It is a well-established fact that climate change is real and happening right now.
As part of the ClimateVoicesNigeria series, our speaker, Adesola Adegeye the Founder, of GreenwithGrin and Ecobiz shared her insights on a Facebook Live conversation about Understanding the Basics of Climate Change. A summary of the conversation is provided below.
Climate change refers to the long-term shift in temperature over a long period, which affects everyone, regardless of race, culture, location, socio-economic status or gender. Climate change is largely caused by human activities, especially industrialization, and its effects are evident in Nigeria with an increase in rainfall leading to flooding in coastal states like Lagos, Akwa Ibom, and Rivers. This has resulted in loss of lives, destruction of properties, land degradation, erosion, food insecurity, inflation, and climate migration, where affected communities have to relocate and seek refuge far from home.
To mitigate climate change, everyone has a role to play, including erecting sustainable buildings, planting more trees to eliminate carbon emissions, stopping the burning of fossil fuels, and adopting renewable energy sources. The government is adopting climate policies and mitigation actions, but individuals must also take personal responsibility by making lifestyle modifications such as using eco-friendly products, purchasing rechargeable cars, recycling, using bamboo-made items instead of plastic, reducing human waste, using energy-saving bulbs, properly disposing of waste, raising awareness on climate change and more. These changes will cause businesses to redirect their production to more sustainable products, and consumers should also gear their attention towards sustainability.
The 28th Conference of the Parties (COP28) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) served as a critical moment for the global community to take decisive action to address the climate crisis. It is significant Nigeria takes her climate actions more seriously and embarks on an implementation journey. It is essential to create a clear and achievable roadmap to addressing climate change in Nigeria, as well as a monitoring and evaluating mechanism to track climate actions and be transparent with the progress made. We must restrategize and implement our solutions to keep our promises.
