481
n. Council, RITa sign MOU on Environmental Health Officers training programme to enhance the training environmental health offi· EofFKJRTS cers have begun, with the signing of an agteement between Environmental Health Officers Registration Counal of Nigeria (EHORECON) and Federal Unive"ity of Technology (RJID) to advance study of environmen· tal sdence in tertiary institutions inthpcountry.
ng at the ceremony. the \.. .1 Registrar, Mr. Augustine Ebisike revealed that the move was to advance the study of environmental health practice nation wide and advised those with HND in Environmental Health to cash in on the g"lden opportunity to obtain.:) !3i1cheIor of Science in
the prof ]mme rather than to wait fm government to make pronouncement that HND is equivalent to B.Sc. Ebisike made this statement in his office in Abuja, when a group of students led by Mr. Celestine Onah from the Department of Environmental Health, Federal University of Technology(FUTO) Owerri paid a courtesy visit to show their appreciation in the Council's efforts to making the programme a reality. The Registrar reasoned that what the Council intended to achieve in this Memorandum ofUnderstanding(MOU)was to make sure that even when the university was on strike, it would have no effect on the progress of the programme. The progtamme is not a strike driven programme, he said. According to Ebisike, in 2009, the Council made it clear that by the year 2011, people who would not have held a mini· mum of Bachelor of Science
Professional study and advancement of the build environment sector recently got a support boost by way of a Memorandum of Understanding signed by Environmental Health Officers Registration Council of Nigeria (EHORECON) and Federal University of Technology (FUTO), Owerri. degtee would not be allowed to
register as
environmental
health officers. The registrar, however, said that the Council's decision on this, still stood, it had not been
~~hd~~~~~n'h~~at t~asw~~'t. extremely haIti lO ensure that this program~e came into existence. Ebisike said that the faith of the programme was in the hands of God and declared, "as far as we are concerned, the programme had started and we are not going to stop midway." The registrar revealed that other universities in the country were also on line to signing a similar MOU with the Council for the programme to com· mence nationwide. Earlier, the student leader from the Department of Environmental Health of the institution Mr. Celestine Onah thanked the registrar for the Council's efforts at making the progtamme a reality. He, how· ever, pleaded with tile registrar to prevail on the university authority to bridge the dispari. ty in the years of running the progtamme.
U.N. talks seen missing
climate plan deadline A PlAN by almost 200 countries r\to step up efforts to fight Pimate change is set to miss a Marrh deadline for Starting work on a green fund to help developing nations,delegatessaid. Groups of Asian, Latin American and Caribbean countries have yet to decide who will gain ear!l influence in design· ing the Green Climate Fund" by attending 40·nation U.N.~ed talks due in Mexico City on March 14 and 15, according to Reuters. The fund, under which aid flows are meant to reach $100 billion a year by 2020 was agreed by governments in December as part of a deal that the United Nations said, reignit· ed "a beacon of hope" for tack· ling global warming. lohn Ashe of Antigua and Barbuda, who represents the Latin American -and caribbean group where \4 countries are vying for seven seats in the fund planning committee, said that .it looked unlikely the matter could be resolved by mid· month. "Proceeding with the meeting would be a taU order" if all nom· ine.es were not in place, he told Reuters. The Asian gtoup has said it would be unable to pick its seven delegates before April. "It may be difficult to have the meeting," Artur·Runge
Delegates from developing nations have warned about delay and possible jailing to meet a set date to actualise a climate green fund under which aid flows are meant to reach $100 billion a year by 2020, agreed to by governments in December last year. Metzger, head of the European Commission delegation, told Reuters. Europe's eight delegates had been decided. The last UN. talks in cancun, Mexico, agteed in December to set up the fund as part of a package including steps to protect tropical forests and to limit any rise in temperatures to below two degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrialtimes. Among the few firm deadlines set in the cancun Agteements was that a "transitional committee" should meet by the end of March 2011 to start designing the fund. Rising aid is meant to help developing nations curb theIr greenliouse gas emissions by shifting from fossil fuels toward-renewable energies and to help them adapt to the
CONTINUED ON PAGE 49
Mud volcano erupted in Indonesia in 2008. Deadly volcano to erupt for 28 more years according to scientists
Lagos, experts urge action on clilTIate change lllitigation plan he EnVironment By Tunda Also ,-0 further address the
1 menace of climate change and the necessary mitigation measures, the Lagos State government has tasked the teachers in Lagos schools to support the initiative of the government in their respective schools. Lagos State Commissioner for the EnVironment, Dr. Muiz Adeyemi Banire charged the education sec· tor at a seminar organised for principals and teachers of scnools in Lagos last week The seminar was part of attempts to impart on the younger generations the negative impacts of climate change and ingrain in them its causes and their role towards a sustainable envi· ronment. A guest speaker at the semi· nar, Professor Babajide Alo of the University of Lagos and Consultant to Ministry of the Environment in his lee· ture, entitled "Overview of the Causes and Impacts of Climate Change", said that during the earth's history, global climate has always been subjected to change adding such variations in tile earth's climate had however occurred in very different time scales in tlie last 500 million years . The scientists worldWide now, according to Alo, adopt· ed a consensus after a series of research studies and mod· eling tha~ this mar be attributed to Increase In coneen-· tration and variety of these green house gases (GHGs) penetrating the atmosphere
