HOMEF executive director, Rev Nnimmo Bassey, who disclosed this while addressing journalists in Port Harcourt yesterday, said world leaders were moving backwards from previous agreements.
Bassey said, “The recently concluded 27th Conference of Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change at Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, went in the way of rituals and did not rise beyond the low bars set by previous editions.“Maybe it rose above the bar in one aspect which could be considered, more or less, the brightest glimmer of hope, appearing in the extended time of the conference.
“For those who were keeping vigil on the deliberations, it was a roller coaster session. Hope glimmered when many nations unexpectedly rose to say that fossil fuels, all of them, should be phased out, not just the phasing down of unabated coal as was cockily suggested at Glasgow. “Recall that Glasgow only talked of phasing down of unabated coal . Observers gasped and yelped as some nations notorious for blocking any attempt to name fossil fuels as the driver of global heating in the official negotiations shifted positions.