Bauchi Governor Urges NASS To Boost Ecological Funds Through Carbon Financing

 From Paul Orude Bauchi

Bauchi State Governor Bala Mohammed has urged the House of Representatives Committed on Ecological Funds to look into Carbon Financing to boost the 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 opportunity was available in the Global Fund through investment in Carbon Financing.

Speaking while receiving the committee, the governor lamented that there was devastation in the northern parts of Bauchi State that require special interventions for permanent solutions. 

He assured that the administration would be willing to render its ideas on the Environmental Policy Acts and the Climate Change Act through 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 framework so that we will be able to do it within best practice,” he stated.

“Yes, there are so many areas that the ecological fund can work especially the carbon Finance”

He argued that carbon finance can help introduce new climate-friendly technologies and practices, reducing costs and build 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. 

“In Bauchi we leverage on 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 deliveries on the carbon Finance for the federal government and budget for it and put it embedded in the Ecology Fund so that they 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 the GPS and they earn a lot of resources for our small, holder farmers and connect and bring some of the people in communities to have deep belief in the federal government and the subnational”

Earleir in his remark, the Chairman House Committee on Ecological Funds, Hon Aminu Hassan Jaji, said they inspected erosion and land degradation sites around Tambari Housing Estate, Federal Law 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 the ecological challenges of those states

He assured that his committee, as a beacon of hope, will mitigate the ecological challenges in the country by visiting states by 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 face by some states” he disclosed,

On the visit to Bauchi, Jaji said the committee level of devastation in many parts of the state where some houses and farmlands were submerged by ecological issues was mind-owing.

He however argued that the challenges seen in Bauchi, included environmental, land degradation and bio-diversity that required multi-faceted approach and special intervention to address.

“The committee will recommend substantially and what give us hope is because we saw the commitment from the governor that whatever money 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 that anybody that want to invest can invest

“Amendment to that will further enhance the way the state government domesticates the climate change act EPA 2018  making any intervention not only from Federal Government, but also from the international donor more comfortable, that is why we what we want to act upon because there is a foundation to it”