Day: August 17, 2023

United Arab Emirates (UAE) Industry and Advanced Technology and COP 28 President-Designate, Sultan bin Ahmed Al Jaber emphasized today the urgent need to increase climate finance to African countries to allow them to seize the opportunity of a zero-carbon, climate resilient future.

In his speech to the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN) in Addis Ababa, Sultan Al Jaber said “both the science and common sense are telling us that our collective response to climate change is nowhere near good enough.”

The president designate emphasized Africa’s position as one of the hardest hit regions by climate-related extreme weather events, from the Horn of Africa to Lake Chad and beyond.

He noted that the world has seen too many lives and livelihoods devastated from Pakistan to Hawaii. Yet, Africa has been facing extreme climate conditions with greater impacts for longer than most.

“Here in the Horn of Africa, rains have not fallen for over four seasons, with 23 million people now facing severe hunger across Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia. Lake Chad, once the lifeblood for millions of people in Nigeria, Niger, Chad, and Cameroon, has shrunk to one tenth of its size. And continuous flooding has ruined crops and spread vector borne diseases across Malawi, Mozambique, Madagascar, Zambia and Rwanda.”

In recognizing African governments’ climate initiatives, Al Jaber highlighted the efforts of the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN) host, Ethiopia.

“Ethiopia is just one country that is leading the way with its Green Legacy Initiative (GLI). Since 2019 the GLI has planted over 25 billion seedlings, enhanced sustainable agriculture, strengthened food security, exported healthy food to foreign markets and created almost 1 million new green jobs along the way.”

However, Al Jaber noted that the chronic lack of available, accessible and affordable climate finance is a major obstacle standing in the way of further progress on climate action.

“Currently, barely one tenth of global climate finance finds its way to Africa. According to the African Development Bank, almost 250 billion dollars annually is needed to meet Africa’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) commitments through 2030,” he elaborated.

Yet, “this continent of 54 countries that contributes less than 5 percent of global emissions, receives less than 30 billion USD a year. And private finance flows to Africa are a fraction of what is disbursed to the rest of the world. These are the realities. They need to be fixed. And they need to be fixed now.”

According to Al Jaber, the AMCEN summit underway in Addis Ababa is important as it could be used to mobilize African leaders ahead of COP28 and prepare the ground for strong outcomes on finance, adaptation, and loss and damage.

Source: Ethiopian News Agency

The first Africa Climate Summit is significantly important for the continent to take common position and speak in one voice about the challenges of climate change, African Union Commissioner for Agriculture, Rural Development, Blue Economy, and Sustainable Environment Josefa Sacko said.

The summit under the theme “Driving Green Growth and Climate Finance Solutions for Africa and the World” will be held in Nairobi, Kenya, from September 4 to 6 2023 and address climate change challenges and advance sustainable solutions in Africa.

Briefing journalists on last Wednesday, Commissioner Sacko said that Africa is determined to bring about transformative development in order to achieve Agenda 2063.

Africa has embarked on a number of flagship projects to materialize the continent’s aspiration in the blueprint, she stated, and added “we are not seeing much progress because of the climate change.”

Africa has the right human and natural resources to achieve our development goals and to contribute to the development of other regions as well as to addressing global challenges, Sacko emphasized.

“Yet about 400 million of our people in Africa have no access to clean drinking water and 700 million have no access to good sanitation. As if that is not enough, about 54% of the population is currently in darkness due to lack of electricity, while 800 million people in Africa have no access to clean cooking means, which implies that they are exposed to black carbon which is risky for their health,” she elaborated.

Climate change has had a knockout effect on Africa’s development and continues to subject more and more Africans into hunger and malnutrition, stuntedness and poverty, the commissioner pointed out, and stressed “our economies are also shrinking due to the effects of climate change and recovery from the impacts of COVID-19 has been slow.”

According to her, debt stress has been compounded by the impacts of COVID-19, climate change and the unfair international monetary systems, which tend to be biased against Africa.

The summit will focus just energy transition, green minerals and manufacturing, sustainable agriculture land and water use, sustainable infrastructure and urbanization, and natural capital, it was indicated.

The summit will also provide a platform to address the intersection of climate change for Africa's development and for increased global investment in climate action, particularly in Africa.

Leaders of African countries and many other international institutions are expected to attend the summit.

Source: Ethiopian News Agency

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) driven humanitarian initiative, Beyond 2020, has improved access to safe drinking water for 9,000 people in three rural villages in the Southern Region, according to Zayed Sustainability Prize.

Six shallow wells with solar pumps have been installed in Walessa, Holte, and Gato villages of Derashe district, reducing the incidence of waterborne diseases and improving overall health.

UAE Zayed Sustainability Prize Director-General, Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber said Beyond2020 and its partners are delighted to have been able to improve the livelihoods of the communities by providing them with access to this essential resource.

According to him, this deployment in Ethiopia is a perfect example of how we can create meaningful change and address the urgent issues posed by climate change when we come together.

“We must continue acting in solidarity as we strive towards a future where safe water is accessible to all,” the director-general underscored.

The villages of Walessa, Holte, and Gato are in the low land areas where drinking water is scarce and community members in all three villages were dependent on unsafe water sources, including surface water harvested from rain and nearby open rivers to meet their drinking, cleaning and cooking needs that led to high rates of waterborne diseases.

