By Dare Akogun
Barely a week to COP 27 President Muhammadu Buhari has appointed Engineer Hassan Musa as a Senior Special Assistant on Environment and Climate Change.
The approval of his appointment was contained in a letter dated October 20, 2022 and signed by the Chief of Staff to the President, Professor Ibrahim A. Gambari.
Engineer Hassan Musa recently retired from the Federal Civil Service as the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Environment.
The President had earlier this month appointed and inaugurated the president, Nigerian Youth Congress, NYC, Blessing Akinlosotu as a member of the National Council on Climate Change alongside others in Abuja.
The inauguration was coupled with the setting up of the agenda for effective and efficient operation of the council.
President Buhari during the inauguration stated that the council is chaired by the president, Federal Republic of Nigeria, with the vice president as vice chairman. The chairman, the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, is also a member.
Other members of the council are the ministers responsible for Environment; Petroleum Resources; Budget and National Planning; Justice; Mines and Steel Development; Finance; Agriculture and Rural Development; Power; Women Affairs; Transportation; and Water Resources.
President Buhari, therefore, reiterated the determination of his Administration to strengthen the national response to climate change and accelerate the implementation of decisive actions to reduce its impacts on the people and economy.
He reaffirmed that Nigeria is a party to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which is an established international treaty to combat “dangerous human interference with the climate system”, in part by stabilizing Green House Gas concentrations in the atmosphere.
Building on the outcomes and momentum of COP 26 in Glasgow last year, nations are expected to demonstrate at COP 27 that they are in a new era of implementation by turning their commitments under the Paris Agreement into action.
The conference will take place from 6-18 November 2022 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.
