•Says trillions of dollars in stranded assets at risk
From Uche Usim, Abuja
As the world combats the effects of climate change via lifestyle change and strategic investments, experts have tasked the Federal Government to position Nigeria to benefit from the oppourtunities the scourge brings and cut back on the economic loss currently estimated at $100 billion cumulatively.
They have also asked the leadership of the country to take urgent steps to tackle climate change, as failure to do so may lead to loss of trillions of dollars in stranded assets.
These were contained in a report by Agora Policy, a Nigerian think-tank and non-profit organisation committed to finding practical solutions to urgent national challenges and its partners.
Also pushing for a change of narrative is the World Bank, pressure groups, the corporate world and others, who said the time for action was now before Nigeria’s situation worsens.
Speaking on Wednesday in Abuja at the policy conversation on “Nigeria, Climate Change and the Green Economy,” Waziri Adio, founder of Agora Policy, said that while Nigeria grapples with the mounting challenges of changing climatic conditions, all hands should be on deck to chart a sustainable pathway for the country.
He explained that climate change is increasing hunger, poverty, disease-burden, migration, conflict and insecurity in Nigeria. He said it is also damaging infrastructure, changing Nigeria’s coastlines, fuelling desertification, producing water scarcity, facilitating erosion and resulting in the loss of revenue for states and the national government.
He added that there were already far-reaching negative effects climate on the country’s human and natural systems adding that it has the potential to jeopardise the country’s economic development and alter its geographical, social, and political trajectory for decades or centuries.
Adio said some of the repercussions of climate change on the nation may be irreversible. “It should be evident that climate change is not a marginal or peripheral issue that the government and the people of Nigeria can take lightly” he said.
Adio noted that climate change does not enjoy the prominence that it deserves in Nigeria.
“There are some individuals, organisations and government agencies that are making a strong case for and designing and implementing consequential climate interventions in the country. But the sad, inconvenient truth is that climate change still does not rank very high on our policy agenda and in our popular imagination. Both in official circles and among the populace, climate issues are not seen as really important and urgent.
“Our national attitude oscillates between denial and indifference. Most of our people, including highly-placed government officials, see climate change as other people’s problems or an issue that is only for tree-huggers and environmentalists, or something that should bother only those who have the luxury of not wrestling with hunger and other existential matters. But the burdens of shifts in climatic conditions are already our portion. They are all around us,” he said.
The rise in temperature, the irregular raining patterns, the near perennial flooding across the country, the increasing threats of desertification and gully erosion and others already have deep, negative impacts on food production, food security and food inflation, and on water, on health and productivity, on energy and infrastructure, and on the conflicts that continue to multiply partly on account of vanishing natural resources”, he said.
Shubham Chaudhuri, World Bank country director for Nigeria, in his goodwill message conversations on combating climate change must not be toyed with it as it remains a reality of all.
He noted that though climate change poses significant threats to Nigeria’s economic development, it also presents an opportunity to diversify the economy, expand the country’s energy portfolio, address energy security concerns, and increase global economic competitiveness.