Abuja: Nigeria on Tuesday inaugurated a 25 member multi-stakeholder committee for the production of national climate change strategy and action plan as part of the measures to finding solution to the negative impact of climate change.
The Minister of Environment, John Odey, who inaugurated the forum in Abuja said the strategy and action plan would provide a coherent process for the country to respond to the immediate needs in regard to adaptation to climate change. He said the initiative would identify priority activities that respond to the urgent and immediate needs.
The chairman of the forum, Professor Kingsley Ologe, said the exercise would be concluded within 10 months and that the document would help to fashion out strategies to mitigate climate change impact. "This is the first time that an attempt is made to put together a committee to evolve strategies to combat climate change,’’ Ologe said.
He said that Nigeria had an important role to play in addressing climate change issues as Africa was more vulnerable to the effect than other parts of the world. "Because of our poverty level our ability to respond to climate change will not be as robust as that of other parts of the world,’’ he said. He also said different strategies would be drawn up to address agriculture, food supply and forestry among others.
In his comments, Professor David Okale, the Chairman of the Nigeria Environmental Study Action Team (NEST), said that the document when developed, would take into account existing coping strategies at the grassroots level. It would also identify priority activities to assess future vulnerability and long-term policy requirements, he said.
The committee comprises NGOs working in the environment sector such as NEST, International Centre for Energy, Environment and Development (ICEED) and Nigeria Climate Action Network (NigeriaCan).
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