now calling for the opening of negotiations on the report by a Transitional Committee established to work out the details. So there is an atmosphere of despair, especially among NGOs.

The loss of momentum and the whole atmosphere of powerlessness that is increasingly grinding this global effort to a halt seem to be structural. It is as if the climate change talks are designed to fail. With tens of negotiation issues being discussed at the same time, there is apparently no sense of priorities. Over the years, we have not seen a sufficient number of quick-wins that has been agreed upon and successfully implemented. Let’s take for one the issue of energy poverty.

The United Nations Secretary General has dedicated 2012 as the year of Sustainable Energy Access. Nearly 2 billion of the world’s population have no access to electricity and are dependent on wood fuel for their daily cooking. These billions of open fire result in billions of tons of these harmful gases sent to the atmosphere every year. But they also result to millions of deaths from respiratory and other diseases. The cost of modern efficient wood cooking stoves could be between 750 – 1500 Naira or five to 10 US dollars. This means that if these endless negotiations had focused on solving this problem, we could have prevented billions of tons of these gases from being emitted to the atmosphere. At the same time we would have saved millions of lives and built a huge stove industry with millions of jobs. In Nigeria alone this will result to the prevention nearly 100,000 deaths annually. But this is hardly the focus of the negotiations. Or is it?

Ewah Otu Eleri Executive Director, International Centre for Energy, Environment & Development.

Launch of the Nigerian Alliance for Clean Cookstoves postponed

Tue, 04 Oct 2011 12:44 +0000

The Nigerian Alliance for Clean Cookstoves met on November 9, 2011 and deliberated on the new security situation in Abuja.

Considering the importance of the safety of partners and invitees, we regret to inform all our invitees that the Official Launch of the Nigerian Alliance planned for November 17, 2011 has been postponed to a later date.

The partners regret the inconveniences this will cause all of our invitees. A new date will be communicated to all as the security situation around Abuja improves.

A case for youth participation in climate change policy process. By Unico Iregbu Kalu

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 14:50 +0000

Climate change is fast introducing an alternative pathway to both national and global development. Twenty years ago, an average young man would engage on any available practice to eke out a living, without giving a thought to the impacts of his actions on both the environment and the climate. The effects of climate change are already here with us and it is the young people who will bear the greater brunt of the effects. As such, lifestyles and attitudes are gradually moving towards reducing the emission of greenhouse gases. Globally, young people are becoming aware of their roles in the fight against climate change and possible effects of their actions and inactions. Their contributions range from advocacy, public enlightenment, research, to actual demonstration of low carbon path through either engaging in recycling, planting trees or getting involved in the development of solar technologies.

However, it is absolutely sad that in Nigeria, the young people are not involved in the climate change decision process, both locally and internationally. Nigeria has been involved in several global efforts towards climate justice. It has participated in different international negotiations on the different thematic areas but the young people who are supposed to benefit from a safer climate are not part of the country’s official negotiation team. If there are national positions on the different building blocks within the climate negotiations, such positions are not put in the public domain. Nigerian youths are unaware of such national positions and did not have any input in their formulation.

Another round of climate change negotiations, in Durban, South Africa, is fast approaching. However, to date, Nigerian youths, and possibly the general population, are yet to identify what the country will be negotiating for in South Africa. The youths are unaware of how the country intends to ensure that the established ‘adaptation fund’ will benefit them; they do not know what is being discussed in the REDD+ and how that can translate into a more sustainable use of the forests around them; they are not aware of Nigeria’s preference for the established ‘technology mechanism’ which establishes the framework for the transfer of technologies from Annex 1 Parties to non Annex 1 Parties.

As the world comes together again in South Africa to discuss strategic initiatives to solve the climate crisis, young people, especially in Nigeria, expect more pronounced milestones that will ensure the immediate implementation of certain agreements already reached in the course of the negotiations. Young people also expect that more just decisions will be taken to help the countries most vulnerable to climate change. It should not stop at identifying negative effects of climate change, practical solutions should be urgently initiated.

