Nigeria’s Federal Executive Council (FEC), has approved the ratification of the Doha amendment to the Kyoto Protocol on climate change. According to Alhaji Ibrahim Usman, the Minister of State for Environment, the Ministry’s Nigeria is a party to the Protocol, crafted in 2004 with an initial period of commitment from 2008-2012 and later, this new segment covering the 2013-2020 period.’’
“The essence of the protocol was to commit advanced countries to mitigate the effects of gas emissions on developing countries.’’
The minister further stressed that the Doha Amendment of the Kyoto Protocol was essentially meant to assist low-emission economies like Nigeria but suffering the consequences.
“The essence of this protocol is to commit advanced or developed countries that are mostly industrialised and are at the forefront of production of gas emissions, which are harmful to the environment, leading to climate change and therefore causing global problems environmentally.
“So the Doha Amendment of the Kyoto Protocol is essentially to assist countries like Nigeria, which are developing and are not producing any significant emission but are suffering the consequences. We are all aware of flooding that we experienced this year and this has been going since 2012.’’
According to him, by ratifying the protocol, Nigeria and other developing countries will benefit a lot in form of financial assistance and access to technology.
“The benefit Nigeria stands to gain from this Doha Amendment of the Kyoto Protocol is that, first of all, once the amendment is ratified as we want it to be, there will be access to financial assistance which will help in motivating and adapting to impact of climate change.
“Secondly, there will be access to technology and capacity building and there will also be networking with other nations and organizations, who are more advanced and can be of help to us as a country.
“Lastly, continuation of flexible mechanisms and contribution to global efforts as no one country has the solution for this problem alone. So the idea is to team up and then get the developing countries to be assisted effectively,” he added.
Consequent upon the approval, the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, would be required to provide the instrument of ratification, to the President before it would be deposited at the United Nations headquarters in New York.