Buhari set to sign Paris Treaty on Climate at UN

PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari is expected to sign the Paris Treaty on Climate at the 71st United Nation General Assembly which kicks off today with a summit at New York, United State of America.

Minister for Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama stated this at a news conference in New York on Saturday, stressing that with the signing, Nigeria would join other wold countries to set out a global action to put the world on track to avoid dangerous climate change.

About 195 countries adopted the first-ever universal, legally-binding global climate deal at the Paris climate conference (COP21) in December, 2015, limiting global warming to well below 2°C. The agreement is due to enter into force in 2020.

The minister said that some of the world leaders, including President Barrack Obama of America and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, had already signed the Treaty.

Onyeama said that top on Nigerian UN agenda during the General Assembly was to engage African Union and other countries to work towards the reform of the United Nations. He said that the leaders would also be engaged to be more democratic and responsive to the needs of the world.

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He assured the international community that Nigeria would support a new UN Secretary-General that would be development and Africa-friendly as well as sympathetic to the course of Nigeria.

On investment, power and insecurity in Nigeria, he said that the Federal Government had established various security mechanisms to create attractive investment environment for would-be investors.

“With the fall in oil price, Nigeria is looking into diversification of its economy towards agriculture and solid minerals. It is expected that there will be a lot of investment opportunity for foreign investors during the US-Africa Business Forum, scheduled to take place next week in New York.”

He also said that Nigeria would host a high level side event on Climate Change, to showcase its efforts in the Ogoni clean-up. This event, according to him, will come up after the president has signed the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.

The minister also addressed issues of poverty, migration, human rights, terrorism and security and on challenges in retrieving Abacha’s loot and other Nigeria’s assets stashed abroad.