BY LAIDE AKINBOADE, Abuja

Nigeria has commenced preparation for the Rio +20 Earth summit, scheduled to hold later in the year in Rio Janeiro, Brazil with a two-day conference in Abuja.

The conference which was attended by a group of about 200 stakeholders drawn from the academia, civil society and media deliberated on various issues in a bid to come up with a position paper that Nigeria would adopt at the summit.

Minister of Environment, Mrs. Hadiza Ibrahim Mailafia said the Rio summit is symbolic, coming   20 years after the historic “Earth Summit” or the United Nations conference on Environment and Development UNED, held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in June, 1992.

The objectives of the summit included: securing renewed political commitment for sustainable development, assessing  progress to date and the remaining gaps in the implementation of the outcomes of the major summit on sustainable development and addressing new emerging challenges. The focus was on green economy, poverty eradication and institutional framework for sustainable development.

It is expected that at the  Rio +20 conference, every country would produce a national report that will take stock of the progress made in the implementation of the outcomes of the previous summits, identify gaps and challenges and propose action plans to advance sustainable development, particularly in the context of green economy. The  Minister stressed the need  for the Nigeria to be well prepared for the Brazil conference.

”I have no doubt that this forum which has been organized to provide opportunity to deliberate on specific issues, in line with the overall objectives and focus of the summit and the overview presentation received on this workshop to ensure that we can effectively identify challenges and opportunities and map out the way forward’ including means of implementation and operationalisation  of sustainable development.”  She said

Deputy Director of United Nations Development Programme UNDP, Mr. Janthomas Hiemstra described the meeting as an unprecedented opportunity for the nation to influence world environmental decision making for the greater benefit of Nigeria.

”It is an opportunity to collectively identify the challenges to national sustainable development  within the context of global happenings of financial crisis, threat of climate change and increasing environmental degradation.

It is an opportunity to define a roadmap for greening the country’s economy, taking advantage of clean energy, greener technologies and renewable energy as an integral part of the energy and power reform. This could ultimately lead to green Blue print for Nigeria’s future economic development,”he said.

While challenging the stakeholders to put into consideration the vulnerabilities of Nigeria to the threat of Climate Change, he enjoined them to share their visions for developing an integrated approach to tackling Climate Change.

The  UNDP, he said,  is committed to providing the much needed strategic support on capacity development and institutional strengthening for establishment of an enduring framework for sustainable development in Nigeria.

Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Mallam Mohammed Bashar, said the meeting was one of the preparatory consultative sessions organized  to harness inputs from all relevant sectors  into the country report and National positions for Rio +20 summit.