The idea behind the seminar was to inculcate into the mind of the students/pupils, the implication of climate change and the mitigation initiatives that are capable of preserving their environment on one hand and their responsibility to the environment as the leader of the future as a result of varied human activities. To him, understanding the impact/effects of climate change is an essential start· ing point for discussions on the Governance and the Environmental Sustainability of Climate Change. "Scientifically, climate change threatens the basic elements of life for people around the world including Mrica. It threatens access to water, food, health the ecolo· gy, land use and the environ· ment". 1"I1l!refore, he advocated the inclusion of future genera· tion into present day deci· sion making saying that the planning of today must take cognizance of taking care of tomorrow. Besides, the seminar aimed at reminding the school administrators and the pupils/students about the importance of not only fighting climate change but also know the essence of involv· ing school children whose future is being threatened by the effects of global warm· ing. In his address earlier, Banire added that the Lagos govern· ment was concluding arrangement to handover the Climate Change Clubs (CCC), to school authorities.
Expressing his believe on the project, the Commissioner said: "I am convinced that our school advocacy teams have done their part in starting the clubs and nurturing them in many of our schoofs and the time is ripe to hand over the clubs to the leadership of the schools for sustenance". He reiterated the resolve of the present administration in Lagos to contribute her quota to the fight against global warming because of the vulnerability of Lagos in particular, and Nigeria as a nation, to the consequences of climate change. The CommiSSioner, while lamenting that Nigeria is threatenea on all fronts by the consequences of climate change, noted that the Southern part of the country, such as Lagos, Ondo, Edo, Delta, Cross Rivers and Rivers States and a host of others are vulnerable to flooding and coastal erosion, just like Chile and Haiti that were recently experienced earthquake. According to him, "it is important to understand that we will need both science and economics to inform policies aimed at slOWing and eventually bringing a stop to humaninduced climate change. It Is also understood that reduc·
ing the expected impacts of CC is both desirable and fea· sible. Hence, there have been two main responses to c1i· mate chan&e: mitigation and adaptation Mr. Ayo Tella, a guest lectur· er at the seminar described 2010 as the year in which the earth struck back He made reference to disaster in Haiti, Pakistan flood, China mud· slide, Australia flood, Sri· Lanka flood, and Brazil flood and in some parts of Nigeria. While reacting to questions from the participants, Permanent Secretary, Ministryofthe Environment, Dr. Titi Anibaba, said that the ministry had planted over two million two hundred thousand trees in three years. She emphasized the need to conserve biodiversi·
ty. Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, Mrs. Omolara Erogbogbo, said that the gathering of teach· ers and principals was to extract the needed support from all and sundry especial· Iy the education sector to actively participate in the global fight against climate change.
Prof. Alo
Extreme winter linked to climate change ffi1fJ~~~~:;!~~
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THIS winter's heavy snowfalls 1 and other extreme storms could well be related to increased moisture in the air due to global climate change, a panel of scientists said recentlj< This extra moisture is likely to bring on extraordinary flooding with the onset of spring in the Northern Hemisphere, as deep snowpack melts and expected heavy rains add to seasonal run-{)ff, the scientists said in a telephone briefing. As the planet warms up, more water from the oceans is evaporated into the atmosphere, said Todd Sanford, a climate scientist at the Union of Concerned Sc)entists. At the same time, because the atmosphere is wanner, it can hold onto more of the moisture that it takes in. Intense storms are often the result when the atmosphere reaches its saturation pOint, Sanford said. This year, a series of heavy storms over the u.S. Midwest to the Northeast have dropped up to 400 per cent of average snows in some locations, said Jeff Masters, director of meteorology at Weather Underground. The amount of water in that snow pack is among the high-
Weather experts have attributed recent heavy snowfalls and other extreme storms in the Northern hemisphere to increased moisture in the air due to global climate change. In the last century. global average temperatures have risen by 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit (.8 Celsius). Last year tied for the warmest in the modem record.
est on record. Masters said. If you were to take all that water and melt it, it would come out to more than six inches over large swaths of the area," Masters said. "If all that water gets unleashed in a hurry, in a sudden warming, and some heavy rains in the area, we could be looking at record flooding along the Upper Mississippi River and the Red River in North Dakota." That tallies with projections by the U.S. National Weather Service, which last month said a
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moderate to major flooding this spring.
