Last week, I listened intently to Nigeria’s Minister of State for Environment as she delivered a speech during the ministerial press briefing on the environment sector and priority areas of the Federal Ministry of Environment. Since the transfer of former Minister of Environment, Mohammad Mahmood Abubakar, to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Sharon Ikeazor has been the sole marshal of the Ministry of Environment. I went to the press briefing to learn first-hand how the Ministry of Environment perceived the climate challenge and what its climate action strategy is.
My social enterprise work is deeply connected to the environment, and I have made a conscious effort to see how I not only keep abreast of happenings in the environment sector but do my bit to influence what policy, decision-making and finance do to advance climate justice. The majority of the people I work with in my agri-tech business are smallholder farmers who are some of the most affected populations of the world when it comes to climate change. Therefore, I went to the briefing with a mixture of anxiety and hope to see what the minister had beyond rhetoric and politics that will advance climate justice in a meaningful way.
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While climate change impacts the entire world, it does not impact everyone equally. Many researchers have outlined how climate change disproportionately affects non-wealthy countries despite the countries contributing a small share of global emissions. According to the World Resources Institute, climate change may push up to 130 million more people into poverty by 2030. Moreover, even within climate-vulnerable countries, it is low-income communities – often marginalised due to systemic inequalities and often dependent on subsistence agriculture and the environment for their livelihood – that are more likely to be impacted by the extreme weather disasters and resource scarcity that are exacerbated by climate change. This is what fuels my interest and activism for climate justice, because Nigeria’s poor are the most vulnerable to the vagaries of weather and the challenges of resource scarcity or depletion.
My expectation at the briefing was for the Ministry of Environment to demonstrate a thorough understanding of who is impacted by climate impacts in Nigeria. From droughts and floods to oil spills, there are multitudes of people; families and communities thrown into poverty traps. Who are they? I also needed to find in the ministry’s perception of the crisis a knowledge of who is responsible, as well as who has the resources and power to make change.
Climate justice is about addressing the inequities experienced by these communities by truly identifying and understanding the impacted, the responsible parties and where the resources and power to act lie.
I listened to Sharon Ikeazor to find answers and expected that she was going to lean towards realistic climate justice, because I know that shifts in decision-making, power and finance can make 2022 a pinnacle year for climate justice, especially for countries like Nigeria. These shifts should include support for locally led adaptation and ecosystem restoration, finance for loss and damage from climate change, and a recognition of indigenous land rights. And as with all climate stories, leaders must follow through on commitments to climate justice with meaningful and effective implementation.
The minister asserted that: “In the World Climate Change Vulnerability Index, Nigeria is classified as one of the 10 most vulnerable countries. This poses a serious threat to poverty eradication and sustainable development. This is because the country has a large rural population that lives on climate-sensitive economic and development sectors (agriculture and fisheries) and natural resources (such as water, biodiversity, grassland).” This resonated with me immensely as it is exactly the logic I hoped will be shared by the minister.
“The cost of not addressing climate change or not adapting to it is very high, and certainly the social consequences are enormous,” She added.
The minister went on to talk about realisation of the Climate Change Act in November, 2021, as one of the most critical steps taken towards climate change mitigation and adaptation. The most exciting part of this act, for me, is by far the provision for the establishment of the National Council on Climate Change, which will have the powers of policy making and decisions on all matters related to climate change in Nigeria.
Also, the minister also said: “The act establishes the Climate Change Fund which will help Nigeria address issues of adaptation, loss and damage, innovations to reduce GHG emissions, development of technology for renewable energy and transition to a green economy, etc.” This was music to my ears because the details of this act surely set Nigeria on the path towards carbon neutrality and climate justice.
Overall, I had the tremendous pleasure of not only listening but aligning with the minister on many fronts in terms of the strategies and activities of the ministry, especially going forward with the deliberate and effective clean-up of Ogoni and revitalisation of the communities there. The erosion and flood control solutions, including intelligent warning systems and targeted infrastructure, are commendable too. I also greatly appreciated the minister’s commitment to an empowered circular economy with adequate waste management and pollution control, especially as the world tries to tackle plastic menace. On conservation, ocean, afforestation, desertification and wildlife, the minister was not left behind as she spoke about strategies for a fair ecological balance with great biodiversity with a special focus on fighting wildlife crime and enhancing wildlife management in conjunction with the UNODC. As she spoke about the Great Green Wall (GGW), I sat up and savoured the many initiatives with the hope that more could be done to advance Nigeria’s progress, especially with agroforestry and syntropic farming solutions that are sustainable for local communities.
Sharon Ikeazor understands the dynamics of climate justice and has demonstrated superlative environmental consciousness and leadership qualities of a minister capable of deliberate action in a sector where promises have outweighed action. I hope President Muhammadu Buhari looks no further than the hounourable minister of state in order to fill the vacant senior minister position, as I feel Sharon Ikeazor can take the necessary steps to move past promises and put the country on a more sustainable path, especially for the most vulnerable Nigerians.
