The Special Presidential Envoy for Climate Action, Ajuri Ngelale, said the Federal Government has implemented cost-saving measures ahead of the United Nations Climate Change Conference or Conference of the Parties (COP 29) to be held in Azerbaijan in November. Ngelale said this on Tuesday at a press conference for correspondents at State House, 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,” Ngelale said.
He said the launch of the Climate Change Accountability and Transparency Portal for COP 29 was under the directive of President Bola Tinubu, the Office of the President, and the Executive Secretary and CEO of the National Climate Change Council, Mr. Nkiruka Madukwe.
“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,” Mr Ngelale said.
He said the audit completed detailed the expenditure profile for COP 28 to ensure that expenditure up to COP 29 translates into economic empowerment of Nigerians and economic development of the country. Ngelale said the climate change accountability and transparency portal would ensure that all delegation members, especially from ministries, departments, agencies, and members of parliament, were recorded.
“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,” Ngelale said.
He said that in addition to the portal, an audit of COP 28 in Dubai also revealed heavy expenditure on the platform rollout, finding it to be a waste.
“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 recognize that what can be achieved through a showcase pavilion can be achieved in a far more economically efficient mode by effectively utilizing 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,” the envoy said.
He also said that the delegation offices will be used instead of the flagship pavilion for hosting bilateral meetings, which will be less than 10 percent of the cost of the flagship pavilion.
Ngelale added that any wasted expenditure on consultancy services and subcontracting for lighting and technical equipment will be borne directly by the Secretariat of the National Council on Climate Change.