Nigeria being among the most vulnerable countries to climate change needs to initiate requisite domestic policies and/or programs that will ensure it benefits from the many international mechanisms instituted to fight climate change in developing countries. Also, climate change reporting obligations for Nigeria should be given adequate attention, while internal policy reform should be embarked on to promote the fight against climate change through pursuing a low carbon path to growth and development. To achieve these goals, strong political will on the part of the government is required. Civil society groups should step up their advocacy and public awareness campaigns to enlighten the public and put more pressure on the government to take necessary actions. The youths should be involved in climate change policy process. They have the capacity to drive and sustain major national transformations, and the future is theirs.

Unico Iregbu Kalu is Interim Coordinator at the Nigeria Youth Climate Action Network.

Where is the National Climate Change Bill?

Thu, 08 Sep 2011 12:53 +0000

On December 9, 2010, the harmonised version of the National Climate Change Commission Bill was forwarded to President Goodluck Jonathan for assent. It was reportedly received on his behalf by his Special Adviser on National Assembly Matters, Dr. Cairo Ojougboh. It is now more than eight months since the transmission of the bill and there is still no word from the Presidency on the fate of this very important bill. More than thirty of such bills addressing several critical areas of our national life are currently lying on the President’s table gathering dust. This is incontrovertible evidence that we have a President who is either out of touch with the aspirations of the people or is not bothered about anything. It will be recalled that the 6th Nigerian Parliament had to amend their own rules to give the President time beyond the expiration of the parliamentary season to consider bills forwarded to him. Is our President even aware of such amendment?

More than one fifth of Africa’s poor, about 102 million people live in Nigeria. They predominantly depend on rain-fed agriculture as over ninety per cent of them are rain dependent peasant farmers. Lack of irrigation facilities, due to the availability of only a few dams, makes it is difficult to provide the required water needs of most crops, thereby adversely affecting yield. Today, rainfall in Nigeria has become very irregular (intense in some areas and very sparse in others) and the agricultural base of the desperately poor are severely threatened. The situation places more than 42 per cent of Nigeria’s GDP at risk and increases the vulnerability of those in dire need of the dividends of democracy. The drought we used to hear about in distant lands is increasingly spreading closer to the Guinea Savanna towards the Northern and Middle Belt states of Nigeria. There has been intense rainfall variability in the past few months leading to flooding in Lagos, Bauchi and Katsina. It is believed that Lagos State alone lost more N150bn (about $1bn) to flooding recently. In Katsina State, seven people died while more than 120 houses were destroyed. Almost 2000 indigenes of Bauchi State were displaced by the down pour.The Nigerian Meteorological Agency predicted recently that the flooding will spread to other Nigerian cities like Bauchi, Calabar and Ibadan in the near future. Climatologists predict that there may be a one meter sea level rise in the next 50 years which may render two to three million people in Lagos homeless.

Erosion menace is a frightening reality throughout the whole of the South-East. Sadly, there are those within the government who still see climate change with the regrettable not-in-my-backyard lens or consider it as a problem of the future. The time has come for them to rise from their cold conceit, wake up to their responsibility, and repent from their inaction. The absence of an agency for the coordination of informed policy response to the issues of climate change has cost us beyond what can be calculated and has paved the way for ad hoc reactionary approaches that lack depth and are prone to capture by corrupt tendencies. A full-fledged commission that has both the technical competence and regulatory teeth will indicate that we are ready as a nation to ameliorate the adverse effects of climate change (before it catches up with us) while innovatively tapping into the opportunities it offers.

The oil industry (our chief foreign exchange earner) draws intense criticism from development experts due it its huge contribution to greenhouse emissions. We are comfortably lagging behind because our government has always found one reason or the other to continue the mindless gas flaring in the Niger Delta region. One third of the total greenhouse emissions in Nigeria still comes from just one single source- the oil industry. This still remains the most important contributor to greenhouse gases in Africa. It is depressing that there is neither a clear understanding nor courageous leadership on matters of climate change within any governmental institution. Vested interests are having a field day and have found “innovative” ways of sedating our policy makers to keep shifting the goal post to the detriment of the populace that they pretend to be catering for. How can we continue to close our eyes as the gas that will power our economy is turned to flames daily? How do we intend to feed our power plants that will give us the electricity we desire? When will the celebrated gas master plan go beyond media propaganda?

Many countries are building thriving low carbon economies that are creating new “green” jobs for their peoples. Diverse private sector opportunities abound to countries that are able to lay out clear legislative framework and operational modalities. As usual, Nigeria lags behind in this new thinking in global development. Must we wait for a disaster to act? President Jonathan is an indigene of Otueke near Oloibiri where oil was discovered in a commercial quantity for the first time in Nigeria.

