It’s time to take climate change issues seriously
This is in spite of the fact that africa contributes less than 4% of the emissions responsible for climate change. It is as a result of the magnitude of the impacts that global attention is now being given to finding collective agreement to the problem. Our national drive towards combating the threat of climate change […]
This is in spite of the fact that africa contributes less than 4% of the emissions responsible for climate change. It is as a result of the magnitude of the impacts that global attention is now being given to finding collective agreement to the problem. Our national drive towards combating the threat of climate change is in line with the position of Mr President’s declaration “that even though we are not one of the countries responsible for the emissions, we are prepared to be part of the efforts to arrest the effects.
It is now a known fact – based on the reports of the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) – that Nigeria is one of the countries that would be most impacted by climate change because of its size, population rain-fed agriculture and variable climatic zones The climate change scenario for Nigeria is such that the climatic variation currently being experienced is likely to increase in scope and intensify. Droughts, desert encroachment, floods and erosions and storms are likely to increase in both frequency and intensity. Changes in rainfall patterns are also likely to occur, thus negatively impacting on our agriculture and food production. In coastal areas, sea level rise and rising sea temperatures will threaten coastal communities, settlements and fishing activities. These impacts will range from shift in the boundaries of major ecological zones, aggravation of soil and coastal erosion, flooding, heightened drought and desertification in the arid zones of the country and salt water intrusion along the coastal belt.
Perhaps the most devastating consequence of climate change is in the area of health, arising from aggravated heat waves, clean water shortage, food scarcity and associated social dislocation.
The consequences of these impacts can be dire and will invariably result in population movements, climate change refugees with resultant civil unrest with attendant security implications. Our poverty alleviation programmes, 7-point development agenda and, indeed, our Vission 20-2020 will be undermined. The impacts on our society and the economy will be huge and cross-cutting.
The issue of climate change is critical to our national sustainable development goals, the seven point agenda of the present administration and the Millennium Development Goals. There is a need for Nigerians to be massively mobilized to adopt adaptation attitude to the impacts of climate change. We must also begin to mobilize ourselves to take measures to reduce the emission of the culprit gases responsible for global warming. The media is key to the much needed mass education and change in national attitudes. For this National mobilization to be successful, we need the partnership of the entire media.
As the world continues to find solutions to the looming challenges of global warming and climate change, Nigeria should not be left behind in preparing our people for the impacts of climate change and strategizing on tapping the opportunities therein.
I want to assure Nigerians that the present administration is determined to engage all professional bodies in the national efforts to combat climate change. Our States and local governments should begin to take steps to mainstream climate issues into their development planning processes. They should setup desks, institutions and such other bodies as they deem fit to help in empowering communities to participate in assessments of climate situation and share knowledge on useful climate information. Access to good quality information about the impacts of climate change is a key to effective implementation of nation-wide adaptation and poverty reduction strategies. The Federal Government will continue to actively collaborate in the area of effective information distribution systems that will help to anticipate and prevent disasters.
The federal government has already initiated action plans to make people aware of these programme and to create avenues for collaboration to tackle the problem and take maximum advantage of the opportunities. I had earlier made it abundantly clear that in preparing the nation to handle climate change, a lot of attention would need to be devoted to comprehensive, sustained public awareness and education. This is one of the important reasons and concepts behind the initiative of the Strategic Stakeholders Engagement Program (SSEP).
It has the focus of drawing the nation’s citizens, corporate organizations and all stakeholders to the urgent need to commit to life of LOW CARBON FOOTPRINT and GREEN ECONOMY.
One of the main goals of the National Climate Change Roundtable is to accelerate strategic engagement of all the relevant experts and stakeholders nationwide. After Nigeria ’s participation at the 15th meeting of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Copenhagen this month, we would continue with these engagements for a nation-wide approach to whatever deal emerges from Copenhagen .
Our state governors should establish climate change roundtables in their states. This will help create national and state platforms to engage all stakeholders towards raising awareness and understanding the risks and opportunities associated with climate change in Nigeria. It will also facilitate the development of effective national policy frameworks and market conditions for a low carbon and green economy pathway.
Odey is the Minister of Environment