By Lateef Adegbite
The last may not have been heard about the World Climate Action Summit in Dubai, Capital city of the Arab country of United Arab Emirate. UAE. Antonio Guterres, the United Nations, UN, Secretary General, may have taken advantage of the COP28, world climate summit to urge governments ‘’to help industries make the right choices by regulating, legislating and putting fair price on carbon, ending fossil fuel subsidies and adopting a windfall tax on profits’’.
The UN Secretary General who could not hide his feelings had said that ‘’the road to climate sustainability is the only pathway to economic sustainability of companies in the developing economies in the future’’. He was said to have told the over 70,000 participants, including Heads of State and Government and other top Government officials, Multinational Companies operators, private sector representatives, academics, experts’ youth and non- state actors that ‘’climate justice is long overdue’’. He noted that the developing countries which many believe includes Nigeria, the most populous country in the African Continent and some other Asian countries are being devastated on a daily basis ‘’by disasters they did not cause’’ like floods and drought.
. He lamented that the developing countries ‘’extortionate borrowing costs are blocking the countries climate action plans’’. This may have informed why he had said that Global stock take must commit to a surge in finance, including for adaptation and loss and damage.
He will want the developed economies ‘’to support the reform of the Multilateral development banks to leverage far more private finance at reasonable costs for developing countries on climate action plans’’. Appealing to the developed economies to show how they will double adaptation finance to the North American country of the United States, US, $40billion and further clarify how they will deliver the $100 billion as promised to make the COP a game-changer in the new hope in the future of mankind, he insists that the only way to dully support the developing economies.
King Mohammed VI, of the UAE, averred that’’ in a global system that remains inequitable, Africa alone, received US $30 million in annual climate financing flows in 2020, which experts said represents less than 12% of it needs.
Sultan Al Jaber, COP28 President had confirmed that his home country, UAE, had delivered on its promises, from the $100 billion to loss and damage fund which is very important to the developed economies due to its vulnerability. The COP 29 President had said that at present more than 85% of the global economy are behind the COP goal of tripling renewable energy by 2024.
He noted that many of the companies in the global economy are committing ‘’to zeroing out methane emissions by 2030 for the first time in history’’. According to him, even the national and International Oil Companies, IOCs, have also adopted net zero targets of gas flaring by 2050.
King Charles III of Britain, who was at the COP 28, Dubai Conference had said that ‘’ the hope of the world rests on the climate talks that took place in Dubai, UAE, last November. He noted that prior to the Conference, ‘’ the world was dreadfully off-track’’ in delivering a sustainable future for the climate.
Vice President Kamala .D. Harris of the US, may have shocked he Participants at the UAE climate Conference when she revealed that as at two years ago, President Joe Biden, had spent a trillion dollars on climate investment, described as the largest and in the history of the country.
She disclosed that this year alone, the country had made contributions of well over $9.5 billion to countries affected by natural disasters which had put it on track to hitting the $1 billion target that was said to have been set by the US President by 2024. She was said to have also taken advantage of the COP28 Conference in Dubai to announce that the Biden’s Administration had made additional pledge of $3 billion to the Green Climate Fund expected ‘’to help the developing countries invest in resilience, clean energy and nature-based solutions to natural disasters’’.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who incidentally was a former governor of Lagos state, which had experienced much flood over the last couple of years says Nigeria is taking a significant step towards a sustainable and eco-friendly future by introducing a pioneering initiative to deploy a fleet of 100 electric buses .
The Nigerian President who spoke at a high- level meeting with stakeholders and investors on the Nigerian Carbon market and Electric buses programme on the margins of the COP28 climate summit at Dubai UAE, may have taken the bold initiative to benefit from the US $3 billion pledge for the Green Climate Fund to help developing countries.
He may have alluded to this when he disclosed that the strategic initiative is aimed at reducing the country’s carbon emissions by ensuring gas flaring is eliminated, notwithstanding the huge penalty of US $2 being paid per 1000Standard Cubic Feet, scf, flared while companies producing less than 10,000b/d pay a fine of $0.5 per 1000scg gas flared.
The Nigerian President was said to have also talked about modernising the country’s transportation system to foreign investors at Dubai as part of the government efforts ‘’to position the nation and the African Continent’’ as the pioneering frontier of Green Manufacturing and industrialisation with a focus on natural gas as a transition fuel alongside other renewable energy sources.
An elated Nigerian President had said that ‘’the country’s plans f or a greener and cleaner economy will serve as an inspirational narrative for other countries in other parts of the world. President Tinubu may have used the opportunity provided by the Dubai, UAE, COP 29 Summit to call out the US and the’’ Asian country of China which are the biggest economies in the world and the major culprits in GHG emissions to act real- fast to reduce it as ‘’the African Continent needs urgent healing’’.
Hear him: What I know of Africa is the fact de-risking in additional investment and technological know-how now is very necessary from the two biggest world economies that had benefitted immensely from the African economies over the years and which now needs healing and more attention.
