Minister wants less pressure on environment

The Minister of Environment, Amina Mohammed, has advocated for ways through which the environment and ecosystems will be subjected to less pressure.
She said one of the ways was to be environmentally conscious bearing in mind the concept of sustainable consumption and production.
The minister stated this in Abuja recently during a seminar on Greening Africa’s Industrialisation, organised by the National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA) in collaboration with the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA).
She, however, commended the commission for producing a comprehensive report that would serve as a vehicle for the promotion of sustainable, social and economic transformation of a green economy in Africa and for choosing Nigeria as one of the countries where the project would be launched.
She noted that although the environment was a source of raw materials and energy, as well as life support system, it had come under serious threat arising from man’s quest for economic and social developments.
The Director-General of NESREA, Dr Lawrence Chidi Anukam, said the way forward to mitigating the impacts of climate change, environmental degradation, attendant decline in agriculture and other economic activities globally, was to give attention to industrialisation, especially green industrialisation.
The managing director of an environmental consultancy firm, Mr. Kayode Oluwagbuyi, in a paper on Greening the Economy, said that greening industry promoted sustainable pattern of production and consumption that were resource and energy efficient, low carbon and low waste, non-polluting and safe, and would produce products that were responsibly managed throughout their life cycle.
Oluwagbuyi also said amongst others, greening industries promotes security, health and safety of jobs and reduced costs through improved productivity.