Climate change: Environmental experts, CSOs, stakeholders strategise on attaining SDGs



Critical environmental experts and stakeholders on Thursday ended a three-day brainstorming to strategise on how to address environmental issues in Nigeria towards the realisation of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on climate change.


The 13th National Council on Environment (NCE) organised by Federal Ministry of Environment with the theme “Promoting Environmental Advocacy: A Panacea for Achieving the Next Level Agenda” started in Kaduna on Tuesday with the technical session ending on Thursday, while a communique containing the way forward and next line of action is expected to be issued on Friday.


The National Council on Environment is a forum for interaction and brainstorming on issues of environment and the challenges thereof with a view to generating policy frameworks capable of confronting thisconcern headlong.
Addressing the delegates to the Council on Thursday, Minister of State for Environment, Mrs Sharon Ikeazor described the meeting as a strong forum for aggregating and ventilating ideas on issues concerning the environment as contained in the memoranda submitted by stakeholders.


According to the Minister, “environmental issues are placed on the front burners of many nations especially, the global bodies such as the United Nations and it’s agencies and regional bodies like AU, ECOWAS, EU among others.


“Prioritization of environment arose from the realization that man is solely responsible for all that had led to climate change through activities such as land degradation, air pollution and biodiversity loss.
“A clarion call for all hands to be on deck for advocacy for environmental sustainability which would be a forerunner to all economic and social activities must be made now and continue to be sustained,” Sharon said. 


The Kaduna state Commissioner for Environment and Natural Resources, Ibrahim Hussain noted that, advocacy was a strong tool for promoting sustainable environmental protection practices, hence the call on all stakeholders to come up with realistic strategies to mitigate issues around environment.


“Many people in urban and rural areas may not be aware or are negligent of their environmental responsibilities. Willful destruction of forests, poaching, dumping of refuse in drainages, illegal mining, buildings within areas liable to flooding, etc are common place in our communities.
“But through comprehensive advocacy programs, I strongly believe that we can educate, sensitize, mobilize and convince people to be aware and responsive to their environment. This will make enforcement and compliance easier,” he said.

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