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COP28 And The Quest For Climate Justice

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A presentation by Nnimmo Bassey at the Nigerian Resource Justice Conference 2023 held on 18 December, 2023 in Abuja.

The foundation for voluntary emissions cut by nations was laid in the Copenhagen Accord (2009) and consolidated in the Paris Agreement (2015) under what is known as Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC). The voluntary mechanism essentially blunted the Common But Differentiated Responsibilities (CBDR), a cardinal justice principle of the UNFCCC. Whereas in the past, rich, industrialized and polluting nations were grouped as Annex 1 nations and had binding emissions reduction requirements, under the NDCs, there are no binding obligations. Nations simply have to do what is convenient for them to do and report back on what they have done to the COP. Such submissions were made for the stocktake at COP28.

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Voluntary emissions reduction can work in a situation where there is no crisis and no urgency for action. However, the world has already
progressed from global warming to global heating and the prognosis for the future shows very dire situations. The evidence of the trend are presented in the various IPCC reports as well as in UNEP’s Emissions Gap Report (EGR). The EGR issued just before COP28 showed that rather than reducing, global greenhouse emissions increased by 1.2 per cent from 2021 to 2022 to reach a new record of 57.4 Gigatonnes of Carbon Dioxide Equivalent. In addition, an aggregation of the NDCs proposed by nations showed that the world was heading for a 2.5 to 2.9C temperature increase above pre-industrial level. At that temperature level, there will be a spike in freak weather events and the overall conditions will make parts of the world uninhabitable.

The reliance on NDCs lock in inequality and injustice in the entire
climate negotiation process. With this understanding, my initial
conclusion is that COPs conducted on an unjust basis will continue to
yield hollow outcomes that at best scratch the surface of the climate
crisis.

Fossil Notice

COP28 has three significant accomplishments, but around each are bubbles of uncertainties and loopholes. The three highlights are the adoption of Loss and Damage Fund mechanism, the agreement to triple renewables capacity and double energy efficiency by 2030, and the agreement to transition away from fossil fuels in energy. Yet, in all, the real winners are the army of fossil fuels lobbyists and the petrostates.

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After kicking and screening for decades, the COP finally agreed to
acknowledge that burning of fossil fuels must end. The phrase of
transitioning from fossil fuels for energy was so carefully crafted it
leaves an ocean-wide space for the fossil fuel industries to keep on
prospecting for, and extracting the resources. The restriction of the
open-ended transition to renewable energy gives the industry the space
to keep drilling for production of plastics, petrochemicals and diverse products. In other words, that celebrated clause does give a life line for the petroleum civilization to trudge on.

READ ALSO: COP28: NNPCL Signs Two LNG Deals

Carbon Wordsmiths

The wordsmiths of the COP play with the imaginary of the world and it is time to wake up to this fact. At COP26 the phrase “phase down” instead of “phase out” was introduced. A phasing down of coal, for example, simply indicates there would be some efforts to tinker with production and consumption volumes of the hydrocarbon. It does not by any stretch suggest halting dependence of the dirty energy source. A lot of energy was spent at COP27 and COP28 to push for the “phase out” language in the outcome documents. The draft outcome document of COP28 particularly gave a number of options on how the language for “phasing out fossil fuels” could be couched. While negotiators and politicians tried to wrap their heads around the clause, which would remain a clear ending of the fossil fuels age, the wordsmiths came out with “transitioning from fossil fuels in energy.” So, there is the phase down, phase out and then a partial transition. Strikingly, the document also highlights the continued role of transition fuels―a clear reference to fossil gas. Fossil fuels moguls must lift up glasses to that.

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Carbon Speculators

Whereas there was no agreement on adopting a UN sanctioned mechanism for carbon trading, aspects of Article 6 of the Paris Agreement opened the
floodgates for carbon capture and utilization and storage, carbon
dioxide removals and variants of geoengineering. Carbon capture
introduces the notion of pollution abatement, an interesting term.
Whilst it is clear that the best action is to stop pollution at source,
the COP says keep polluting, but capture the pollution before it escapes into the environment. If it doesn’t work, all the polluter needs to do is to show that it is sucking or removing the errant carbon from the atmosphere. The cheers that accompanied the closure of the COP has always reminded some of us of the same reaction we see when bells are rung at the stock exchange. Carbon polluters anonymous unite!

