Nigeria needs to invest in climate change resilience

Dr Samuel Adejuwon, Director Climate Change Department, Ministry of Environment said at a media roundtable in preparation for the ongoing global climate change conference that the time for the country to commit resources to climate change issues has come.“We are at a point where we can no longer wait on donors, we need to invest […]

Dr Samuel Adejuwon, Director Climate Change Department, Ministry of Environment said at a media roundtable in preparation for the ongoing global climate change conference that the time for the country to commit resources to climate change issues has come.
“We are at a point where we can no longer wait on donors, we need to invest in activities and programmes as a country to address climate change and provide adaptation strategies for our people,” he added.
He noted that the impact of climate change was manifesting in various facets of our lives as a nation. “The 2012 flood which ravaged parts of the country are some of the signs for us to begin to take issues of climate change more serious.”
Also speaking at the roundtable, Mr Taiye Haruna, permanent secretary at the ministry said that the country’s participation at the 19th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) holding in Warsaw, Poland would enable it ensure that its concerns as a developing nation as well as an oil producing country are effectively guided and presented.
He said that the participation would further assist to strengthen existing partnerships/network and also establish other appropriate ones to move the nation forward towards the achievement of its economic transformation agenda.
“I want to therefore assure you that the ministry is committed to implementing the overall mandate of the Climate Change Convention and its Protocol. This present administration acknowledges that inaction is even more expensive as it will hinder the actualisation of Mr. President’s Transformation Agenda and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs),” he said.