Stakeholders Brainstorm on Climate Change Rescue Mission

Ayodeji Ake

Members of the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS); National Council on Climate Change (NCCC); and African Group of Negotiators Expert Support (AGNES) have held series of brainstorming sessions on rising issues relating to climate change, which was attended by parliamentarians from African countries.

 Speaking at the three-day regional workshop on Climate Change in Lagos organised by AGNES in collaboration with NILDS and NCCC, the Director-General of NILDS, Prof. Abubakar Sulaiman, who doubles as the chairman of the programme, noted that climate change is an elephant in the room that needs swift intervention.

He said: “Climate change is today’s single most important challenge, yet many countries are still quite poorly equipped to deal with its undeniable and increasingly profound impacts. Evidence from the best available science shows that unless countries act collectively, the world might not be able to attain the Paris Agreement target of 1.5 degrees.

“While countries in other climes have continued to entrench measures that would enable de-risk of their consumptions and production system to deliver on greenhouse emission targets, African countries, especially those in the West African region, have continued to grapple with multidimensional
poverty.

“Although the general narrative is that African countries contribute less than four per cent of global emissions, the recent poverty data in many African countries and Nigeria in particular, shows that our continent remains the most exposed to the adverse impact of climate change.

“Most African countries have continued to experience rising debt profiles. The reliance of our agricultural system on rainfall would aggravate the food crisis situation in Africa, thus, pushing our continent to borrow for food in the medium to long term. It is therefore vital that African countries work together with the rest of the world to adopt policies that would deliver on climate change adaption and mitigation policies.”

Speaking on the importance of the workshop, the Director-General of NCCC, Dr. Salisu Dahiru, said the idea of the workshop was  to harness parliamentarians across African countries, highlighting major issues relating to climate change and the way forward.

“The issue of climate is what is in the front burner of every discussion globally and not only in West Africa. Unfortunately for West Africa, we are at the reviewing end more severely than any other country or any other group of nation. The response needed is very urgent and timely,” he stated.

A member of the AGNES team, Prof. Raymond Kasei, said the programme was organised to strengthening parliamentarians on enacting laws that will protect loss of lives and property from climate change.

“The focus is to sensitise the parliamentarians in the aspect of climate change and also strengthening them in their activities channeled towards change. It’s also about sharing ideas,” he added.