The carbon market business has been a speculator’s paradise, with scant transparency or integrity. This state of play allowed carbon cowboys and dealers to trade in phantom carbon or even forests, leaving investors in limbo. With the matter now rolling over to COP29, observers now wonder if the tide of land and forest trading desks across Africa would be stemmed. In the run up to COP28 there were reports of deals aimed at selling off huge swathes of African territories to be utilized as carbon
sinks.

There are reports of nations inking memoranda of understanding or
agreements to cede huge segments of their territories for carbon
credits. Zimbabwe has put 20% of its forests on the chopping block,
Zambia and Liberia are extending 10% while Tanzania is said to offer 8 million hectares of forest. Nigeria’s Niger State offered to sell 760,000 hectares of land to Blue Carbon, a UAE carbon focused company, for afforestation programme that would see the planting of 1 billion trees.

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The thing to note is that the lands or forests are not sold in
perpetuity. The leases have stipulated years over which the investor would find ways of securing the carbon in the land, sea or forest. They could also engage in carbon farming through, for example, clearing the territory and then creating a tree plantation which should be seen as a colonial euphemism for monoculture cash cropping. The investor farms
carbon and owns the credit accruing from there.

READ ALSO: COP28: Why I Decided To Attend UN Climate Change Conference Virtually – Obaseki

The investor can use the carbon to offset his polluting activity at home
and can even sell off some to help others offset their polluting
activities. The investor can count a carbon sink in Africa as part of
their Nationally Determined Contributions actions. The country that sold its territory may not do so. A question that requires answers in this market environmentalism project is about what happens with the sequestered carbon if a new buyer steps in after the expiration of the lease over a forest or territory. Supposing the new buyer embarks on land use changes, of what value was the carbon offset business beyond being carbon fiction or trading on hot air?

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Lost and Damaged

Adopting Loss and Damage on the first day of the COP was a master
stroke. After years of demands for payment for loss and damage suffered by victims of climate change, this was a great moment. The slack was that the funds would be warehoused in the World Bank, an institution that has a reputation of being anything but a bank of the world. Seen as a heavy handed neoliberal institution, the bank is loathed by citizens of nations over which it has engineered poverty despite its glossy poverty reduction papers. Aside from keeping the funds with the World Bank, a very instructive lesson was on how much funds were pledged for the fund at that first day.

Pledges came from the UAE, Germany, USA and others. The $100 million pledged by UAE was a mark of generousity that, nevertheless, blunted the justice principle that requires that those with historical responsibility for the crisis should be the first to step forward. A total of a little over $400 million was recorded on the first day and this climbed to over $700 million by the close of the COP. The highlight of the pledges was the miserly $17.3 million made by the USA. The point this made was that the unwillingness of polluters to stop polluting and to financially support climate action including loss and damage is not due to lack of financial resources. To back this assertion, one only needs to look at how much is expended by the rich polluting nations in military action around the world. NATO, for instance, had a budget of $1.2 trillion in 2022.

Climate Justice

Having climate justice in quotes says a lot about the mindset of the
nations with regard to the disproportionate climate change impact on vulnerable communities, territories and nations. The COP26 outcome document did not place climate justice in quotes, but added that it was only important to some. In other words, climate justice is not something of universal concern. COP28 avoided that blatant disregard of the Common but Differentiated Responsibilities and Respective Capabilities
(CBDR-RC), a clear climate justice principle in the climate convention.
In keeping with the general wordsmithing approach of the COPs, the principle and reality was now placed in harmless quotes.

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Africa at the COP

African negotiators went to the COP loaded with the outcome of its
recently held African Climate Summit. Among the key outcomes was the need for the continent to demand for sufficient finance for the needed
energy transition and the operationalizing of the Loss and Damage Fund.