He therefore carries the burden of the environmental despoliation and ecological catastrophe in the Niger Delta region in particular and in other parts of Nigeria. He needs to demonstrate that he has the ability, courage, depth and tenacity to meet the demands of this burden. His continuous inaction can easily lead pundits to conclude that he has subtly submitted to the hands of vested interests whose intent is to milk Nigeria’s natural resources dry and leave a polluted environment for generations yet unborn.

Those whose livelihoods are affected daily by the effects of climate change and who voted Jonathan into office in April 2011 deserve a better deal and that is what they are asking for. Luck has offered President Jonathan, an important opportunity to shape the course of Nigeria’s fate. He should embrace the mandate that fate has offered. He should append his signature on the National Climate Change Commission Bill and unto many other bills waiting for his signature.

Igwe wrote from the Africa Programme at Johns Hopkins University Washington DC via ucheigwe@gmail.com

How Nigeria can build climate resilient economy, by Eleri

Mon, 05 Sep 2011 11:38 +0000

It was a particularly wet day in Abuja. The rain was heavy and I was driving with my cousin, David. David is a Lagos banker. He told me we were lucky in Abuja. It rains non-stop in Lagos, and the floods last month have cost him a good chunk of money.

That day in Lagos, David and his driver were returning from the airport. Near the Falomo Bridge, the water was so high that the engine compartment of the four-wheel drive was soaked. At some point, the engine stopped completely. He and the driver pulled up their trousers, and pushed the beast through the pool to the shoulder of the road. A week later, he got a bill of Six Hundred and Fifty Thousand Naira from the mechanic. David told me it was time to talk about climate change.

According to the Red Cross, 102 lives were lost in the recent Ibadan floods. The University of Ibadan alone estimates a loss of 10 billion Naira in infrastructure damage. Estimates of the financial cost of this year’s floods in Lagos vary. According to newspaper reports, perhaps a Hundred Billion Naira may have been lost. Nationwide, this year’s floods may have cost us an equivalent of about 300 billion Naira or nearly two percent of GDP. This does not include the lives that were washed away, or the daily stories of human suffering. But our government doesn’t stop to count the cost – the cost of its inaction.

Actions required to tackle climate change are often in our national economic interest. Take for one, the issue of gas flaring. This is Africa’s most important single source of harmful greenhouse gases that cause global warming. If we had the courage to switch off this evil fire, there will be enough gas for our power plants, and we can expand our economy and create jobs. And we may also have spared the pain we cause the people and environment of the Niger Delta. The benefits of reducing the emission of these harmful gases would only have been a bonus to the fight against global warming.

Another example is the four billion US Dollars we spend on fuel subsidy – an unnecessary donation to the rich who own cars. Had we spent this amount annually on modernisation of railways or innovative urban mass transport systems, the poor will benefit. We will also have cleaner urban air quality and help address global warming. From ending gas flaring, expanding transportation infrastructure such as the BRT in Lagos, scaling up renewable energy supply and encouraging energy efficiency – actions needed to grow our economy are exactly what the doctors ordered for addressing global warming. Since the impacts of climate change are already here, we can also build more climate resilient infrastructure – better roads, bridges, drainages, dams and create insurance schemes for our farmers. But this is not happening.

Making progress against climate change in Nigeria will require a stronger policy and institutional framework. Today, there is no clear political ownership on this issue. The National Climate Change Commission Bill passed by the National Assembly is lost in the Presidency. Nobody knows where the file is. The result is a costly dereliction of responsibility by our government, and a general sense of drift on climate change.

A suite of key issues are important in the government’s future response to climate change. One is finance. Implementation of the Gas Master Plan or what the government now calls the Gas Revolution will cost tens of billions of dollars. So will the expansion of public transport infrastructure and renewable energy supply. Opening up the pipeline of domestic and international sources of finance for these programmes should be left, right and centre of our international climate engagement.

In previous negotiations, we have joined bigger development countries in endless bickering over access to high end climate change technologies. But our women need everyday survival technologies such as clean cookstoves and cheaper solar lanterns. Over 79,000 Nigerians, mostly women die every year of smoke from household cooking with wood. This is Nigeria’s silent killer. But clean cookstoves save lives, money and our forests. These are flesh and blood issues that cry for attention.

