The meeting of nearly 200 governments in Peru later this year for the 20th Conference of Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) must produce the first draft of a global deal to cut emissions, a coalition of Nigerian civil society says.
In a release marking the commencement of the 2014 Global Week of Action for Climate Justice, Atayi Babs of the Climate and Sustainable Development Network of Nigeria (CSDevNet) decried the slow progress at the last round of talks in Warsaw, Poland which means significant progress is needed in key areas including climate financing and how to tackle greenhouse gas emissions.
The meeting in Lima in December is a staging point towards a crunch summit in Paris in 2015 when it is hoped world leaders will agree, for the first time, a global deal on cutting emissions that includes both rich and poor countries.
“If what we want by Paris 2015 is a new binding global climate agreement, then Lima must produce a solid working draft,” said Atayi Babs.
The civil society network believes that “Significant progress would also need to be made in Lima on the Green Climate Fund (a mechanism to transfer money from the developed to the developing world), the issue of “loss and damage” (whether rich countries should pay poor ones for damage caused by climate change) and a UN scheme to tackle emissions.”
The Network further urged Nigerians to participate in the events outlined for this year’s Global Week of Action for Climate Justice which are in line with the need for awareness campaigns and massive mobilisation of Nigerians on climate justice as well as the imperatives of Nigeria’s effective and gainful involvement in international climate negotiations in the build-up to a new climate treaty in Paris 2015.
The events are Pre-COP 20/POST-2015 NATIONAL CONSULTATIVE WORKSHOP in Abuja, POST-2015 AGENDA AND SCALING UP OF CLIMATE JUSTICE AWARENESS IN Akwa Esuk Eyamba community, Akpabuyo LGA, Cross River state, SOUTH-SOUTH Nigeria, CLIMATE JUSTICE & POST-2015 MOBILISATION MEETING FOR FARMERS IN Firo village, Gnajuwa LGA, Bauchi state, NORTH-EAST NIGERIA, and a CLIMATE JUSTICE/POST-2015 AGENDA WORKSHOP FOR SELECTED YOUTH ORGANISATIONS IN SOUTH WEST NIGERIA, taking place at Petonrise centre Ibadan.