Connected Development (CODE), a civil society organisation, says there is need to sensitise people and build their capacity on climate change issues to mitigate its effects.
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Ms Hyeladzira James, Programme Manager, CODE, expressed this view at a documentary screening organised by the group in Abuja to shed more light on the impacts of climate change in communities.
She spoke on the value of protecting the environment and urged Nigerians to always take actions to minimise carbon footprint and build a more sustainable future for both themselves and future generations.
According to James, climate change education helps people understand and address the impacts of climate crisis, empowering them with the knowledge, skills, values and attitudes needed to act as agents of change.
She said that Nigeria faced severe climate impacts, affecting lives, livelihoods, and the economy; hence CODE, alongside OXFAM, decided to work to address it through the Community Media Collaboration for Climate Justice (CMC-CJ) Project.
“In light of this, CODE organised a documentary screening with stakeholders, shedding light on the livelihoods, challenges, and advancements within our frontline communities.
“This documentary will illustrate the detrimental impacts of the climate crisis on frontline communities, as well as the progress made by CODE through the CMC-CJ project over a year.
“The event also included a sustainable fashion runway, a green-themed photo booth, and a panel discussion.
“We have to use fashion to tell the story because we do not want to make it boring; we want people to come and see that nothing is a waste.
“You can turn anything into an up circle product, make sales out of it and in that way reduce your carbon footprint in the society.’’
James said that CODE and Oxfam had been implementing the CMC-CJ campaign in Rivers and Awkwa Ibom to improve public awareness and understanding of frontlines solutions to climate change.
This, she said was because of the adverse effects of climate change on humanity .
“Last year, Nigeria experienced one of the worst cases of flood where lives and properties were damaged; we went to the two states we are working on– Rivers and Akwa Ibom to access the impact of these flood.
“We formed the CMC-CJ because we at CODE believe in sustainability; so, we are empowering them and building their capacity teaching them how to track climate change budget using our follow the money model to engage government.
”The call to action, especially now that COP28 is ongoing, is for people to ensure to do everything within their capacity to educate each other about climate change and global warming,’’ she said.
Mrs Raya Schifferle, a Sustainability Advocate and Spouse of the Deputy Head of Mission of Embassy of Switzerland, said climate change had become a very significant topic to pay attention to.
Shifferle said that climate change was a very important topic not only for the government but also for everyone as citizens of Nigeria and the world because it is affecting everybody.
“Events like these are important especially as the COP28 climate change conference in Dubai is on-going where governments are discussing.
“It is a big event bringing these issues of climate change to light so that everybody can have a thinking about how it is affecting people and what we can do to be more active ,’’ she said.
Shifferle said that the impacts of climate change were becoming more obvious not only to scientists but to everybody; adding that it was up to everyone to keep abreast with the knowledge and work to address it.
