Climate change getting attention at last

Soon, the Ministry of Environment would engage consultants that would assist the country develop adaptation strategies to combat the vulnerability of the country to climate change with special emphasis on small scale fish farmers in north-central Nigeria.Consultants would also undertake an assessment of impacts, adaptation and vulnerabilities to climate change in south-east region of the […]

Soon, the Ministry of Environment would engage consultants that would assist the country develop adaptation strategies to combat the vulnerability of the country to climate change with special emphasis on small scale fish farmers in north-central Nigeria.
Consultants would also undertake an assessment of impacts, adaptation and vulnerabilities to climate change in south-east region of the country as well as the development of Nigeria National Green House gas inventory system.
The consultants are also expected to map charcoal producing areas in the country as a source of Green House Gas emission and develop strategies that would facilitate government introduction of energy efficient stoves as a mitigation option in tackling climate change.
Another group of consultants is also expected to undertake a pilot indigenous mitigation project that would capture biogas from faeces and urine.
Expert working in the country in the area of climate change are, however, wondering why the need for such activities now after the ministry with the support of international organisations has produced the National Adaptation Strategy and Plan of Action on Climate Change (NASPA) document for the country.
In fact, the former Minister of Environment Mrs Hadiza Mailafiya said: “The NASPA document is a product of serious collaboration among a wide spectrum of informed stakeholders working under the Ministry of Environment. It involved five years of research and pilot trials. It involved local and international experts. It involved representatives from all ministries beyond the environment ministry.”
The United Nations Framework on Climate Change mentioned this as one model of a strategy document which other countries may emulate as model, said Prof. Chinedum Nwajiuba, Executive Director, Nigerian Environmental Study/Action Team (NEST).
Nwajiuba said that it was time the country developed appropriate mechanism to deal with the menace of climate change.
“Climate change justifies the need for urgent world action, and not motion without movement, many persons in the national policy positions need to start seeing the challenge as more than a means of employment, income, conferencing, and money in the pocket.”
Prof. Olukayode Oladipo, a climate change expert and one of Nigeria’s leading negotiators at the climate change conference, said the development was an indication of better days ahead.
Mr Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change said recently that communities across the developing world have a wealth of local knowledge and ingenuity to adapt more successfully to climate change but they urgently need greater international support to unlock their ambitions.
 “In the past few years, governments under the UN climate change convention have launched a whole new set of institutions to support action by the developing world. But there is still a gap between intent and full implementation that will allow vulnerable countries to make the most of their own abilities and adapt at a faster and more decisive scale,” she said.
She emphasised the need for countries to develop Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs), National Adaptation Programmes of Action (NAPAs) and the new more long term National Adaptation Plans (NAPs).
She added: “The urgent task is to ensure that all these working parts are being designed, redesigned and dovetailed together into the most powerful engine of change to a carbon-neutral world – this will, in part, define the lives and legitimate aspirations of people for many years to come.”