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How to mitigate effects of climate change, by experts

By Lawrence Njoku, Enugu
11 September 2017   |   4:15 am
Experts have called on the Federal Government to show more commitment in addressing climate change, saying the causative factors were mainly man-made.

Experts have called on the Federal Government to show more commitment in addressing climate change, saying the causative factors were mainly man-made.

During a seminar, organised over the weekend by the Open Society Foundation (OPS) in partnership with the African Climate Change Adaptation Initiative (ACCAI) at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), the professionals situated the root causes of flooding and related menaces in the country as environmental distortions, adding that the development has assumed an alarming dimension and was potent to stir future crisis.

Dean in the Faculty of Natural Applied Sciences, Godfrey Okoye University, Enugu, Prof. Chidi Uhuegbu, urged government to strictly implement environmental laws to mitigate the situation.

He stated that man-made factors such as, indiscriminate felling of trees, building on water channels, gas flaring and use of fossil fuels had resulted in flooding and other climatic changes in the society.

He advised local councils to access special intervention funds created by the United Nations to tackle the menace.

According to a lecturer in the Department of Agriculture, Federal University of Agriculture Makurdi, Benue State, Dr Okechukwu Isikwe, government and stakeholders must put in place a framework for standards and an efficient code to control human activities in the country.

He said government should start investing more on renewable energy sources such as solar and wind instead of fossil fuels that pollute the atmosphere with carbon dioxide.

The Director of ACCAI-UNN, Prof. Franscisca Okeke, said the indiscriminate felling of trees that absorbs carbon dioxide and releases oxygen to the atmosphere was one of the problems that had increased the effect of climate change in the country.

“There is need for more sensitisation of the people on the effect of climate change. This is one of the aims of this seminar. In developed countries, felling of a tree is a serious offence that the offender must pay fine as well as replace. But the situation is different in Nigeria. Government has good ideas and laws on environment but the problem is implementation,” she noted.

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