Across the African continent, the landscape is changing in recent times. With the snowy caps of Mount Kilimanjaro melting and the shorelines of lakes Chad, Tanganyika and Victoria receding, these and many other changes have led to unreliable farming seasons and low water supplies – a serious problem for a continent almost entirely dependent on rain for its agriculture. There is now a growing increase in the incidence of disease, declining agricultural productivity, and a rising number of heat waves.
Globally, the rising impact of climate change which experts describe as the most deadly threat to human existence, have resulted in 373 natural disasters experienced in different parts of the world in 2010. This has however led to an economic loss of about $110 billion. Within the same period for the same reason, about 300,000 lives were lost while 207 million others were affected.
Driving this matter home, there is glaring evidence that climate change is not only happening but it's changing our lives. Declining rainfall in already desert-prone areas in northern Nigeria is causing increasing desertification, even as the former food basket in central Nigeria seem empty, and people in the coastal areas who used to depend on fishing have seen their livelihoods destroyed by sea-level rise.
In view of these realities, experts at the just concluded 3rd Lagos State Summit on Climate Change with the theme “Charting a roadmap for combating climate change in Nigeria”, have called for the need to create effective, effective adaptation activities, synergy between policy makers, scientists and other stakeholders in a bid to improve climate information for the socioeconomic development of the country as well as ensure environment sustainability.
Delivering his keynote address titled ‘Markets in Weather Risks and Natural Disasters’, Kenny Tang, founder and chief executive officer, Oxbridge Weather Capital, UK, described 2010 as a year of disasters, noting that “there is a steep rise in natural disasters”. Tang, who is also a global thought leader in the field of sustainable environment finance’, stressed that changing weather conditions which brings about climate change, comes with a lot of risks to government such that government “is the insurer of the last resort” in cases of disaster.
Tang who stated that disaster risks reduction is not optional and unless we act now, people will experience more disasters due to unplanned urbanization and environmental degradation, revealed that about US $4 trillion were lost in Gross Domestic Product due to weather risks in 2010
Lending his view, Governor of Lagos State, Babatunde Fashola, disclosed that Nigeria’s developmental efforts must take cognizance of environmental sustainability, or it will amount to efforts in futility, noted that emerging indications point in the direction that current predications on climate change could be an underestimation of the actual potential calamity waiting to befall the world.
The Governor noted that it has become imperative for government at all levels to begin to implement recommendation packages arising from various international forums on climate change aimed at preventing further environmental damage and controlling devastating impact already being felt worldwide.
In his words “The approaching disasters, if sufficient care is not taken, will be more devastating than the first and second World wars combined. What we desperately need as global citizens is to retool our efforts and reinvent our strategies towards achieving the desired result. Ensuring environmental sustainability is a task that should be achieved before 2015 as entrenched in the Millennium Development Goals package as the seventh goal.”
Taking a close look at the issue of climate change, Nigeria’s development plan does not recognize the economical threat caused by the climate change. No doubt, all the main sectors of Nigeria’s economy will be impacted by climate change, but in particular agriculture. Infrastructure such as water, transport and power are also extremely susceptible and will result in knock on effects to other parts of the economy, especially wholesale and retail.
Going further, attaining the MDGs will also suffer as a result of climate change. In particular Goal 1 on hunger and poverty and Goal 7 on environmental sustainability will be affected in a major adverse way.
There is no gain saying that a lot needs to be done by the present government to place climate change high on the agenda of government. It is important to realise that the complex nature of climate change is beyond what government alone can handle. Hence, it calls for a public-private partnership in which the private sector actors and civil society partner together to address the various dimensions of climate change in the context of national sustainable development.
For Muiz Banire, Commissioner for the Environment, Lagos State, the magnitude of such loss in terms of lives, properties and the overall economy, can only be imagined and this ugly and imbalance scenario justifies Lagos’ foregrounding in responding to climate change challenge through awareness while unraveling the best mitigation and adaptation strategies.
In his words “That is why we must act fast as possible by exploring possible means to stop the rot in the environment. One of such advocacy is the launch of climate change clubs in Lagos schools in a bid to engage the younger generations in the worthy fight against global warming.”
“As a proactive government, we as a state have taken steps to address environmental problems. These include effective management of wastes, flood and coastal erosion. Our advocacy programmes include workshops, seminars, public lectures and media campaign on climate change, land reclamation, landscaping and beautification as well as campaign against desertification. We cannot ignore the vulnerability of the young ones to disasters as they have less capacity to respond to disasters. Hence the urgent need to train and teach them the rudiments of mitigative and adaptive measures is of paramount importance to the protection and preservation of our biodiversity.”
Since Nigeria doesn’t have the blueprint for addressing the climatic disasters ravaging the world, there is the need to reinvent strategies for better results which is indeed the main thrust for previous summit on climate change in Lagos state and beyond.
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