Nigeria’s President, Muhammadu Buhari, is in Paris, France, where he and over 150 other world leaders are gathered with the aim of reaching a new and universal climate change agreement.
At the back of their minds as the meeting begins on Monday is the knowledge that they have already delivered an almost universal set of national responses to meet the long-term climate challenge before the conference even begins.
This would be the largest group of leaders ever to attend a UN event in a single day.
Speaking at the opening ceremony, which was webcast live around the world, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Executive Secretary, Christiana Figueres, said that the eyes of millions of people around the world were on the governments meeting in Paris, not just figuratively but literally.
She said, “You have the opportunity, in fact the responsibility, to finalize an agreement that enables the achievement of national climate change goals, that delivers the necessary support for the developing world and that catalyses continuously increasing ambition and action by all.”
Meanwhile, Nigeria’s president intends to use the opportunity to open discussions with France and other countries towards finding lasting solutions to the growing terrorism that has assumed a menacing dimension in Nigeria and Mali in West Africa, as well as in other parts of the continent.
Details of activities in France revealed that Buhari, after presenting Nigeria’s statement at the opening session when the conference officially opened on Monday, November 30, will participate in the launching of the International Solar Alliance, an initiative of the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi.
He will on Tuesday, December 1, participate in the summit of Heads of State and Government of the Lake Chad Basin Commission and Benin Republic where issues on security challenges of the region will be discussed and also attend another event of the African Union, tagged ‘Conference on Climate Change and Africa Solutions.
On the eve of the COP21 conference, 184 countries covering around 95 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions had delivered their national climate action plans to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). These pledges constitute a good foundation, but are not enough to keep the world below the internationally agreed maximum global average temperature rise of 2 degrees Celsius.
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