By Deji Abdulwahab
Abuja – The Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation Initiative (CCMAI), on Wednesday urged the Federal Government and relevant stakeholders to work together to improve and sustain the nation’s climate and environment.
Mr Richard Inyamkume, Senior Programme Officer, CCMAI, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja that relevant stakeholders needed to tackle climate change challenges to achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
According to him, scientific evidence shows that climate change is likely to have negative impact on the global effort to achieve the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
“In particular, climate change will obstruct efforts to reduce the existing poverty being experienced by some of the world’s population.
“Climate change is also likely to lead to changes in the ecosystem which will consequently contribute to degradation and reduce availability of water and food, globally.
“It is therefore more likely to become the world’s major driver of increased human conflict.’’
Inyamkume, who described climate change as the most disturbing global environmental challenge, said it referred to the rise in the earth’s surface temperatures globally due to anthropogenic or human activities.
According to him, the activities include burning of fossils, improper waste disposal, bush burning and deforestation.
“Climate change also known as Global Warming actually begins with the greenhouse effect caused by the interaction between the Earth’s atmosphere and incoming radiation from the sun.
“Its effect is increased through anthropogenic activities. What this means, is that the atmospheric gases primarily responsible for the greenhouse effect known as greenhouse gases.
“When water vapour, carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) are released in large amounts into the atmosphere through human activities, it increases the natural greenhouse effect which results into rising temperatures globally.’’
Inyamkume urged the Federal Government to intensify efforts to reduce the impact of climate change in spite of national policies put in place to address the problem.
“The present administration led by President Muhammadu Buhari recognises the threats posed by climate change on Nigeria’s environment and national economy.
“To this end, a wide array of national policies have been put in place to ensure that appropriate mitigation and adaptation actions are engaged at different levels to reduce the impact of climate change in Nigeria.
“It is worthy to note here that Nigeria is a signatory to various international treaties on the environment and climate change, respectively.’’
According to him, Nigeria is signatory to the Kyoto Protocol and has been party to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and the Paris Agreement which was ratified in 2015.
Inyamkume said Nigeria would hopefully participate in the forthcoming UNFCCC COP23 in Bonn, Germany in November, 2017.
“Nigeria has approved Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) and other Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMA) to commit the nation to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
“In addition, government has created the Department of Climate Change in the Federal Ministry of Environment to coordinate and oversee activities relating to climate change in Nigeria.’’
Inyamkume said an inter-ministerial Coordinating Committee on Climate Change was also set-up by government.
He explained that in 2010, the National Assembly passed a Bill to create a National Climate Change Commission to facilitate, coordinate and support multi-level and cross-sectoral adaptation responses. (NAN)