Ajuri Ngelale, special presidential envoy on climate action, says the federal government has implemented cost-saving measures ahead of the United Nations Climate Change Conference or Conference of the Parties (COP 29) in Azerbaijan in November.

Mr Ngelale said this while briefing State House correspondents on Tuesday in Abuja.

“We have put ourselves in a position to save this country over N10 billion on this 11-day event, COP 29, in November. So, the president will continue to ensure that Nigerians have confidence in all of our activities moving forward.

“We have conducted a comprehensive audit of where we have gone wrong in the past, with a view to resolving them through COP 29, and this is just the beginning,” said Mr Ngelale.

He said on the directive of President Bola Tinubu, his office and Nkiruka Madukwe, director general and CEO of the National Council on Climate Change, had introduced a climate accountability and transparency portal for COP 29.

“Many Nigerians will recall that there was an outcry over the size of the federal government delegation to COP 28 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

“There was deliberate misinformation, but we also found out that there were government officials who had no business at that meeting.

“President Bola Tinubu, therefore, approved an audit of that exercise to fully understand and ascertain what happened and what must be done to ensure that what happened never repeats itself in this country,” said Mr Ngelale.

He said the audit, which had been concluded, detailed the expenditure profile of COP 28 to ensure that expenditure ahead of COP 29 would lead to the economic empowerment of Nigerians and the nation’s economic development.

Mr Ngelale said the climate accountability and transparency portal would, among other things, ensure that all members of the delegation across ministries, departments, agencies and legislators would be captured on it.

“This will mean that Nigerians will have full and real-time access to the number of those attending and those who government is sponsoring COP 29.

“Anyone who is not engaging in activities that are directly linked to the attraction of business opportunity or finance into the country will not be part of the federal government’s delegation this time around,” said Mr Ngelale.

He said that besides the portal, the audit of COP 28 in Dubai indicated significant expenditure on the provision of platforms, which proved to be wasteful.

“So, ahead of COP 29, we have resolved that there will be no showcase pavilion as part of the federal government’s cost reduction efforts.

“We recognise that what can be achieved through a showcase pavilion can be achieved in a far more economically efficient mode by effectively utilising the delegation office that is on-site within the conference complex.

“By taking that option, the nearly $500,000 showcase pavilion that was purchased for last year’s COP 28 will no longer be an expenditure item in COP 29,” said the envoy.

He also said the delegates’ office would be used to conduct bilateral meetings instead of the showcase pavilion, which would cost less than 10 per cent of the cost of the showcase pavilion.

Mr Ngelale added that wasteful expenditure on consultancies and subcontracts for lighting and technological provisions would be provided directly from the Secretariat of the National Council on Climate Change.

(NAN)