Nigeria: Lingering Issue of Climate Change
BY TOSIN OMONIYI, 2 OCTOBER 2013OPINION
Despite spirited sensitisation programmes and advocacy by different environmental rights groups and intercontinental bodies, it appears that many people still do not have an idea of what global warming, climate change, desertification and the attendant environmental issues these portend for them as individuals or as a nation.
For some, they are abstract terms they came across while still in school and which keep coming up today. For others, the terms are simply unknown to them since they have never heard or understand them. For another prominent group, it is not worth a bit of worry since it does not directly affect them.
In the course of research by this reporter, it was discovered that only one out of three people interviewed appeared to have an idea of the meaning of the terms. While the research may only have covered a few people, it is nevertheless obvious that a great percentage of Nigerians do not know most of the environmental issues at stake which are presently creating ripples in many countries.
For Halima Ahmed, the terms seem to strike a chord in her mind but she did not know what they mean and how they affect her. Slowly biting her finger she attempts to remember but at the end she says resignedly, 'I cannot remember but I know it has to do with the environment.'
Simon Okenzi (real name withheld) has never heard of the terms. And he does not seem perturbed about it as he goes back to his business after that response. Another interviewee, Taiwo Adeniyi, however seems to know some of the terms. 'I know it has to do with the depletion of the ozone layer. The ozone layer is a cloud that protects mankind from the destructive rays from the sun. But due to the increase in hydro carbons in the air due to commercial activities the ozone layer is reducing and causing damage to the earth,' he reeled.
But for authorities in far away Pacific Island Countries, PICs climate change and its attendant consequences are worth deliberating on. Scientists from 12 PICs recently gathered in Suva to discuss climate engineering, a little known term in Africa. Climate engineering is a term which has been in prominence since the 1990's. It is the deliberate and large-scale intervention in the earth's climatic system with the aim of reducing global warming.
A Fijian official, Esala Nayasi in an interaction tagged, 'First Open Discussion Workshop about Climate Engineering: Perspectives of Pacific Small Island States', noted the need for research, scientific studies, data and even climate engineering in addressing the impact climate will have on these nations.
"I know and I believe we all know - climate change constitutes to one of the greatest barriers to sustainable development for small island states. In fact for us we know it is more of a security threat to our countries. Adverse effects to climate change affect the very core of our own survival,"Nyasi was quoted as saying.
Michael Fleshman a writer from Africa Renewal said the global effects of global warming are alarming. "These changes, (climate change)which are occurring in every part of the world, are now widely understood to be caused by human activities, particularly those that use pollution-producing oil and other fossil fuels such as industrial processes, electricity generation and motor cars.
Gases created by such activities are building up in the atmosphere, trapping too much of the sun's heat and raising the earth's temperature - a process known as global warming. As the earth heats up, it alters rainfall and other weather and climate patterns, threatening human, animal and plant life with potentially calamitous climate change."
In Nigeria, environmental rights bodies are equally taking stock of the damages being caused by climate change and global warming. They are equally proffering radical solutions if Nigeria is to survive the dangers inherent in ignorance
For Dr Victor Fodeke, chairman, National Stakeholders Advisory Board of the Climate Change Network, Nigeria climate change is a disaster waiting to happen if the country does not take adequate steps to nip the crisis in the bud. In an interaction with Daily Trust, he said, "The reality of climate change impacts on Nigeria in terms of evidence based projections and already impacted scenarios is alarming enough to roll out the drums calling on all stakeholders to take action.
While the northern part of Nigeria is being devastated by drought and desertification that close up communities and farmlands at the rate of 0.6 km (600m) per year, the southern part is also being destroyed by floods and erosion and sea level rise, all caused by climate change with common disastrous denominators such as destruction of crops, lives and properties. Thus poverty is intensified, livelihoods impaired, rural-urban migration heightened, resource-sharing conflicts increased, sustainable development disrupted, political destabilisation sets in,"
He gives a workable solution though: "Climate change notwithstanding its negative impacts comes with productive and meaningful opportunities which therefore behoves on national government to reposition its economic development strategies and policy frameworks towards turning the adversity posed by it into opportunity.
This can be done by going green or embracing economy initiative which is defined by the United Nations Environment Programme, UNEP as an economy that results in improved well being and reduced inequalities over the long term while not exposing future generations to environmental risks and ecological scarcities. The United Nations Secretary General, Mr Ban Ki-Moon further upholds that, 'Among the most significant implications of the shift to greener economy is its potential to mitigate climate change and assist countries in coping with the growing impacts.'
All these entail developing climate resilient actions (adaptation or coping capacity) and low carbon development actions (mitigation) across various sectors of the economy and national development which is embodied in our 7 point strategic Action Plan 2013-2015. This has led to initiating the Green Canopy Advocacy Project for promoting climate mitigation and National Advocacy Campaign for Adaptation in Nigeria, NACAN for promoting climate adaptation."
However global leaders of thought also appear to be looking at the imminence of such environmental disasters and how to effectively manage them through the channelling of funds to communities in Africa adversely affected by climate change.
In an article (part of a series by the Financial Times' This Is Africa publication on realizing Africa's agricultural potential in partnership with the Rockefeller Foundation)written by Nigeria's minister of finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and Dr. Richard Wilcox, Interim Director General of African Risk Capacity (ARC)-a specialized agency of the African Union, financial preparedness to handle natural disaster through 'continental sovereign disaster risk pool' is advocated.
"Natural disasters, driven by climate change, threaten to undermine the hard-fought gains made over the last decade, just as Africa is beginning to realize its vast agricultural potential...Later this year, world leaders will gather in Warsaw for the United Nations' Climate Change Conference, and the agenda will include regional risk pools. Any effective mechanism for adapting to climate change needs to provide timely and reliable funding linked to weather events.
Fundamentally this is an insurance proposition. The ARC (African Risk Capacity) and its Caribbean sister institution, the Caribbean Catastrophic Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF), stand at the forefront of this effort. Africa has a technically and financially sophisticated, fair and well-governed contribution ready,' noted both leaders.
Courtesy:allafrica.com
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