Nigeria’s Delegates arrive Abu Dhabi for UN’s Climate Meeting
Doosuur Iwambe, Abuja
The United Arab Emirates’ Ministry of Climate Change and Environment is set to host over 1,000 participants representing over 150 countries for a high-level Climate Meeting at the Presidential Palace, Abu Dhabi on 30th June and 1st July 2019.
The UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, who will open the event, has remained deeply concerned about the need for world leaders to come up with concrete, realistic plans to enhance their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) by 2020.
It is expected that the Abu Dhabi Climate Meeting will be the global milestone for the United Nations’ Climate Action Summit which will hold in New York, USA, on 23 September 2019.
Nigeria, being a member country of Youth Engagement and Public Mobilization, one of the Summit’s nine (9) transformational areas has shown her commitment towards mobilizing people to take action on climate change and ensure that young people are integrated and represented.
Leading Nigeria’s delegation to the Abu Dhabi Climate Meeting is Prof. Adeshola Adepoju who is the Director-General of the Forestry Research Institute of Nigeria.
Also representing Nigeria is Samuel Victor Makwe, the First Secretary of the Permanent Mission of Nigeria to the United Nations, Samira Ibrahim, a climate specialist from the Department of Climate Change, and Seyifunmi Adebote, State Coordinator of the International Climate Change Development Initiative.
At a youth pre-event briefing, Esther Agbarakwe of the office of United Nations Office of the Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth welcomed Nigeria’s delegates and introduced them to colleagues from the Marshall Islands, leading the Youth Engagement and Public Mobilization track.
According to Samira Ibrahim, “this event is very important for Nigeria, we are not here to just talk. Our job is to show leaders that the ideas and initiatives of young people around the world are driving landmark Climate Actions. We want leaders to know the work that is being done, share feedbacks and make stronger commitments that will scale these Climate Actions.”
The Abu Dhabi Climate Meeting is structured to evaluate and strengthen the initiatives, commitments, and achievements that will be announced at the UN Climate Summit in September 2019, as well as to discuss key and emerging political barriers and opportunities for global climate action.
Also expected in attendance at this high-level event are Amina Mohammed, UN’s Deputy Secretary-General; Patricia Espinosa, UNFCCC Executive Secretary; Carolina Schmidt, COP 25 President; Jayathma Wickramanayake, UN Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth; Thani Al Zeyoudi, Minister of Climate Change and Environment; Achim Steiner, UNDP Administrator and over 500 members of the Emirates.
