The Director, Department of Climate Change, Dr. Peter Tarfa(5th in front row); Kaduna State’s Commissioner for Environment and Natural Resources, Mrs Amina Sijuwade; Deputy Director, DCC, Mrs. Halima Bawa-Bwari and Project consultant, Prof. Felix Dayo of Tripple E Systems Associates Limited during the Stakeholders workshop was organized by the Department of Climate Change Federal Ministry of Environment, with support of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Nigeria in Kaduna, recently.
In a renewed effort to brace up for the nation’s emission reduction target, the Federal Government has set machinery in place for a greenhouse gas inventory.
The move is part of the expectation for the Nigeria’s Third National Communication (TNC) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The First and Second National Communication were prepared and submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate (UNFCCC) in November 2003 and June 2014 respectively.
Towards the preparation of the Third National Communication, a two-day Stakeholders’ workshop was organized by the Department of Climate Change, Federal Ministry of Environment, with support of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Nigeria in Kaduna, recently.
The workshop focused on establishing and institutionalizing thematic working groups, which will serve as the hub for the Third National Communication data sources and possibly map out other areas for data collection.
Declaring the programme open, the ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Dr. Shehu Ahmed, noted that developing countries including Nigeria are extremely vulnerable to climate change and the government regards the challenge of climate change as inimical to its national sustainable development and therefore, must be squarely addressed.
Ahmed who was represented by the Director, Department of Climate Change (DCC), Dr. Peter Tarfa said the preparation of National Communications is critical. “It provides an opportunity to document the current climate change situation impacting the country, as well as the projected impact of climate change in the future.
“Without appropriate adaptation and mitigation measures, climate change could have an extremely harmful impact on the sustainability of the development process,” he said.
While assuring the stakeholders of government’s support in the implementation of Climate Change activities in the country, he said that the National Communication process in the country have brought together professionals and experts from different MDAs, agencies and institutions working on climate change and have established institutional networks that would facilitate the exchange of information for the preparation of TNC and future NCs.
The Director, Department of Climate Change, Dr. Tarfa represented by the Deputy Director, Mrs. Halima Bawa-Bwari said that preparation of NCs requires a fairly lengthy and interconnected series of tasks and fundamental decisions.
He said that to build local and institutional capacity to implement the UNFCCC, three thematic groups of local experts from various sectors were identified and engaged to assist in sourcing data as it relates to the different components of the TNC report, on the national circumstances and crosscutting issues; Greenhouse Gas Inventory and mitigation actions; vulnerability and adaptation to climate change.
The project consultant, Prof. Felix Dayo of Tripple E Systems Associates Limited, stated that the workshop was organised to identify critical stakeholders for data and information sourcing; to establish network of critical stakeholders for accessing data and to increase understanding of the content of the Third National communication among stakeholders.
