{"id":72745,"date":"2023-06-08T18:03:12","date_gmt":"2023-06-08T17:03:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/?p=72745"},"modified":"2023-06-08T18:03:12","modified_gmt":"2023-06-08T17:03:12","slug":"environment-day-prof-okereke-urges-tinubu-to-prioritise-climate-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/environment-day-prof-okereke-urges-tinubu-to-prioritise-climate-change\/","title":{"rendered":"Environment Day: Prof. Okereke Urges Tinubu To Prioritise Climate Change"},"content":{"rendered":"<div dir=\"auto\">As the global community reflects on the future of the environment on World Environment Day,\u00a0 Prof. Chukwumerije Okereke, an expert in Climate change and development, has called on the administration of President Bola Tinubu to prioritise climate change.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Okereke made the appeal while speaking with newsmen\u00a0 on Wednesday in Lagos.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Okereke,\u00a0 who is the Director, Centre for Climate Change and Development, Alex Ekwueme Federal University Ndufu-Alike,\u00a0 Ebonyi State, said that climate change poses one of the greatest economic, physical, financial, and development risks to Nigeria<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">He said that the call became imperative as the global community reflected on the environment on the week of the celebration of World Environment Day.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Nigeria swore in a new President, Bola Tinubu, who took an oath of office on May 29, 2023 at the Eagle Square in Abuja.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">The professor noted that during his inaugural speech, Tinubu laid emphasis on the rule of law, security, and combating terrorism as priorities for his administration, as well as the pursuit of prosperity and development through job creation.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">He said that the president also indicated that he would pursue the effort to build more infrastructure, adding that he would try to unify the exchange rate and remove subsidies.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">\u201cMost of the things highlighted by the president were, in many respects, extremely laudable goals that should be pursued.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">\u201cFor example, according to the most recent reports from the World Bank and other international organisations, Nigeria has the highest unemployment rate, so it is right that a focus on job creation should be a priority for the new administration.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">\u201cHowever, the speech of the president has one very big and glaring omission. This significant omission is the President\u2019s failure to identify combating climate change as one of his top priorities.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">\u201cThis is a very important omission because climate change poses one of the greatest economic, physical, financial, and development risks to Nigeria,\u201d Okereke said.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">He said that if climate change was not appropriately prioritized and tackled, that could compromise the ability of the president to achieve all these other laudable objectives which he has enumerated, including job creation, food security, and economic prosperity.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">The don said that Nigeria was among the top 10 most vulnerable countries in the world and that climate change was already wreaking havoc on all aspects of the nation\u2019s economy.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">\u201cIt has been calculated that climate change as of today is costing Nigeria up to $100 billion. This represents about N15 trillion and close to 20 per cent of Nigeria\u2019s GDP.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">\u201cCalculations show that by 2050, climate change could cost Nigeria about N460 billion. This is in the region of about N69 trillion and this could be between six to 30 per cent of Nigeria\u2019s GDP.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">\u201cClimate change is already causing drought and loss of crop yield in Nigeria.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">\u201cIn some cases, up to 50 per cent of crop yield loss is expected by 2050,\u201d Okereke said.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">The expert said that about 70 per cent of the Nigerian population was engaged directly or indirectly in various forms of agricultural activities accounting for about 22 per cent of Nigerian GDP.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">\u201cSo it is easy to see that without a concerted effort to tackle climate change, the new president will struggle to fulfill his goal to fight hunger and poverty in the country,\u201d Okereke said.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">He said that another way in which climate change was affecting the economic situation in Nigeria was through the floodings that had become recurring in the nation.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">\u201cJust recently, we\u2019ve seen the number of deaths and displacements that have been caused by unprecedented floodings which had affected nearly 30 of 36 states of the country.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">\u201cUp till today, clear estimates have not been provided by the government on these losses.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">\u201cBut we do know from the government\u2019s own figures that the direct estimate of damage and loss caused by the 2012 flood is about $16.9 billion, which is about N2.63 trillion naira.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">\u201cUp to nearly 4000 kilometres square in the coastal regions of Nigeria will be inundated by a minimum rise of sea level due to climate change.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">An estimated 53 million people in the country may need to be relocated, If the sea level rises to\u00a0 0.5 metres.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">\u201cPlaces like Bonny, Forcardos, Lagos, and Port Harcourt will be at risk with vast amounts of property and oil infrastructure at risk,\u201d Okereke said.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">The don said that climate change was also contributing to desertification and drought, \u201cwhich is helping to fuel insecurity in Nigeria\u201d.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">On the other hand, Okereke said that climate change posed a great opportunity for Nigeria.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">He said that Nigeria was blessed with abundant natural resources like wind and solar, geothermal, and other critical minerals that would fuel the global transition in the coming decades.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">\u201cInternational climate finance is now worth over $3 trillion.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">\u201cSo by positioning Nigeria effectively to tackle climate change, the president can unlock billions of international climate finance and help to address the perennial challenge of lack of energy access.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">\u201cThis represents one of the biggest constraints against economic growth in the country.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">\u201cIf climate change is properly understood and tackled, it can offer Nigeria enormous opportunity to unleash the green growth transition potential that it has to create jobs security and help in the fight against terror.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">\u201cSo as we celebrate the World Environment Day,\u00a0 it is important to really bring to the attention of the president, the need to prioritise climate change in his agenda to make it the left, right, and center of his administration,\u201d Okereke said.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">He advised the president to appoint someone with the knowledge, experience, passion, and technical know-how needed to situate climate change as an important, if not the most important economic issue facing Nigeria.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">He added that such a person should be able to navigate and deal or negotiate with the international community in such a way that will unlock streams of climate finance that can help Nigeria to make a transition to a green economy and show leadership in this area.<\/div>\n<\/p><div data-ad-id=\"32665\" style=\"text-align:center; 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Okereke made the appeal while speaking with newsmen\u00a0 on Wednesday in Lagos. Okereke,\u00a0 who is the Director, &hellip;<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":72746,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[10362,10361],"coauthors":[2393],"class_list":["post-72745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-news","tag-environment-day","tag-okereke"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v18.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Environment Day: Prof. Okereke Urges Tinubu To Prioritise Climate Change - National Wire<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"As the global community reflects on the future of the environment on World Environment Day,\u00a0 Prof. Chukwumerije Okereke, an\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/environment-day-prof-okereke-urges-tinubu-to-prioritise-climate-change\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Environment Day: Prof. Okereke Urges Tinubu To Prioritise Climate Change - 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