Stakeholders demand inclusion for Niger Delta in victims of climate change impact framework

Stakeholders and groups in climate change have called for the inclusion and consideration of the victims of climate change impact in the Niger Delta into the framework of loss and damage set up during the Conference of Parties (COP27) in Egypt.

The stakeholders made the request at a regional conference on loss and damage organised yesterday, by We The People and Policy Alert in Port Harcourt.

They requested that in discussing loss and damage, consideration should not only be given to infrastructural losses, but also historical injustices that have stemmed over five decades.

Speaking, Executive Director of We The People, Ken Henshaw, explained that whatever financial resources from the loss and damage framework must be sent directly to the victims and not through the existing failed benefit transfer between the federal, state and local government which does not benefit the people.

Henshaw urged the government of Nigeria not to put a counter position at the COP28, but that the government should think about the people.

“Loss and damage is a climate change response framework that was only recently adopted in COP27. The framework recognises that some people and communities that have suffered the effect of climate change including desertification, flooding, loss of livelihoods etc due to no fault of theirs. And so the loss and damage framework basically says that victims of climate change must be supported to recover from what they have lost and what has been damaged.

“While a clear framework has not yet been established for loss and damage. Our idea is to have a regional conference for people of the Niger Delta to have a discourse ahead of time.

“We must have a say in how that framework is developed, how the financial mechanism is deployed and how the losses and damages are addressed.

“In previous frameworks around climate change that have been developed, most communities who are victims of climate change impact are never consulted on how those frameworks are deployed. So this is an opportunity for us to take the lead in ensuring that people’s voices are heard and so we can transmit it to the UN climate change body responsible for designing the framework.

“The framework must be involved with the support and consultation of the frontline community people. Whatever financial resources come from the loss and damage framework must be sent directly to the victims.

“The existing framework for benefit transfer, in the case of Nigeria, from federal, state and local government has woefully failed the people of the Niger Delta and frontline communities and that such a framework is not what should be used to assess loss and damage.”

On his part, the Executive Director of Policy Alert, Tijani Bolton-Akpan, said economic loss and damage may include damage to crops, homes or infrastructure, the non-economic loss and damage include loss to life, health, mobility, territory, identity, agency, sense of place, social cohesion, cultural heritage, indigenous knowledge, biodiversity and ecosystem services.

He said: “Nigeria’s fixation on fossil fuels in the context of Loss and Damage is a leaky tap and mop stick situation. Addressing climate mitigation, adaptation, and now Loss and Damage is the mop stick to dry the wet floor. But if something is not done to wean the economy away from the leaky tap of fossil fuels, we will keep on mopping without result.”