Why Copenhagen’s UN climate change summit seems so far away from the realities of life in Nigeria
Families living in stilted homes around the lagoons of Lagos may be on the front line of climate change, but persuading Nigerian journalists that the UN Copenhagen conference can make a real difference is a tough sell.
Leading environment journalist and Thomson Foundation consultant TIM HIRSCH reports
Emerging from Lagos airport into the smoggy morning heat, the drive across the lagoon to the island housing the smarter parts of the city brought home the vulnerability of this megacity to the impacts of climate change.
At the lagoon’s edge, whole neighbourhoods of rickety houses built on stilts and connected by perilous walkways stretch far out into the water.
It won’t take much sea level rise to make refugees out of these people.
Helping Nigerian journalists to make sense of the complex and bewildering world of climate change politics in the run-up to the UN Copenhagen conference was my brief for the two-day course at the British Council’s office in Lagos, sponsored by FCMB bank.
Facing this reality of life on the edge – quite literally – and persuading Nigerians that anything meaningful to them could be decided at Copenhagen was going to be a hard sell.
The lively bunch of journalists on my course had a healthy dollop of cynicism about the whole UN process. This didn’t improve when I explained that the major source of carbon credits under the Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) in Nigeria is from projects to prevent the widespread practice of gas-flaring in the oilfields – a practice that blights local communities as well as creating about a third of the country’s carbon dioxide emissions.
Gas-flaring has also been declared illegal by Nigeria’s courts – but, for most companies, the cheapest option is just to pay the fines and carry on flaring.
One of my students looked at me incredulously: “So let me get this straight. The UN is allowing these companies to earn money for not doing something that is illegal?” I nodded. “So are we going to start paying cocaine dealers for not dealing?” There was no answer to that one.
Having spent much of the last 12 years reporting on the post-Kyoto climate process, explaining it to an audience in Africa brings home just how marginalised this continent has been – and how sceptical its journalists are entitled to be.
For example, of more than 1900 projects approved under the CDM to bring investment in emission-abating technologies to the developing world, just 36 are in Africa. China, India, Brazil and Mexico have the lion’s share.
“Why don’t we have more? Don’t they trust us?” Again, no answer.
Despite the scepticism, there was a burning curiosity on the part of these journalists to understand better what the arguments at Copenhagen are about, because the process has almost zero visibility in the Nigerian media.
The discussion at Copenhagen about rewarding developing countries that look after their forests (so-called REDD mechanisms) potentially opens up a new source of income for many African countries from the coffers of Northern governments.
As I run through the mechanics and proposals to my Lagos class, they exchange knowing smirks.
When I ask what they are smiling about, they explain that the idea of these new funds getting anywhere near projects that actually protect the forests and climate – as opposed to politicians’ pockets – is so remote from everyday reality as to be laughable.
Despite the scepticism, there was a burning curiosity on the part of these journalists to understand better what the arguments at Copenhagen are about, because the process has almost zero visibility in the Nigerian media.
Whatever doubts there are about the UN process, this group was well aware of the threat that climate change poses to millions in Nigeria, from the vulnerable low-lying communities of the Niger Delta to the arid Sahel region of the North, facing encroaching desertification.
But for poor Nigerians struggling right now to eke livelihoods out of oil-wrecked coastal ecosystems and parched, degraded landscapes, the time horizons of 2020 and 2050 being discussed at Copenhagen for cutting emissions mean little.
The puzzled frowns confronting me in the British Council training room, as I explain the intricate world of UN climate talks, are easy to understand.
If the climate negotiators really want to engage Africa in this process, they have a long way to go.
- December 3rd, 2009
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