By Obiabin Onukwugha
Stakeholders at an event on Policy Conversation, are advocating for the demystification of climate change solutions in order to help people in vulnerable communities understand the impacts of climate change and how it concerns them.
The stakeholders, also called on the need for Nigeria to partner with developed countries in trying to mitigate climate change.
In recent years, climate change solutions such as transfer to green energy and end to fossil fuel production, have continued to occupy discussions by global leaders.
In their different submissions at the event, which was organised by the Algora Policy titled “Nigeria, Climate Change and the Green Economy,” organised by the Algora Policy, to mark its two years anniversary in Abuja, the stakeholders reasoned that climate change was posing a more serious risk than the people are made to think
Speaking, the Programme Officer at the Ford Foundation, Olufunke Baruwa, harped on the need to break down the concept of climate change in a language that those exposed to the vagaries of climate change understand.
The Ford Foundation Programme Manager, said the people were sitting on a time bomb.
Baruwa said: “The most vulnerable people in society will always be affected, particularly women and girls, persons with disability and those that don’t have access to compensation.
“These are the people that are going to suffer more. We need to break down climate change in a language that they will understand.
“We still have many people who don’t feel this is important but some of the numbers we have seen today clearly show that we are sitting on a time bomb,” she said.
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Also in his presentation, Emmanuel Oladipo, posited that climate change issues cannot be addressed in isolation.
Oladipo, who is a climate expert and professor at the University of Lagos, said Nigeria needs to develop unique innovations in response to climate change.
“If we start talking about climate change in isolation without relating it to development, it will not make sense. No society can survive without responding adequately to the issue of climate change.
“Nigeria has a nation needs to recognize the problem. Climate change is not a totally bad story. Developed countries are using their response to climate change to bring out unique innovations.
“With the creation of the National Council on Climate Change (NCCC), there is a probability of having a comprehensive action plan that will incorporate the private sector, civil society organizations, the government and development partners.
“There is a good opportunity that we will be in the best position to respond adequately to the impacts of climate change. And to use that response as an opportunity to develop an economy where poverty and food security will not be a challenge anymore,” he stated.
Also speaking, Tengi George-Okoli, a senior officer at the Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI), said Nigeria needs to interact more with international communities.
George-Okoli said the country should develop bankable projects and negotiate more specifically in order to achieve its net-zero goals.
“Nigeria requires technology, finances, technical capacity and human resource development to be able to shift from fossil fuels to renewables,” she said.
“And that requires a lot of infrastructure, development and understanding of the value chain,” he stated.