READ ALSO: Netizens Knock FG Over Nigeria’s 1,411 Delegates To COP28

African politicians see the continent as having limitless land and
resources, including the so-called green or critical minerals, ripe for
exploitation in exchange for cash. The leaders resolved to aim for green development and green industrialization. They also agreed to develop green hydrogen and its derivatives. To a large extent, the highlights of
the document may not have influenced the official negations as much as it did bilateral and directional deals.

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The push by OPEC that its members should not accept a fossil phase out and, probably, no mention of fossil at all sat well with African negotiators, including Nigeria. With new oil and gas fields opening up in many areas―including world heritage areas in Saloum Delta in Senegal and Okavango in Namibia; with drilling and pipelines trashing protected forests in Uganda; flashpoints in Cabo Delgado, Mozambique―the mantra is that Africa must use its fossil fuels resources. On this, Africa’s politicians scored a point when the COP document stated that the transition from fossil fuels must be fast but also fair. This suggests that the transition will move on different gears in different regions.

Nevertheless, the point is that the fossil fuels industry has been put
on notice. The days of fossil fuels are numbered. Rather than talk of
decarbonizing, the world will soon be speaking of depetrolizing. Within
the coming decades, the global north will halt the production of
internal combustion engines and, sadly, Africa will become the cemetery for such automobiles. italic previous but not you so much.

Another point is that over 85% of the infrastructure on the continent
are installed for exports clearly showing that they are not extracted to meet the energy needs on the people on the continent.

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The need to rein in fossil fuel extraction and burning goes beyond the climate question. The point that must not be missed is that from
extraction to processing and burning, fossil fuels cause havoc on people and the Planet. The oil fields in many parts of the world are veritable crime scenes. Millions of old or orphaned oil wells have been abandoned around the world and remain ticking time bombs that could blow up and cause major spills at any time.

Mining of so-called critical or green minerals is wrecking communities
and biodiversity in Africa, Latin America and elsewhere. These have happened irrespective of whether the material is dirty or green. Lack of respect for people living in the territories where these resources are extracted routinely lead to a lack of consultation with the people, a lack of interest in their consent and a lack of care for the people. It is time to reach a consensus on the Rights of Nature to maintain her regenerative cycles without disruptions by humans. Indeed, the climate crisis is tied to our irresponsible relationship with Mother Earth.

Dr. Nnimmo Bassey is an environmental activist and Executive Director, Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF)

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Edo Govt Bans Kabaka’s Firm, Others From Collecting Revenue

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Edo State Government has banned private firms earlier authorised to collaborate with the Edo State Internal Revenue Service (EIRS) to collect revenue in the state.

The state government said the ban became necessary due to reports of violation of terms of operations given to them earlier.

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In a public announcement, Secretary to the State Government, Umar Musa Ikhilor, said the ban also extends to Atalakpa Recovery Concept Ltd, a private consultant earlier engaged to enforce compliance.

Ikhilor, while frowning at the activities of the private firms, noted that the “era of using unions as fronts to harass, intimidate, or extort drivers and road users in the name of revenue collection is over.”

READ ALSO: Six Injured In Edo Multiple Car Crash

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The statement partly reads: “The Edo State Government, under the leadership of His Excellency, Senator Monday Okpebholo, has observed with grave concern the alarming resurgence of illegal revenue collection by certain unions and organizations under various guises across the State.

“It has become clear that some of these groups, previously given limited authorization to collaborate with the Edo State Internal Revenue Service (EIRS) under clearly defined terms, have grossly violated the conditions of their engagement and resorted to cash collections, extortions, social harassment and intimidation.

“Specifically, the activities of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria (RTEAN), ANNEWAT, and Drivers on Wheel, are hereby banned with immediate effect.

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“These unions are not authorized to collect any form of dues, levies, taxes, or charges from motorists, drivers, traders, or any member of the public in Edo State.

