By Ja’afar Omoniyi
The Society for Planet and Prosperity (SPP) says Nigeria can leverage coordinated climate action to achieve sustainable development.
The Society for Planet and Prosperity (SPP), a Civil Society Organisation, says Nigeria can leverage coordinated climate action at the subnational level to achieve sustainable development.
TheNewsZenith reports that Senior Policy Analyst with SPP, Nnaemeka Oruh, made this remark in an interview on Democracy Radio, Abuja.
SPP, a Civil Society Organisation, is led by the foremost Professor of Environment and Governance, Chukwumerije Okereke.
Oruh said state and local governments are mostly feeling the impacts of climate change.
He decried poor coordination of activities on climate change at the subnational level to address the long-standing climate change issues.
According to him, such climate issues range from desertification and land degradation to flooding and erosion in the country.
To fully grasp the extent of climate change impacts and actions being taken to address them, the analyst said SPP conducted research in 2023.
The Department of Climate Change (DCC) of the Federal Ministry of Environment and the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) conducted the research.
It produced a first-of-its-kind survey of subnational climate impacts.
The research title is “Climate Impacts, Policies and Actions at the Subnational Level in Nigeria”.
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To further measure the extent of climate action and governance at the subnational, Oruh said SPP and DCC conducted a ranking survey.
They will launch the survey in Abuja on July 25.
According to Oruh, the survey graded all 36 states’ climate action performances using five criteria.
These are administrative institutions, policy and action plan, budget and finance, implementation, monitoring and evaluation , and online visibility.
The ranking survey set to gauge the extent of states’ performances to identify where gaps exist so that stakeholders can take action to close them.
He attributed the exercise’s success story to current efforts to help two states develop comprehensive climate change action plans. The states are Enugu and Taraba.
While regretting that climate action is not accorded the attention deserved, the analyst said Nigerian government could address most of her developmental and everyday needs.
“SPP believes there is need for proper coordination between the federal and the subnational levels on climate actions.
“But they should reflect the unique needs of each component of the subnationals.
“This coordinated action is the only way Nigeria can meet her climate change goals. By this, we can also leverage the process to engender sustainable development.”
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