Cross River State Governor, Professor Ben Ayade is to lead a delegation of Governors from Africa to the ongoing Climate Change Summit holding in Paris, France.
The African governors will meet with their counterparts from around the world and mayors under the auspices of the Governors’ Climate and Forest (GCF) Task Force as sub-national leaders to share information about how to reduce Green House Gas emissions while creating economic opportunities at the same time.
Ayade is also the only African governor listed to speak at the summit by the United Nations Secretariat for Climate Change.
Other Governors listed to speak at the event are; Jerry Brown- California, Tiao Viana – Acre, Premier Christy Clark – British Columbia, Aristoteles Sandoval – Jalisco and Governor of Washington, Mr. Jay Inslee.
Mayor Gregor Robertson of Vancouver, Mayor Libby Schaaf of Oakland and Governor Manuel Gambini of Ucayali, Peru are also expected to deliver papers at the summit.
The three-Day event, starting from December 7, “brings together Governors and mayors, who are adopting ambitions GCF reduction targets and creating economic opportunities by doing so,” a statement issued by the Climate Change secretariat stated.
Ayade is a professor of Environmental Science, whose doctoral research work on Climate Change won him about 6.5million Japanese Yen from the Japanese Government.
The Governor also invented the sewage treatment system, which is being used off-shore by oil producing companies in Nigeria.
The Climate Change secretariat describes Cross River as “The GCF pioneer member in Africa, with a rich history of working to preserve Nigeria’s tropical forest and an important platform for further engagement of GCF in Africa.”
While disclosing that about ninety percent of Nigeria’s forest have already been cleared, the UN climate change secretariat said more than fifty percent of Nigeria’s remaining forest” are in Cross River. The state is considered one of the richest biodiversity hot spot in Africa.
It said, “The state serves as a model for reducing deforestation in other states in Nigeria and the region,” adding that the state’s leadership in forest governance led its selection as the Pilot State for UN-REDD programme in Nigeria.
It would be recalled that the Cross River State that the Cross River State Governor had similarly delivered a lecture at a climate change summit in Barcelona, Spain, few weeks after being sworn into office as Governor.