The Nigerian Academy of Engineering (NAEng) and other stakeholders in the environment sector have stressed the need to strengthen the platform for Climate Change mitigation through capacity development and provision of adequate funding.
The experts and stakeholders who spoke at a forum on ‘Climate Change, COP26 And The Nigerian engineer’ at a webinar organised by the NAEng in Lagos said there is a need for urgent take off of the outcomes of Climate Change summit held in Glasgow, Scotland (COP26) by putting into practice the recently approved Climate Change Act and Nigeria’s commitments to the United Nations’ Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and Paris Agreement.
Speaking at the forum, The Chairman, Environment and climate change committee of NAEng, Prof. Salihu Mustafa, said actions to address the root causes of climate include, embarking on nature-based solution, reducing methane leakages from manufacturing industries, replacing GHG emitting fuels like coal, oil, natural gas with renewable energies, retrofitting old buildings and new structures to make them energy efficient, using more electric and solar powered vehicles and other measures.
“Policy measures and documents were produced by the Federal government to address impacts of climate change and these include climate change act 2021, national climate change policy for Nigeria 2021-2030, Nationally Determined Contribution, and National Agency for the Great Green Wall (NAGGW) Act of 2015, National Strategy for REDD+ and recent United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) meeting of COP15 in Cote d’Ivoire,” he said.
An Independent energy consultant, Dr. Funmi Coker said engineers have to identify how, where and when best to deploy available technological solutions, balancing technological, economic and social factors as well as develop and implement engineering design standards and practices for changes in climate.
He emphasised that they must also develop and implement low GreenHouseGas (GHG) emission power supply, transportation systems and industrial facilities, low GHG agriculture, human and agriculture waste management and energy efficiency systems.
Coker said climate targets and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) cannot be achieved without engineers, calling for a multidisciplinary approaches to respond to climate crisis and recommended that policy makers, professionals and stakeholders must come together to build on fundamental scientific evidence and rapidly implement solutions that are affordable, efficient, equitable, respectful and inclusive for all.
The Chairman, Engineering and Environment Management Services ltd, Prof. Samuel Adefila explained that climate change challenges could only be managed through trans-disciplinary application of Political, Economic, Social Technological, Legal and Environmental (PESTLE) as a framework to ensure the sustainability of human civilisation on earth.
