Developing Green Date: May 24, 2010 5:12:19 AM PDT Author: sam Ethiopia has formulated its MDGs-based Development Plan entitled A Plan for Accelerated and Sustained Development to End Poverty (PASDEP), which was approved by the House of People’s Representatives in May 2006 following a wide range of consultations by various stakeholders. The 2005-2009 PASDEP is a continuation of Ethiopia’s First Generation Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper entitled Sustainable Development and Poverty Reduction Program (SDPRP) that covered the period 2002-2004. The PASDEP has benefited from the MDGs Needs Assessment prepared with support from UNCT, The World Bank and The Millennium Project. The government noted that the MDGs are well integrated in its development plans, programs, and strategies, and the SDPRP and PASDEP are considered vehicles towards reaching the MDGs.   Reply to this Post

Week 2: Developing Green Date: May 31, 2010 4:59:51 AM PDT Author: Uchman Nigeria is indeed in a tight corner, or better still caught in a web on this matter. Nigeria is not only a leading oil and gas producing/supplying nation, but also an oil driven nation and economy. It is best described as a monoculture because agriculture had suffered steady relegation since the discovery of oil. Oil accounts for about 80% of Nigeria’s revenue, between 90-95% of export revenues, and over 90% of our foreign exchange. But this has been at massive direct and indirect costs to the environment, climate and humans. From the virtually unavoidable consequences of oil and gas production to oil spillage and gas flaring caused by carelessness on the part of the multinationals and complacency on the part of government and dearth of technical facilities to utilize resulting in dire consequences on humans and the ecosystem. About 75% of gas is still flared in the cause of oil productions. In fact, Nigeria flays about 2.5 million cubic feet per day. Apart from oil and gas area, the plan by the Federal Government to raise about 4000 Mega Watts out of own nuclear power stations in no distant future to address the nation’s epileptic power supply to boost industrialization and socio-economic life. Concerns are already beign raised over this. There is the question of reactor safety which is understandably a delicate matter in a country without a stable conventional power supply. There is the concern of substantial implications of this to the ecological scenario. Now, the issue of lowering fossil fuels production and consumption have two main implications for Nigeria. Lowering fossil energy consumption such as oil and gas or carbon will have serious impacts on the Nigerian economy. Allowing it means more money at greater climate change risks. But then, can we really afford to consume our today and the future of our earth and posterity? Whatever the cost, Nigeria should follow the provisions of the climate change Protocols because the possible positive long term effects on the climate change far outweigh the negative short term effects for the economic development. The government would therefore need to readjust its development plans to suit this pressing need. One of the major steps would be to embark on massive investments in education and infrastructure and immediate diversification of the economy, especially with emphasis on agriculture which our land is richly blessed to sustain bountifully. But it necessarily needs to embark work fastidiously and speedily on policies and a legislative frameworks to drive address climate change as they affect industrialization and exploitation of our natural resources the National Assembly has already started working towards a that National Climate Change Policy and Legislation (NCCPL). Work is also ongoing towards a Nigeria Climate Change Commission. Such frameworks and policies, of urgently put in place, can really chart and streamline the trajectory for balance between moving ahead with our development and industrialization as a nation without necessarily compromising the environment.   Reply to this Post