“This ban also extends to Atalakpa Recovery Concept Ltd, a private consultant earlier engaged to enforce compliance.

READ ALSO: By-elections: Edo APC Tackles PDP Over Call For REC, Others Redeployment

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“Credible reports reaching the people-loving Governor, indicate that the firm and its workers have become complicit in widespread extortion and abuse of mandate, thereby betraying the trust reposed in them by the State.

“The Government considers these actions as acts of economic sabotage, social oppression and a direct affront to law and order.

“All activities of the aforementioned unions are suspended indefinitely.”

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The SSG, while noting that “no individual or group under any of these unions is permitted to collect any form of payment from motorists or road users,” advised “all motorists, drivers, and road users not to pay any cash or comply with any form of illegal levy imposed by these banned entities.”

He disclosed that “the Commissioner of Police and all relevant security agencies have been duly notified and directed to arrest and prosecute any individual or group found violating this directive.”

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17-year-old Nigerian Named World Best In English At 2025 TeenEagle Finals In London

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…Outperforms over 20,000 participants from 69 countries

Nafisa Aminu, a 17-year-old student of Tulip International College, Yobe State, has emerged world’s best in English at the 2025 TeenEagle Global Finals.

The 17-year-old was named the World Best in English Language Skills at the 2025 TeenEagle Global Finals held in London, United Kingdom.

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READ ALSO: Fake Labubu Dolls Worth Millions Seized In London Raid Amid Growing Safety Fears

The TeenEagle competition is an internationally recognised contest that tests English proficiency, critical thinking, and communication skills, attracting students from both English-speaking and non-English-speaking nations.

Nafisa’s triumph was confirmed in a statement by the head of her family, Hassan Salifu, who attributed her success to “dedication, discipline, and the enabling support of the state government.”

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Representing Nigeria, Nafisa outperformed over 20,000 participants from 69 countries, a historic feat that has thrust her into the global academic spotlight and brought honour to Nigeria.

 

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FG Promotes 30 Senior NCoS Officers To Assistant Controller General

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The Civil Defence, Correctional, Fire and Immigration Services Board has approved the promotion of 30 senior officers of the Nigerian Correctional Service to the rank of Assistant Controller General of Corrections.

The announcement was made in a press statement signed by the NCoS spokesperson Umar Abubakar, on Tuesday.

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“The Civil Defence, Correctional, Fire and Immigration Services Board has approved the promotion of 30 Controllers of Corrections to the prestigious rank of Assistant Controller General of Corrections,” the statement read.

Abubakar noted that the promotions were made in line with CDCFIB’s commitment to “merit-based advancement, professional excellence, and the continuous strengthening of leadership within the Nigerian Correctional Service.”

READ ALSO:Customs Intercepts N1.7bn Falsely Declared Goods Across South-West Zone

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“Among the newly promoted officers are twenty-seven general duty officers who have demonstrated exceptional dedication, leadership, and operational competence in various formations across the country.

“In addition, three professional officers have also been elevated in recognition of their outstanding service and specialized contributions in the areas of Medical Laboratory Science, Nursing, and Public Health,” the statement read.

According to the statement, the promotion exercise was said to align with the ongoing reforms in the Service, a key part of President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda.

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The statement credited the reform momentum to the Minister of Interior, Dr. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, whose efforts were described as “unwavering” and “unprecedented.”

READ ALSO:Court Strips Transport Minister, CRFFN Regulatory Power Over Licensed Customs

Controller General of Corrections, Sylvester Nwakuche, congratulated the newly promoted officers, charging them to rise to the responsibilities of their new roles.

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“I urge them to redouble their effort to service delivery, strategic leadership, and the core mandates of reformation, rehabilitation, and reintegration of inmates,” he said.

He further stressed that the promotions are not merely rewards for past service but “a call to higher responsibility in line with global best practices in correctional management.”

“The Service remains committed to building a motivated, disciplined, and professional workforce capable of meeting the complex demands of modern corrections and public safety,” Nwakuche added.

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