Water and Energy Minister Habtamu Itefa thanked the Beyond2020 initiative, its partners, and the UAE government for supporting the efficient installation of a clean water source to improve the lives of thousands of people in the villages.

Source: Ethiopian News Agency

The Ethiopian News Agency (ENA) and the Ethiopian Institution of the Ombudsman (EIO) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to work together on media, communication and capacity building activities.

ENA Chief Executive Officer Seife Deribe and Chief Ombudsman Endale Haile inked the agreement today after the EIO leadership visited ENA’s newly built media complex.

The MoU will enable the institutions to complement their long-accumulated resources and work in partnership on media, communication, information exchange, capacity-building activities.

Source: Ethiopian News Agency

The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) has advised motorists to replace worn-out tyres and wipers in order to prevent avoidable crashes during the rainy season.

The FRSC spokesman, Assistant Corps Marshal (ACM) Bisi Kazeem, made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Abuja.

He also advised that drivers should always note the preliminaries (Pre-vehicle Use Checks) and ensure their vehicles are in good working condition.

“Motorists are advised to ensure that before embarking on a journey during the rainy season, they should ascertain that the windows and windshields are clean.

“This is to be observed on the outside and the inside, and routinely check the headlights, brake lights, turn signals and tail lights, ” he said.

According to him, the wind shield wiper and blades should also be checked for proper functioning. The lights should be on during the day and at night, whenever rain starts dropping.

“Motorists are also advised to reduce their speed during this time and apply the “common sense speed limit”.

“This is particularly because the road surface is often slippery, drivers are also admonished to ensure that their tyres have adequate grip on the road.

“This is because, the car tyres are amongst the most crucial elements, and the only part that is in connection to the road that is why the tyre traction is the grip of the vehicle on the road, and it is very very essential, ” he said.

Kazeem also appealed to motorists to shun negative attitudes and habits like drunk driving, smoking of hemp and cannabis, dangerous driving, overloading, exceeding speed limits or use of phones while driving.

Source: News Agency of Nigeria

Prof. Zhang Yanqiu from the Communication University of China said on Thursday, that regulating online media contents would help in curbing fake news, misinformation, and disinformation.

Yanqiu stated this in an interview with a correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), participating in a 14-day training in Beijing, China, tagged, “Seminar on News Media of Developing Countries.”

According to her, the need for content regulation for online media cannot be overemphasised especially in the world today where online media is fast growing.

“With different people putting out contents that can make or mar any country’s development.”

Yanqiu said: “Curbing fake news is very important and a necessity for checks and balances. Most of the challenges people, community, nations face can be attributed to fake news, misinformation, and disinformation.

“We all know that each country now also faces the challenges of fake news; it’s a universal challenge.

“However, in China I think fake news is not a big deal, because we have a call regulation system and at the national level, we have a regulation/rule.

“This means that social media should follow our national regulation policy.

“This regulation is almost the same as the regulation for the traditional media, which means the media themselves should watch out for their own content.”

According to her, the users of these online platforms will also have the responsibility to watch and monitor the news contents or the information online.

“Whenever the users find some news improper, then they can complain and report to the regulatory bodies like we have National Radio and Television Administration (NRTA).

“There is a team of either the media or the government that will look after the issue. This is our regulation system.

“And I hope that the other countries will also consider that because without regulation, the fake news misinformation and disinformation is hard to combat,” she said.

Yanqiu also stated that just like how the military was dispatched to protect a nation’s land and borders, the internet space should also be protected and brought under control by regulating what goes in and out of it.

Source: News Agency of Nigeria

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has partnered with Equality Development and Research Centre (EDR-centre), an NGO, to curb workplace bullying.

Mr Tony Ojukwu, the NHRC Executive Secretary, made this known when Ms Marshal Nwanne, Founder of the EDR-centre paid a visit to the commission in Abuja.

Ojukwu said that the commission is dedicated to combatting workplace bullying and envisioned to target and end all forms of inequality in Nigeria.

The executive secretary welcomed the partnership and expressed the hope that the two organisations would work together and achieve the desired result..

He said that there was no condition that justifies torture and described it as “one human rights violation” that have no justification.

“Indeed, bullying is not good and we have been preaching and fighting against it alone. Thank God today we have a partner in EDR Centre that is ready to work squarely on this area.

” We are going to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with you, so that the work we are doing in this area would not only be in the Federal Capital but across the 36 states where the Commission have offices .

“Now that we are going to work together, I believe that very soon the society will feel the impact” he said.

He said that the first place to focus on would be the family, schools and other institutions among others.

According to him, Nigerians generally have been bullied to the extent that they have seen it as normal.

“Unfortunately, a lot of people are depressed, some have gone into mental torture because of one form of bullying or another” he said.

Earlier, Nwanne who appreciated the partnership with the commission, urged victims to speak up and not to keep silence.

She explained that it was worthwhile to stop the act of bullying, which she noted leads to depression mental torture and even death.

The founder wondered why the act of bullying goes on in the society without the culprits being brought to justice.

Nwanne called for a legislation to make perpetrators account for their actions.

Source: News Agency of Nigeria