Guardian

Jonathan leaves for earth summit

AS negotiators at the United Nations’ Earth Summit, RIO+20 seek ways to hammer out an informal agreement before today’s deadline, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has urged developing countries to adopt green growth strategies in order to foster sustainable development.

The OECD, which has launched a consultation process with developing countries to ensure “the practicality and relevance of the policy framework proposed in the draft report on Green Growth and Developing Countries,” emphasised that going green would help reconcile environmental goals with economic growth and poverty reduction.

Meanwhile, President Goodluck Jonathan will depart Abuja today for a four-day trip to the Summit.

A statement by Presidential Spokesman, Dr. Reuben Abati, disclosed that President Jonathan would participate in the Summit’s four plenary meetings at Riocentro Plenary Hall tomorrow and on Thursday.

He will also attend a reception to be hosted by the Brazilian President for Heads of State and Government at the Summit.

The President will also use the opportunity of the Summit to declare open the Nigerian/Brazil RIO+20 Business Forum, and hold talks with selected Brazilian businessmen and captains of industry.

President Jonathan will also meet with representatives of the Nigerian Community resident in Brazil, and return to Nigeria on Friday.

He will be accompanied on the trip by First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, Governors Ibrahim Shema (Katsina) and Seriake Dickson (Bayelsa) as well as Sen. Benedict Ayade and Hon. Eziuche Ubani of the National Assembly.

Others are Minister of Environment, Mrs. Hadiza Ibrahim Mailafiya; Water Resources, Mrs. Sarah Reng Ochekpe, Trade and Investment, Dr. Olusegun Aganga) among others.

Also, ahead of the Conference, which begins tomorrow in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, stakeholders are calling on world leaders to integrate health and Non Communicable Diseases (NCD) into national and international planning.

The stakeholders, led by the American Cancer Society (ACS) and the NCD Alliance say the Rio+20 Sustainable Development Conference scheduled for Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from June 20 to 22, 2012 provides the unique opportunity to ensure NCDs are central to future health and development planning.

The call, according to a statement from the ACS, is a follow-up to the adoption of the first-ever global target on NCDs- a 25 percent reduction in premature deaths from NCDs by 2025- by all 194 World Health Organisation (WHO) Member States at the World Health Assembly (WHA), which was held last month in Geneva, Switzerland.

The stakeholders say the WHA decision was a major breakthrough for people affected by cancer and other NCDs globally.

Speaking at the Fair Ideas Forum, one of the pre-conference events in Rio, OECD Deputy Director, Development Co-operation Directorate, Mr. Serge Tomasi, said adopting green growth strategies and developing the economy could go hand in hand.

He said the inputs of developing countries were crucial for the models in the report to be successful, adding that there were practical policy frameworks in the report that would be of immense benefits to them.

Similarly, Executive Director, African Technology Policy Studies Network, Dr. Kevin Urama, urged developing countries to see green growth as a way of using their resources better, and in more efficient ways.

He noted that the major challenge in developing countries was how to create the practical will to transit towards adopting green growth.

Urama allayed fears of sceptics who hold the view that green growth is nothing but “green capitalism.”

According to him, the failure of the developed world to deliver on its promises to developing countries in the areas of climate financing was not a sufficient excuse to jettison the benefits of green growth.

He said: “There is a link in climate negotiations and promises that were never kept, but one wouldn’t say he won’t take lunch because he was denied breakfast. If we (developing countries) don’t use green growth, we will lose through land grabs because it will be seen that we have no value for our resources, and others who have value for the resources will come and take them.”

Specifically, Urama said Nigeria was a typical case of how things could go awry if resources were not well managed through green growth strategies.

He added that resource wars, like the Niger Delta insurgency, and the current Boko Haram uprising were direct result of improper and inefficient resources management.