Flooding... another major challenge caused by climate change
Environmentalists draw up action plan against e-waste challenge ~
I.I.1.l.: By lunda Ala. and Emmanuel Baciej.
XPERTS in the environment industry have advocated for twenty-five action plans towards reducing the increasing challenge of electronic waste disposals, popularly referred to as e-waste. Besides, the environmentalists tasked all levels of government in the country to come up with sustainable and all-inclusive poliCies that could turn the attendant environmental problem often associated with e-waste into a goldmine. They spoke at the 1st Eko ewaste summit 2011 organised by Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency (LASEPAI in collaboration with Base Convention Regional Coordinating Centre for the African Region (BCCC·NIGERIA) and Environmental Law Research Institute (ELRI), held in Lagos recently. The two-day discourse on "Regulation and Management of E-Waste", embraced stakeholders from the federal, state and local governments, ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), manufacturers of Electrical Electronics Equipment (EEE), dealers and
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The action plan was the conclusion reached by 'th' th . t b t d . expertS WI In e envlronmen su sec or unng the recently held Lagos first ever summit on regulation and management of e-waste technicians from the infor· lished, and WEEE recycling mal sector, telecommunlca· plants should be established tions companies, the acade- m compliance with national mia, the Nigeria Bar and state's environmental Association (NBA), regulations; It was also their view that Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), international national and state environ· experts, research institutes, mental regulatory organisatraditional rulers and Non· tions should monitor and Governmental Organisations enforce strict compliance (NGO). with all relevant laws as they In a communique issued at advocated that NESREA in col· the end ofthe conference, the laboration with the states experts agreed to a need for should embark on assesseffective policy, law and regu- ment program for all stakelation for the environmental- holders in the e-waste sector. Iy sound management of It was also agreed that WEEE in Nigeria, harmonisa- should be an effective monition of extant laws by all rele- toring mechanism to ensure vant agencies and domestica- environmentally sound mantion of relevant international agement of e-waste. laws and treaties. According to them, all reguThey also said that there lations related to e-waste should be a massive and sus- management should be tained public enlightenment enacted with inputs from all and awareness campaign on stakeholders and avenues EEE should be embarked should be created for stakeupon by all stakeholders, holders' to make inputs need to build capacity and whenever such regulations put in place certification are being made. "The Federal Government scheme on WEEE for all sectors, effective mUltiple collec- should speedily conclude the tion strategies and recycling national e-waste policy and centers should be estab- also sign the NESREA e-waste
regulations into law and ensure diligent enforcement; state's Environmental Protection Agency (EPAs) should develop policies and regulations tliat are consis·
tent with and complimentary to that at the national level." The experts who said it was better to stop the incoming ofthe products into the country at the point of entry
tasked NESREA mount surveillance at the nation's seaports to work along with other relevant security agents in order to effectively halt e-waste dumping in
U.N. climate talks seen missing aid plan
deadline
CONTINUED ON PAGE 49 impacts of heat waves, droughts, floods, storms and rising sea levels. Many countries want to ensure that interests are represented, even at preliminary talks. OPEC states in the Asian group, for
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world shifts to wind or solar energy. Cabinet ministers from major emerging countries China, India, Brazil and South
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February 27 after talks in New Delhi.
"The decision to convene a meeting of the transitional committee, even before many regional groups of countries have nominated their memo bers, was premature," a joint statement said. Theyalso said that the com. mittee should "take guidance from" the main U.N. climate forum of all countries, which is not due to meet until April3to Bin Bangkok Runge-Metzger said that statement also dimmed chances for the meeting in March. He said that one option was to downgrade the Mexican talks to an mformal session, open to all countries. Ashe said that a delay was not
necessarily a setback. "Ifameeting is not held in March, additional meetings could be held in coming months," he said. Amoncf. continents that have ,deci ed delegates, Afri~ has picked seven from 21 candldates - Egypt, the Democratic Republic ·of Congo, Morocco, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Gabon and South Africa. The head of the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat, Christiana Figueres, said in Japan recently "governments must now impletnent quickly what they agreed in Cancun." . . The ~ecretariat has pubhshed a progress tracker" for Cancun - the list of ttansitional committee members is blank.
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