Even if our government wakes up to its responsibilities and begin to take the right mitigation and adaptation steps at home, our actions alone will not be enough. Nigeria must step up pressure on richer countries to take more ambitions reductions of emissions. That’s our only hope of reducing the menacing floods of the future, and stopping the Sahara Desert from eating deep into our country. And we must also be courageous enough to encourage our friends among the bigger developing countries like Brazil, China and India to take stronger and perhaps more binding actions. A climate deal without China and the bigger developing countries will be a waste of efforts.

As we prepare for the climate negations in Durban by the end of the year, our domestic needs for finance, technology and capacity building in delivering energy, infrastructure and resilience in agriculture should form the bedrock of our positions. We must also be ready to push rich countries and the bigger developing countries to take on more ambitious emission reduction measures. This will be our only hope of averting the floods of the future, and the costs we all must pay.

Ewah Otu Eleri Executive Director, International Centre for Energy, Environment & Development, Abuja

Stakeholders to Launch Nigerian Alliance for Clean Cookstoves

Tue, 09 Aug 2011 09:51 +0000

Stakeholders have, at a meeting in Abuja, reviewed processes leading to the official launch of Nigerian Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, a body set up to address the health, poverty and climate change challenges that traditional cooking with wood fuel cause in the country. The Nigerian Alliance has set a target to distribute 10 million clean Cookstoves by 2020, adding that “this represents 10 percent of the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves.”

Participants discussed corporate governance issues, conditions for membership, branding issues and the Alliance online presence. Partners agreed to launch the alliance on October 27, this year.

Current members of Nigerian Alliance for Clean Cookstoves are; Federal Ministries of Health, Environment, Women Affairs, Energy Commission of Nigeria, Shell Petroleum Development Company, Oando plc., USAID, GTZ, Heinrich Boll, FCMB and International Centre for Energy Environment and Development (ICEED).

Meanwhile, ahead of the launch, the executive director of ICEED, Mr. Ewah Eleri visited the United Nations Foundation, the secretariat of the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves in Washington DC, United States.

Eleri said an outcome of the meeting was a commitment of the Global Alliance to support the launch of the Nigerian Alliance. “The Global Alliance will ensure that other African countries participate in Nigeria’s event and will also provide an international speaker to the event.”

This Day Newspaper.

Stakeholders set up committee on climate based insurance scheme

Mon, 08 Aug 2011 11:58 +0000

EFFORTS to establish a framework for a national climate-based insurance scheme have been kick-started, with the naming of a nine-member multi-stakeholder group to reform the agricultural insurance sector.

The initiative is expected to introduce measures to leverage on anticipated support from the international community to developing countries like Nigeria, scale up of agricultural insurance, support the expansion of credit to the agricultural sector and help build farmer’s resilience against climatic disasters.

To drive the scheme promoted by the International Centre for Energy, Environment and Development (ICEED), National Insurance Commission (NIACOM), Nigeria Meteorological Agency (NIMET) and the Nigeria Climate Action Network (NigeriaCan), a one day workshop was organized in Abuja recently.

The major highlight was the constitution of an implementation committee comprising the Federal Ministry of Agriculture (FMA), Federal Ministry of Environment (FME), Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Nigeria Agricultural Insurance Commission (NAIC), All Farmers Association (AFA), Nigerian Insurers Association (NIA), NIMET, NIACOM and ICEED .

Statistics have shown that Nigerian agriculture is particularly vulnerable to climate variability. Over 90 per cent of crop production is dependent on rain-fed systems. The agricultural sector contributes 42 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product, and employs about 70 per cent of the total labour force. The limited coverage of irrigation, mechanisation and use of key farm inputs heightens current vulnerability, and will compromise efforts to reduce poverty and grow the wider economy.

United Nation’s models on the future climatic scenario for Nigeria predicts daunting prospects for Nigerian agriculture. In the next two decades, Nigeria will experience shorter rainfall seasons with high intensity of precipitation. A higher average temperature is also predicted, especially for Northern Nigeria. Should the current rain-fed small scale agriculture remain the predominant structure of the sector in the coming decades, Nigerian agricultural economy will face an uncertain future.

