Follow Us on Google
From Paul Orude, Bauchi
Bauchi State Governor Bala Mohammed has urged the House of Representatives to enact legislation that will pave the way for investment in carbon financing to boost the country’s ecological funds.
Mohammed gave the advice when he received the House of Representatives Committee on Ecological Funds at Government House, Bauchi, on Sunday.
The governor observed that opportunities were available in the global fund through the adoption of best practices and investment in carbon financing.
Speaking while receiving the committee, the governor lamented the devastation in the northern parts of Bauchi State, which requires special interventions for permanent solutions.
He assured that his administration would be willing to render its ideas on the Environmental Policy Act and the Climate Change Act through the domestication of legislation to address ecological challenges in the state.
“We don’t have to wait for the World Bank or the federal government, but we need impetus and policy frameworks so that we will be able to do it within best practices,” he stated.
“Yes, there are so many areas that the ecological fund can work, especially in carbon finance.”
He argued that carbon finance can help introduce new climate-friendly technologies and practices, reducing costs and building local capacity that will benefit millions of citizens.
“You must look at this aspect,” he urged the lawmakers.
“It is a global fund that has billions of dollars, and you can work as a legislator to augment the scarce resources that we have in the ecological fund.
“Everything is about opening new frontiers.
Other News
“In Bauchi, we leverage resources from the international community by virtue of our fidelity and sincerity in implementing the pillars that most of those donors seek to achieve, in terms of making sure that there are tangible and measurable achievements at the end of the day when they make their donations.
“So I urge you to deliver on carbon finance for the federal government and budget for it, embedding it in the ecological fund so that it can be distributed, because not every subnational is even aware of it.
“Most of the Francophone countries are using that to even enumerate some of those trees through GPS, and they earn a lot of resources for our smallholder farmers, connecting and bringing some of the people in communities to have deep belief in the federal government and the subnational.”
Earlier, in his remarks, the Chairman of the House Committee on Ecological Funds, Hon Aminu Hassan Jaji, said they inspected erosion and land degradation sites around Tambari Housing Estate, Federal Low-Cost Housing, and Gwallagan Mayaka in Bauchi Metropolis.
Hon Aminu Hassan Jaji admitted that the ecological funds given to some states were inadequate to address their ecological challenges.
He assured that his committee, as a beacon of hope, will mitigate the ecological challenges in the country by visiting states to assess their various needs.
“This time around, we want to change the tradition to enacting a policy that will bring lasting solutions to the problems faced by some states,” he disclosed.
On the visit to Bauchi, Jaji said the level of devastation in many parts of the state, where some houses and farmlands were submerged by ecological issues, was mind-blowing.
He, however, argued that the challenges seen in Bauchi, including environmental degradation, land degradation, and biodiversity loss, required a multifaceted approach and special intervention to address.
“The committee will recommend substantially, and what gives us hope is the commitment from the governor that whatever money is given to the state will be used judiciously,” he said.
“We so much appreciate the Environmental Policy Act of 2018. That Act will give a leeway for anyone that wants to invest to do so.
“Amendments to that will further enhance the way the state government domesticates the Climate Change Act and the EPA 2018, making any intervention not only from the federal government but also from international donors more comfortable. That is why we want to act upon it, because there is a foundation to that.”
