Nigeria pursuing low sulphur, ozone friendly refrigeration policies

As part of the efforts to reverse the adverse effects of land and air pollution, the Federal Government has said,among other things, that it is pursuing aggressively low sulphur and ozone friendly refrigerator policies.

The Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Environment, Ibukun Odusote, who stated this at an event recently to mark the 2019 World Environment Day (WED) with the theme ‘Beat Air Pollution’, said the ministry is working to make the environment safe and conducive for productivity.

The permanent secretary, represented by the ministry’s Director of Human Resources, Daniang Peter, said the ministry has intervened in areas of pollution and waste management by creating waste recycling projects in various states of the federation.

She said the theme is apt in view of the threat posed by pollution worldwide, especially in cities of the world where industries keep growing, releasing dangerous gasses and pollutants into the air without effective and commensurate efforts at mitigating this growing negative trend.

She said it is frightening that 92 per cent of the world’s population breathe unclean air which cost the global economy a whopping $3.5 trillion yearly.

“Most worrisome is the issue of ozone layer depletion that has over the years gradually exacerbated the ever increasing world temperature with the resultant effects on agriculture, human health and biodiversity in general,” she said.

Also speaking, the Director of Planning, Research and Statistics, Dr Bolatito Obisesan, said the celebration of WED across the world shows that the world has accepted that collective efforts are required to beat air pollution.

“More importantly, there is an awareness and acceptance that solutions to our environmental challenges must integrate the social, economic and environmental dimension in tandem,” she said.

“The biggest changes and effects Nigerians and all humans can experience from air pollution are not real damage to the environment but also bad changes in the quality of life and severe issues to human health,” she said.