Environment Minister, Hadiza Mailafiya, emphasized on the need to raise local farmers’ awareness on the need to access insurance services. Represented by Dr. Samuel Adejuwon, Heads the Special Climate Change Unit (SCCU) in the FME, disclosed that the ministry had constituted a national committee to undertake preparatory activities for Nigeria’s “effective and efficient participation” at the COP 17 scheduled to hold by year’s end in Durban, South Africa.

“The climate change talks envisaged in Durban, I believe, will result in concrete financial transfers to developing countries including Nigeria, I therefore encourage us to embark on domestic reforms to leverage these anticipated support from the international community,” she said.

The NIMET Director-General, Anthony Anuforom, warned that if no adequate climate change adaptation was employed by 2020, between two to 11 percent of Nigeria’s GDP could be lost.

He said: “Statistic shows that average annual losses from weather related events were in the orders of $1 billion in 1990s, $35 billion in 2004 and almost doubled in 2005. In addition, it was recorded that, between 1980 and 2005, nearly 7,500 natural disasters worldwide took lives of over two million people and produced economic losses estimated at over $1.2 trillion.

“Executive Director, ICEED, Mr .Ewah Eleri said that climate change presents an unprecedented challenge for Nigerian agriculture. In the year 2010, the spate of floods in almost all parts of the country destroyed farmlands. “This has resulted in higher food prices, heightened food insecurity, rising demand for imported food and may exacerbate rural poverty. This year’s floods only add to the problems that farmers face. Should this trend continue, Nigeria’s efforts to meet Millennium Development Goals will be jeopardised.

“Nigeria has significant experience in delivering traditional agricultural insurance schemes through cooperatives and government agencies. However, broadening the market for these risk management services are limited by several factors, including high transaction costs, regulation, product design and poor customer perception.”

Chinedum Uwaegbulam - The Guardian

Farmers’ climate-based insurance scheme underway

Mon, 01 Aug 2011 11:00 +0000

An implementation framework for a national climate-based insurance scheme will emerge in a few weeks, 18 months after a multi-stakeholder initiative to reform the agricultural insurance sector commenced. The agenda, which will be fashioned out by a nine-member group, will eventually metamorphose into a bill that will be presented to government for assent into law.

Driven by the International Centre for Energy, Environment & Development (ICEED), National Insurance Commission (NIACOM), Nigeria Meteorological Agency (NIMET) and the Nigeria Climate Action Network (NigeriaCan), the scheme entails the exploration of opportunities and challenges aimed at devising a climate-based agricultural insurance scheme for the country.

At a daylong forum last week in Abuja, participants constituted an implementation committee comprising the Federal Ministry of Agriculture (FMA), Federal Ministry of Environment (FME), Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Nigeria Agricultural Insurance Commission (NAIC), All Farmers Association (AFA), Nigerian Insurers Association (NIA), NIMET, NIACOM and ICEED to formulate and implement a work plan. The framework will detail necessary steps towards delivering the reforms.

Nigeria’s agriculture is presumably vulnerable to climate variability, with over 90 percent of crop production dependent on rain-fed systems; even as the sector contributes some 42 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) and employs 70 percent of the total labour force.

According to the United Nations, Nigeria will in the next two decades experience shorter rainfall seasons with high intensity of precipitation. A higher average temperature is likewise predicted, especially for the dry North. Indeed, ongoing UN talks are negotiating a climate-based insurance mechanism to address the threat to agriculture and related sector.

The CBN recently launched an incentive-based risk sharing system for agricultural lending, which looks to scale up agricultural insurance and support the expansion of credit to the agricultural sector and help build farmers’ resilience against climate disasters.

At the Abuja session, Environment Minister, Hadiza Mailafiya, underlined the need to raise local farmers’ awareness on the need to access insurance services scheme to benefit from available lending facilities. She said, “Nigeria has significant experience in delivering traditional agricultural insurance schemes through cooperatives and government agencies. However, broadening the market for these risk management services are limited by factors like high transaction costs, regulation, product design and poor customer perception.”

Mailafiya, represented by Samuel Adejuwon, who heads the Special Climate Change Unit (SCCU) in the FME, disclosed that the ministry had constituted a national committee to undertake preparatory activities for Nigeria’s “effective and efficient participation” at the COP 17 scheduled to hold by year’s end in Durban, South Africa. “The climate change talks envisaged in Durban, I believe, will result in concrete financial transfers to developing countries including Nigeria, I therefore encourage us to embark on domestic reforms to leverage these anticipated support from the international community,” the minister emphasised.

