Akwa Ibom lists strategies to mitigate climate change impacts

Governor Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom State has said that his administration is committed to better the management of available natural resources to drive, sustain and protect its industrialisation drive, adding that strategic plans are being embarked upon to mitigate climate change impacts in the state.

Emmanuel, who spoke in Lagos through Iniobong Essien, commissioner for environment, at the Post COP 21 Dialogue with the theme, ‘Climate Agreement at COP 21: Success, implementation and implications for Africa and Nigeria,’ organised by Africa Clean Energy Summit, said Akwa Ibom State was in the forefront of the campaign on climate change because of its exposure to all manner of environmental degradations.

According to him, “The massive environmental degradation with ensuing disasters- gully erosion, flooding, etc” must be tackled in the interest of the people and those whose business concerns are in the state.

The governor, who listed “unavailability of funds to drive the climate change programmes, reluctance of donor agencies to fund or collaborate in climate change activities in the state, low level of environmental awareness among the citizenry, lack of capacity for climate change mitigation/adaptation among the citizens and lack of enabling laws to address climate change issues like gas-flaring” as some of the challenges, however, said strategic plans were being embarked upon by his administration to mitigate climate change impacts.

Such plans, he said, include: “Holding first Akwa Ibom State climate change summit, development of state policy on climate change and establishment of 10 Forest Reserves in the next four years.”

Earlier, Victor Fodeke, director-general, Africa Clean Energy Summit, and Lekan Fadina, chairman of the occasion, both of whom were at the just concluded COP 21 in Paris, France, who spoke with BusinessDay, said they were optimistic that Nigeria’s story on climate change would change to better with the enormous interest shown by the current administration in the country.

Fodeke said he was particularly touched by the campaign launched by President Muhammadu Buhari in Paris and the brilliant performance by Amina Ibrahim Mohammed, minister of Environment, both of which were pointers to the fact that it is not going to be business as usual.

The Post COP 21 Dialogue was the first ever of such event since the conference ended last Saturday.

It would be recalled that the twenty-first session of the Conference of the Parties (COP) and the eleventh session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP) took place from November 30 to December 11, 2015, in Paris, France.