Enforcing climate change adaptation, mitigation – Experts’ views

Climate change, which refers to changes in global climate such as increase in temperature, large rainfall variability, drought, flooding, receding sea level, melting ice caps, biodiversity loss, pests and diseases has been attributed to emission of greenhouse gas, deforestation and ocean currents, among others According to experts, the effects include drought, coastal flooding and erosion, […]

Climate change, which refers to changes in global climate such as increase in temperature, large rainfall variability, drought, flooding, receding sea level, melting ice caps, biodiversity loss, pests and diseases has been attributed to emission of greenhouse gas, deforestation and ocean currents, among others

According to experts, the effects include drought, coastal flooding and erosion, and increased temperature.

The National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA), saddled with the responsibility of ensuring and enforcing environmental protection through establishment of laws, guidelines, policies and regulations, has moved to enforce adaptation and mitigation of climate change.

The Director General of NESREA, Dr. Lawrence Anukam, said Nigerians had been living with the issue of climate change which was evident in flooding, drought and diseases, among others.

Speaking at a one-day capacity building workshop on Compliance Monitoring and Enforcement for Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation in Abuja, Dr. Anukam said, “We have responsibility to work with one another; we have 34 regulations at the moment; they are specific.”

He said the objective of the workshop was to educate enforcement officers in line with environmental laws, and that after the training, they would be better equipped to address issues of climate change.

The Director, Department of Climate Change, Federal Ministry of Environment, Dr. Yerima Peter Tarfa, said addressing climate change within the overall development challenge of a developing nation like Nigeria was no simple task; saying the main challenge was to keep climate change from becoming a catastrophe.

Dr. Tarfa said, “To this end, two measures have been adopted to confront climate change: which are the mitigation measure such as reduction in emission of greenhouse gases and adaptive measure such as building irrigation systems and adjusting agricultural practices.”

He maintained that the successful implementation of multilateral environmental agreements required implementation of domestic laws, policies and compliance programmes as part of coordinated national implementation plans, assuring that this would help to enhance the successful implementation of environmental agreements.

The Technical Director of Cagewox, an environmental management organisation, Linda Akpami, noted that IPCC’s 4th Report states that Africa would be worst hit by the effects of climate change.

Akpani said Africa had seen a decrease in rainfall over average part of the Sahel and that this was evident in the drying up of the Lake Chad and receding of bodies of water, as well as drought and heat stress, leading to reduction in crop yields and livestock productivity.

She said in Nigeria the effects of climate change could be seen in the persistent drought in northern states, flooding, coastal flooding and erosion, heat stress and associated diseases, adding that the coastal region of the Niger Delta was being affected by extreme oil pollution and now threatened by rising sea levels, while growing desertification had forced thousands of Fulani herdsmen to move South and Middle Belt leading to clashes with farmers.

She maintained that a proactive rather than a reactive response to climate change issues would best serve the development needs of Nigeria. 

Dr. J. Magaji of the Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Nasarawa State University, Keffi (NSUK), said adaptation was important in developing countries since they were predicted to bear the brunt of the effects.

He said NESREA needed to extract current regulations and guidelines that related to climate change adaptation and develop action plan for monitoring and to ensure that environmental projects funded by donor organisations and external support agencies adhered to regulations and environmental safety protection.

“Conduct environmental audit and establish data bank on regulatory and enforcement mechanisms of environmental standards other than in the oil and gas sector,” he said.  

However, the Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Climate Change, represented by Hon. Taiwo Michael Akintola, said in their quest to strengthen the instruments of monitoring/enforcement, had initiated a legal framework and institutional modalities of response and action into government policies in synchronisation with nationally determined contributions.

The senate, according to him, had passed the bill and that it was awaiting presidential assent.