Financing our climate and the task ahead

Climate finance is concerted efforts geared towards putting together resources that would help mitigate the effects of climate change on our environment.

It also involves flows of funds from developed to developing nations to help poorer countries to cut their emissions and adapt to climate change. For decades, Nigeria has made different efforts to tackle climate change.

The Ogoni cleanup, yearly plantation of thousands of trees in Lagos and projects in the lake chad basin are all exciting initiatives.

According to an article by Alexander Darius on AlJazeera news, Climate change is said to be : “feeding poverty, instability, hunger and violence in the Lake Chad basin”. Notably, the lake chad basin tree planting project provides a glimpse of hope about putting an end to the alarming situation in the region; which is presently faced with the threats of desertification. CNN through a report in 2011 painted the devastating status of the basin, thus:
“Lake Chad is shrinking rapidly, threatening the millions of people who depend on it for their survival. But some locals are fighting back in a bid to preserve their way of life.

From droughts causing bad harvests, to floods destroying farms and homes, life in Africa’s Sahel belt can be a constant struggle.
The arid belt of land stretches from Senegal in the west, all the way across the continent to Ethiopia in the east. With the Sahara to the north, and the savannah to the south, it’s a region that experiences extreme dry and wet seasons.

In the middle of it all is Lake Chad, the most reliable resource in this region of shifting extremes. More than 20 million people depend on the freshwater lake for their survival”.

In response to the almost inhabitable status of the lake Chad basin, a team of locals founded the tree planting association. Mr Sahel Sagoubi, the head of the tree planting association blames climate change for turning much of the once-fertile land of the Sahel into desert. His group is trying to hold back the Sahara with a “great green wall” of drought-resistant trees.”To stop the Sahara we must make lots of effort day and night — we must work,” he said.

The challenge in the lake chad region is of great concern to Nigeria. The reason for this is not farfetched. This region borders northern Nigeria(the nation’s food hub) and the deteriorating situation there poses a greater danger to the already worrisome climate situation in Nigeria. Similarly, the Green Wall Programme Action Plan was conceived in 2005 by the then Nigerian government with a view to halt the desertification of the dryland region of Nigeria. Occasioned by climate change, desertification according to an action plan by the Nigerian ministry of environment; poses serious challenges to food security, sustainable livelihoods and socio-economic development in the dryland communities. The green wall programme was projected to serve as the planning tool for interventions in response to rehabilitation needs of the degraded landscapes in the dryland region of Nigeria.

In southern part of Nigeria, most especially in the oil rich but environmentally degraded region of Niger Delta, the resuscitated Ogoni cleanup project showed some level of commitment in the current administration. Despite the political coloration given to it, it provides a platform for policy makers to restore environmental dignity to the region. In Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial nerve center, the state governor has strongly advocated for planting of trees among other climate change mitigation efforts. As it stands, laudable amounts of money are being spent on the tree planting initiative that started in the year 2008. The current governor of Lagos state – Mr Akinwunmi Ambode had also in July this year(2017) directed immediate planting of 500,000 trees in 78 locations to protect the environment and promote healthy living.

Despite all these efforts dotted across various regions, there is still far much more to be done. Fundamentally, many of these environmental projects have too many political colorations and thus : they fade without having the direly needed long lasting impact. The initial drive behind the ogoni clean up has vanished into thin air. In the same vein, little attention is being paid to other areas in the Niger Delta that have suffered environmental degradation. More worrisomely, Nigeria despite its vast size and population, the country has failed to attract enough financial aid that can help propel revolutionary environmental projects. Lack of consistency in policy formulation has also made the country miss out on green bonds and climate funding. Consequently, Nigeria needs game changing mechanisms to transform its environmental fortunes.

Regardless of the current challenges bedeviling environmental projects in Nigeria, a green and healthy environment is not impossible. The Nigerian government must first look beyond the prism of politics when mapping out action plan for climate change. Fundamentally, there is the need to allocate more funds to the ministry of environment; so as to provide the resources needed to propel more robust and sustainable climate change initiatives. The ministry of environment in the last national budget received a total sum of roughly 7.4bilion naira(20.7million dollars); which although encouraging needs to be improved on. Equally important is the necessity to map out long term strategies geared towards achieving climate change mitigation goals. The 2009 climate change summit in Copenhagen which saw industrialised countries commit to giving $100 billion a year in additional climate finance from 2020 onwards brought to bare : the great opportunities for climate finance in developing nations. Over $30 billion in additional climate finance has been provided since Copenhagen. The UK has contributed £1.5 billion ($2.4 billion) so far, rising to £2.9 billion by 2015. All these provide great windows for climate finance in Nigeria. In this light, to make Nigeria more appealing to foreign aids and support, there is the need for policy consistency, accountability in governance and driven leadership at the very top.

LONG LIVE OUR WORLD!

Pelumi Olugbenga is a recently awarded Hesselbein Fellow at the University of Pittsburgh, PA, United States. He can be reached on : pelumiolugbenga@gmail.com