As over 200 countries agreed at the just-concluded COP28 climate conference in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE) to a transition away from the fossil fuels warming the planet, renowned environmentalist, Dr. Newton Jibunoh, while describing as absolutely shameful, Nigeria’s large delegation to the conference, urged Nigerians to ask the delegates what they are bringing back home.
He said: “If it’s possible, let’s interview them about what actually they went there for, whether to go and shop or attend meetings. And if they did indeed attended meetings, what did they get from there; what are they bringing back home?”
While insisting that this would not be the first time the country attended conferences with large number of delegates, having witnessed the same during the first conference in Brazil, Desert Warrior, as he is popularly called because of his efforts against desert encroachment in Africa, said probably Nigerians should ask the delegates what they went to Dubai for, “because I don’t know what they actually go there for.”
He decried taking such unwieldy number of delegates to conferences, which he said is a waste of public resources, adding: “It had been going on like that for a very long time. Nigeria was always coming up with one of the largest delegations right from the beginning. But when you attend sessions, you hardly see them.
“I went in the past, mostly on my own. At one session, one ambassador pleaded with me to take a seat in his country’s area, because there were hardly people seated there.
“ You would see the few delegates from Niger Republic attend sessions and engage in discussions, but you ask yourself, where are our delegates; where did they go, because there were nowhere to be found.
“It’s not something that started today; it has been going on for a long time. Even when they are privately-sponsored, what do they bring home?”
As an advocate of preservation of nature and the environment, Jibunoh said at 85: “I have come to ask myself what I have achieved from these COP meetings I had attended. Very little! Except from those things I have been able to do myself, on my own, it has been very little as a result of COP.
“About two years ago, I asked myself what I had achieved from such conferences. Whether most of the time I went on my own or the few times I went as part of the federal government delegation, what did I come back with?”
Reminded that it could be because he did not leveraging enough on his participation or sought enough partnership, he insisted he did all that, noting: “I managed to get a bit of funding for one of my projects, but at my age, I am not in a position to be traveling all around, so I decided to stay back and concentrate on what I am doing at home.
“But I can tell you that it is like a talk-show most of the time. I have done a lot of interventions in the North to check desert encroachment. I have contributed immensely to the greening of Abuja, Lagos and now Asaba.
“Those are things I think I want to concentrate on and do more of, rather than go to Dubai or any such meetings or talk-shows. For me, it’s more of jamboree.”
Countries at the conference also pledged to triple the amount of renewable energy deployed by 2030 and curb the release of methane.
Many had hoped that the world would commit to phasing out coal, oil and gas for the first time, but the initial wording of the global deal on climate change was unexpectedly dropped, following a backlash, with the United States (US), European Union (EU), United Kingdom (UK) and some smaller countries criticising the plan as not going far enough.