The AFA President, Abdullahi Adamu, explained, “There is an urgent need for a risk management mechanism to mitigate climate change challenges and protect Nigerian farmers from huge losses in crops and resources. We encourage the government at all levels to explore the design and performance of particular policy instruments, informed policy developmental activities, and the design of policy systems to cope with complex challenges.”

Clerk, House of Representatives Committee on Agriculture at the National Assembly, Oscar Okoro, attempted to distinguish between protection insurance and promotion or development insurance. He stressed, “Protection insurance which is designed to help poor people protect their livelihood and assets has to be subsidised and rquires special delivery channels that should be aligned with relief rather than developmental interventions. “Promotion insurance which is designed to help households with viable farm businesses manage their risks can be channelled through private intermediaries, but is unlikely to sell unless it is subsidised or promotes farmers’ access to new productivity enhancing technologies or high value markets that can raise their incomes significantly.”

The CBN’s Director, Development Finance Department, Paul Eluhaiwe, lamented that the NAIC, though the sole insurer of primary agricultural production nationwide, is ill-equipped to meet the demands as only about 500,000 farmers have insurance cover in the country. “There is therefore an urgent need to review the act that established NAIC with a view to deregulating the sub-sector. More private sector players should also be allowed in insurance market in order to deepen the product offering, improve efficiency and spur healthy competition,” he declared.

NAICOM official, Babajide Oniwinde, stated that the firm’s objective is to deepen the market through financial inclusion, rural insurance including agriculture and micro insurance. “We give approval to insurance policy covering crops, livestock and including any climate-based product that will come into the market to make sure that the language of the policy is clear, fair and not misleading to the innocent farmers taking the policy,” he said.

The NIMET Director-General and Chief Executive Officer, Anthony Anuforom, warned that if no adequate climate change adaptation was employed by 2020, between two to 11 percent of Nigeria’s GDP could be lost. His words: “Statistic shows that average annual losses from weather related events were in the orders of $1 billion in 1990s, $35 billion in 2004 and almost doubled in 2005. In addition, it was recorded that, between 1980 and 2005, nearly 7,500 natural disasters worldwide took lives of over two million people and produced economic losses estimated at over $1.2 trillion. “About 90 percent of these are due to weather and climate hazards and translates to about $80 billion per year with only a quarter of the amount insured. Managing such risks poses serious challenges to developing countries like Nigeria with low coping capacity.”

Ewah Eleri of ICEED said, “The drought and floods we experienced in recent times are out of the ordinary compared with what we used to have, and it will only get worse. The farmers will bear the brunt of this disaster because their entire life savings depend on their crops. One way to address this is to be able to provide the farmers with some measure that allows them to balance their risks, which means that when crops fail or when heavy rains or dry spells occur, they have something to fall back on.

“In Nigeria, less than one percent of the farming population have access to insurance cover and, if this continues, the Federal Government will not be fulfilling its obligations over the agric sector. It is a mismatch that less than two percent of all bank lending goes to farming, even though 42 percent of the GDP is represented by agriculture. The government response is inadequate because only the NAIC is allowed to under right agric insurance. This does not point to the future. So we have brought all the critical actors to develop a national platform to launch a comprehensive reform in agric insurance.”

By Michael Simire, Deputy Sunday Editor.

Workshop on Climate Based Insurance in Nigeria

Tue, 26 Jul 2011 16:47 +0000

Nigerian agriculture is particularly vulnerable to climate variability. Over 90% of crop production is dependent on rain-fed systems. The agricultural sector contributes 42% of the country’s gross domestic product, and employs about 70% of the total labour force. The limited coverage of irrigation, mechanisation and use of key farm inputs heightens current vulnerability, and will compromise efforts to reduce poverty and grow the wider economy.

The country has significant experience in delivering traditional agricultural insurance schemes through cooperatives and government agencies. However, broadening the market for these risk management services are limited by several factors, including high transaction costs, regulation, product design and poor customer perception. As the threat of climate change looms, the need to reform this scheme has become urgent and pressing.

The Central Bank of Nigeria has recently launched the Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending. One of the key components of this transformative programme is the scale up of agricultural insurance. This will support the expansion of credit to the agricultural sector and help build farmer’s resilience against climatic disasters.

