Latest on Cliamte Change : Nigeria Won't Take Loan

Nigeria said on Monday at the ongoing Accra Climate Change Talks that it would no longer accept any credit facility to tackle issues of climate change.

Dr. Victor Fodeke, leader of Nigerian delegation to the talks told the News Agency of Nigeria that the country would not accept any credit facility no matter what the repayment conditions were.

“It is in the light of this that we are here mobilising other African countries to adopt our position as an African agenda, we shall push for adaptation and not mitigation,‘‘ he added.

Fodeke said that the country welcomed effort by Annex 1 parties to leverage financial support for developing countries but that as a non-contributor to the scourge of climate change, no support would be deemed too much.

He said, “Africa is the continent that will be affected by climate change more than any other region in the world.

“At the same time, widespread poverty in Africa means that many Africans are very vulnerable to climate change but have contributed almost nothing to the crisis.

“It is of utmost importance that the post 2012 deal will contain a powerful and coherent framework for adaptation that provides the necessary funding, technology and capacity building to allow Africa to adapt to the already unavoidable levels of climate change.”

He said that such a framework would be built on principles that would facilitate a massive upscale of adaptation in developing countries, especially those in Africa.

He said the country was already articulating a set of programmes and polices that would assist in the reduction of the impact of climate change in Nigeria.

Fodeke, who is also the head of the Special Climate Change Unit of the Ministry of Environment, Housing and Urban Development, listed such programmes to include the establishment of an International Centre for Climate Change Activities as well as the Climate Change Hall of Fame Project.

“This programmes will put issues of climate change on the front burner in Nigeria,‘‘ he said.

The News Agency of Nigeria correspondent covering the meeting reports that the over 30 Nigerian delegation to the talks include stakeholders drawn from the oil and gas sector, government departments and NGOs, among others.