The federal government has unveiled the Global Environment Facility-Capacity Building Initiative for Transparency (GEF-CBIT) project to promote transparency and accountability in reporting climate action.

Mahmud Kambari, permanent secretary of the Ministry of Environment, disclosed this on Thursday in Abuja at the inception workshop to sensitise key government stakeholders on the GEF-CBIT project in Nigeria.

Mr Kambari, represented by Ama Moses, director of forestry in the ministry, said the project would promote transparency and accountability in reporting climate action to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

The theme of the workshop is “Strengthening the Capacity of Institutions in Nigeria to Implement the Transparency Requirements of the Paris Agreement.’’

Mr Kambari said Nigeria, as a signatory to the Paris Agreement, unveiled the project, which was anchored on the Capacity Building Initiative for Transparency (CBIT) established in 2016 by the GEF at the request of parties to the Paris Agreement.

“The objective of this project is to strengthen the institutional and technical capacity of Nigeria to respond to the transparency requirements of the Paris Agreement.

“In doing this, the project will strengthen the capacity of institutions in the key greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions sectors to manage Nigeria’s GHG inventory, Measuring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) system,” Mr Kambari said.

He said the project would equally track the implementation of Nigeria’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) to improve transparency over time.

The permanent secretary said GEF-funded projects sought to support Nigeria in meeting the enhanced transparency requirements of Article 13 of the Paris Agreement.

“The transparency provisions of the Paris Agreement require developing countries to regularly monitor, analyse, and report their national GHG emissions (by sources) and removals (sinks).

“The provisions also require them to provide information necessary to track progress towards achieving their nationally determined contributions (NDCs).

“Also, the developing countries are required to provide information related to climate change adaptation and mitigation as well as information on financial, technology transfer, and capacity building support needed and received.

“We need to ensure that we instrumentalise and accelerate action across sectors and society towards the reporting and realisation of the goals of the Paris Agreement,” he said.

In his opening remarks, Adesoji Adeyemi, Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) national consultant, GHG and MRV, said FAO’s strategic objective was climate mitigation and agri-food systems, which perfectly aligned with UNFCCC objectives.

According to him, FAO recognises the need for technical support in capacity-building for Nigerian institutions.

“This will enable Nigeria to move towards a more self-sufficient arrangement for GHG emission data compilation, reporting, verification, and tracking of NDCs in terms of GHG emission and mitigation efforts.

“Regarding the NDC partnership, FAO has past and ongoing engagements in more than 40 countries.

“This project, GEF-CBIT, is anchored on the capacity building and transparency requirements of the Paris Agreement, which was established in 2016 by GEF,” Mr Adeyemi said.

(NAN)