BY ROTIMI AJAYI

ABUJA- As the global community, Friday, moved close to having a Fund to tackle the challenges of Climate Change in developing and least-developed countries following the submission of the report of the Transitional Committee on the Fund, Nigeria has called for proper structuring of the Fund to allow for justice.

The submission of the Report on the Fund, created in Cancun last year at the 16th Conference of Parties to the Climate Change Convention, will pave way for consideration of the Report and finalization of the work on the Fund by the on-going meeting in Durban.

Speaking in respect of the Fund,weekend, Nigerian Representative at the UN Permanent Mission, Ambassador Osita Anaedu, commended the work of the Transition Committee, but raised crucial issues that must be straightened out to make the Fund function well.

He stated that the 17th COP should undertake an open consultation and a contact group on the Report in order to consider the important issues that required attention in the Report.

Anaedu, who listed some of the issues as including lack of direct linkages to the constituencies, added that members of the board would not be representing all constituencies and that there were only five members for Africa. He pointed out that this arrangement had created problems in the Adaptation Fund.

Meanwhile, Minister of Environment, Hajia Hadiza Ibrahim Mailafia, arrived Durban, yesterday, to lead the Nigerian delegates at the high level segment of the Climate Conference.

She would be joined tomorrow by chairmen of Senate Committee on Ecology and Environment, House Committees on Environment and Climate Change.