NAN-AE-4
Climate
By Vivian Emoni
Abuja, March 8, 2017 (NAN) Dr Samuel Adejuwon, Chairman, Digital Environmental System Management, an NGO, has called on stakeholders to support Federal Government for effective implementation of climate change programmes in the country.
Adejuwon made the call on Wednesday in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.
He said such support would enhance proper implementation of climate change activities in the country.
He also urged stakeholders to collaborate with government agencies to address problems associated with climate change to boost the implementation of Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs).
He explained that INDCs was a term used under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to reduce greenhouse gas emission.
He said INDCs was a channel by which countries transmit agreements to the UNFCC about their national circumstances, capabilities and priorities.
“Climate change is an issue that concerns everyone on the surface of the planet.
“We share one atmosphere and we truly hold a shared responsibility for reducing the greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change.
“Therefore, we need to support government`s efforts to help vulnerable communities adapt to and build resilience to the effects of climate change.
“There is a need for us at this time to take steps in tackling this problem before it gets out of hand.
“We need to be able to take decisions and to make plans if we are to leave something to the next generation.”
The chairman, however, urged government to establish a climate change agency, adding that such development would help to achieve good governance in the country.
He said coordinating climate change activities with just a department in the ministry would not ensure a proper implementation of climate change.
Adejuwon said that good climate change governance could only be achieved through a robust institutional framework in Nigeria.
He, however, noted that such environmental agency would require somebody with requisite knowledge on environmental issues.
“The head of such an agency should have environmental knowledge and experience; that is when we can now invent good governance.
He said that the establishment of the agency would help to interpret climate change information properly to ordinary Nigerians.
According to him, we need to strengthen our institutional framework; climate change has gone beyond what just a department in the ministry can implement.
“There is nothing wrong in creating climate change agency for proper implementation of climate change activities.
“An institutional framework that would affect INDCs and other climate change activities is needed in Nigeria urgently,’’he said.
He said that the creation of a climate change agency would also ensure effective implementation of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Adejuwon explained that SDGs have about 17 targets and climate change took a share of eight or nine components of the targets.
“Before you can talk about sustainable development, you have to think of climate change or it will wipe out efforts of so many years of activities in terms of resources.
“So, if we have climate change agency, a lot of activities will take place and one of these activities is the implementation of INDCs, which would boost the nation`s economy.
“If the government cannot create a climate change agency, let it be a kind of programme that will stand alone and also have its own budget.
“Government should take the issue as a priority; because the benefits the country will derive from that alone will increase development and attract foreign investors.’’ (NAN)
VOE/JIE/MO
=========Edited by Julius Enehikhuere/Morayo Omolade