As a follow up to this process, The Nigerian Climate Action Network in collaboration with International Centre for Energy, Environment & Development, Nigerian Meteorological Agency and National Insurance Commission are investigating the possibility of introducing climate index based crop insurance in Nigeria, as part of a broader agricultural insurance reform process.

This workshop on Climate Based Insurance in Nigeria will hold on July 28, 2011 at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja. The workshop seeks to validate a baseline study on climate based agricultural insurance in Nigeria; outline a draft work plan for agricultural insurance reforms; constitute a national committee for the implementation of the work plan; and enhance stakeholder awareness on the reform process.

Participants will be drawn from federal government agencies, financial institutions, farmer’s groups, media and civil society.

A commitment to low carbon industrialisation

Wed, 22 Jun 2011 17:34 +0000

On March 17, 2011 senior policy makers and industry leaders met in Abuja to deliberate on pathways towards a low carbon industrial growth for Nigeria. The workshop sought to identify low carbon development opportunities in key industries and identify barriers to increased investments in low carbon technologies.

Participants identified lack of access to natural gas and hydro-powered grid electricity as the main constraint to growth in low carbon industrialisation. They agreed that reforming the energy sector is crucial to expanding low carbon industrial growth in Nigeria. Other important sectors include cement production and textiles.

Participants agreed to set up a multi-stakeholder committee. The committee will examine innovative approaches to incentivise low carbon transition in industries and develop a national strategy to expand industrial productivity. This approach is consistent with Vision 2020 and Nigeria’s international obligations on climate change.

This forum was convened by the International Centre for Energy, Environment and Development in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Federal Ministry of Environment and the Global Climate Network.

Senator Bent urges Nigeria’s President to sign climate bill

Wed, 22 Jun 2011 17:33 +0000

The chairman, Senate Committee on Environment and Ecology, Senator Grace Bent has urged President Goodluck Jonathan to sign the Bill to Establish the National Climate Change Commission (NCCC Bill). She made this call during a courtesy visit by the Nigeria Climate Action Network in Abuja on March 15 , 2011.

According to Senator Bent “ every responsible government should take the environment seriously, especially during this uncertain climatic times. According to Nigeria’s legislative practice if the president does not sign the bill under the current term it will be returned to the National Assembly”, she warned.

The National Climate Change Commission Bill will provide an institutional framework for handling all climate change related issues in Nigeria.

Nigeria leads the way on low-carbon industrial strategy

Tue, 21 Jun 2011 12:01 +0000

A ground-breaking joint initiative between the Global Climate Network's Nigerian member organisation and the country's Industry and Commerce Ministry will lead to an industrial strategy to promote low-carbon development in Nigeria, was announced on Friday (18th March 2011).

The initiative was launched during a high-level event organised by the International Centre for Energy, Environment and Development (ICEED-Nigeria) in Abuja, the first in six different countries, resulting from a study by the HYPERLINK "http://www.globalclimatenetwork.info/" Global Climate Network to identify the key elements of such a strategy. Speaking at the event, Dr Ewah Eleri, ICEED's director said, 'the low carbon industrial strategy will articulate government and private sector actions that lead to rapid industrialisation through low carbon emission technologies'.

Representatives from several government ministries, industry, finance and academia resolved to set up a multi-stakeholder committee to develop a low carbon industrialisation blue-print for the country.

Climate based micro-insurance

Tue, 21 Jun 2011 12:00 +0000

On March 22-23, 2011 stakeholders representing the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, All Farmers Association of Nigeria, Nigerian Meteorological Agency, The World Bank, Central Bank of Nigeria, the insurance industry and civil society groups met in Abuja to deliberate on the challenges posed to Nigerian agriculture by frequent climatic disasters and the inadequacy of climatic risk transfer mechanism through insurance.

Stakeholders at the two day meeting acknowledged the important role ole agriculture plays in the economy in terms of employment, income generation, poverty reduction and raw materials production, the targets of vision 2020 and the MDGs, may not be achieved if action is not taken now to protect Nigerian farmers through an adequate insurance arrangement.

They identified, inadequate meteorological infrastructure, unsupportive policy and regulatory frameworks, lack of capacity building within insurance industry and poor public awareness among Nigerian farmers constitute major bottlenecks to providing climate based risk management services to farmers.