Buhari and Nigeria's climate challenge ahead of COP27, By Aliu Akoshile
As Nigeria prepares for robust engagement with other state and non-state actors at the Fifth Global Climate Summit in Africa, President Buhari must ensure the seamless harmonization of policies and the country's environmental actions, and the over-boarding of all critical actors in energy transition, climate finance, renewable energy, biodiversity, waste management and the media.
With all the wait, Africa is set to host the 27th edition of the now famous Conference of the Parties (COP) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) , which began in Berlin, Germany, in 1992. COP27, scheduled for Egypt's Sharm-el Sheikh peninsula in November this year, marks the fifth time that Africa will host the climate summit, having previously been previously hosted by Morocco (2001 and 2016), Kenya (2006) and South Africa (2011). According to a 2021 UNCTAD report, climate change poses an existential threat to the lives and even the livelihoods of some 490 million people living in extreme poverty in Africa.
As Africa's big brother, Nigeria bears much of the continent's climate impacts in many areas. For example, the country's vast coastline, which stretches for about 853 kilometers, has receded over the years due to the overlapping of waves that swallow the shores of the Atlantic Ocean in the southern region. With sea levels already expected to rise by around 65cm by the end of the century, further coastal erosion will only worsen the environmental crisis facing the country.
On another level, rivers are drying up, while desertification is wreaking havoc in the arid zone of the far north. Biodiversity loss and deadly floods ravaging farmlands and cities are other challenges facing the world's most populous black nation. Similarly, the degradation of tropical forests, the depletion of flora and fauna due to illegal deforestation, as well as criminal logging, are on the increase. It should be noted, however, that the problem of deforestation in Nigeria is exacerbated by the prohibitive cost of cooking gas and kerosene, and the virtual absence of clean alternative energy for use by the poor masses.
It is estimated that over 60 million Nigerians depend on fossil fuel powered generators for 48.6% of the electricity needed in their homes and businesses, and at a whopping cost of $14 billion dollars per year. The impact is no less severe in environmental waste, as Nigeria produces 32 million tons of solid waste annually, with plastic waste making up 2.5 million tons, and making the country one of the biggest producers. waste in Africa.
The impact of climate change is also telling on agriculture and the quest for food security in Nigeria. It is a cynical irony that a population of over 200 million people is largely fed by rural peasants using traditional hoes and cutlasses as their main tools. By default, those farmers who are not agro-tech savvy can only grow crops subject to the vagaries of unstable weather conditions. Of course, when the rainfall is excessive or the drought is extreme, the harvest of agricultural products is catastrophic, which leads to an imbalance between the demand ...
As Nigeria prepares for robust engagement with other state and non-state actors at the Fifth Global Climate Summit in Africa, President Buhari must ensure the seamless harmonization of policies and the country's environmental actions, and the over-boarding of all critical actors in energy transition, climate finance, renewable energy, biodiversity, waste management and the media.
With all the wait, Africa is set to host the 27th edition of the now famous Conference of the Parties (COP) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) , which began in Berlin, Germany, in 1992. COP27, scheduled for Egypt's Sharm-el Sheikh peninsula in November this year, marks the fifth time that Africa will host the climate summit, having previously been previously hosted by Morocco (2001 and 2016), Kenya (2006) and South Africa (2011). According to a 2021 UNCTAD report, climate change poses an existential threat to the lives and even the livelihoods of some 490 million people living in extreme poverty in Africa.
As Africa's big brother, Nigeria bears much of the continent's climate impacts in many areas. For example, the country's vast coastline, which stretches for about 853 kilometers, has receded over the years due to the overlapping of waves that swallow the shores of the Atlantic Ocean in the southern region. With sea levels already expected to rise by around 65cm by the end of the century, further coastal erosion will only worsen the environmental crisis facing the country.
On another level, rivers are drying up, while desertification is wreaking havoc in the arid zone of the far north. Biodiversity loss and deadly floods ravaging farmlands and cities are other challenges facing the world's most populous black nation. Similarly, the degradation of tropical forests, the depletion of flora and fauna due to illegal deforestation, as well as criminal logging, are on the increase. It should be noted, however, that the problem of deforestation in Nigeria is exacerbated by the prohibitive cost of cooking gas and kerosene, and the virtual absence of clean alternative energy for use by the poor masses.
It is estimated that over 60 million Nigerians depend on fossil fuel powered generators for 48.6% of the electricity needed in their homes and businesses, and at a whopping cost of $14 billion dollars per year. The impact is no less severe in environmental waste, as Nigeria produces 32 million tons of solid waste annually, with plastic waste making up 2.5 million tons, and making the country one of the biggest producers. waste in Africa.
The impact of climate change is also telling on agriculture and the quest for food security in Nigeria. It is a cynical irony that a population of over 200 million people is largely fed by rural peasants using traditional hoes and cutlasses as their main tools. By default, those farmers who are not agro-tech savvy can only grow crops subject to the vagaries of unstable weather conditions. Of course, when the rainfall is excessive or the drought is extreme, the harvest of agricultural products is catastrophic, which leads to an imbalance between the demand ...
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