The Federal Government has ratified the Kyoto Protocol and its Doha amendment to the United Nations Framework Convention on climate change (UNFCCC).
The ratification is contained in a letter, signed by the Minister of Environment, Dr Mohammad Abubakar and made available to newsmen on Saturday in Lagos.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the 1997 Kyoto protocol set binding climate targets for developed countries while its amendment signed in Qatar in 2012 obligations to 37 more countries.
NAN further reports that, the treaty was to elicit countries investment in cutting down carbon emission for a cleaner environment, projected to cut emission by 18 per cent below 1990 levels from 2013 to 2020.
The letter, quoted the minister saying “the ratification of the document by President Muhammadu Buhari made Nigeria the 144th country to sign the climate treaty that will bring it into effect.
“Federal government has accepted the amendment to the protocol and will carry out its stipulations to foster good environment.
“The ratified treaty provides closure to the climate regime established in Kyoto as the world moves to implement the Paris agreement, which requires every country to contribute to climate targets,’’ the minister stated.
It said that the UN climate change had confirmed that, Nigeria had formally endorsed the treaty, hours before a deadline that required 144 of the 192 signatories to ratify the deal, for it to come into force by Dec. 31, 2020.
The Executive Secretary, UN Climate Change, Patricia Espinosa thanked Nigeria for joining others to sign the UNFCCC document.
(NAN)