As part of efforts to mitigate the impact of climate change in the country, the Nasarawa State government has promised to plant at least 5 million trees by the end of 2023.
The exercise is aimed the regenerating the state’s forests and biodiversity.
The State Commissioner of Environment and Natural Resources, Kwantu Yakubu, said this Tuesday in Keffi at a stakeholder’s workshop organised by the Federal Ministry of Environment.
The event titled, ”Stakeholders Engagement on National Implementation of Nigeria’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC)”, was for climate change stakeholders in the North-central region to meet and deliberate on ways to curtail the impact of climate change in the area.
The commissioner said climate change is important to the region considering its location.
“The issues of climate change are of great concern to us in view of our strategic location as a belt and the ever fast depletion of our natural resources, that is used mainly to serve a bigger metropolis in the face of poverty that has continued to circle around the greater majority of our people,” Mr Kwantu said.
Climate change is a long term shift in normal weather and temperature conditions, believed to be caused by human activities such as carbon emission and fossil fuel burning. It poses a big threat to livelihoods as it affects almost all sectors of the global economy.
Currently, the world is moving towards limiting global warming to 1.5 degree through different climate actions such as reduction in the fossil fuel usage, smart approach of farming, mass transit, among others.
The Nigerian government has already pledged to cut down its GreenHouse Gas (GHG) emission and attain net zero emission by the year 2060.
Mr Yakubu said that in trying to control some activities that will help in emission reduction in Nasarawa, the state will intensify its ban on charcoal production in order to prevent deforestation.
“The Nassarawa State Government through the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources in collaboration with security agencies and relevant stakeholders is intensifying the enforcement of the ban on charcoal production and the use in commercial quantities to curb forest depletion and save biodiversity,” he said.
“We are confident that in the next three years, so much result will be demonstrated in Nassarawa State as we strive to achieve net-zero long before 2060.
“We are confident that in the next three years, so much result will be demonstrated in Nasarawa State as we strive to achieve net-zero long before 2060.”
The director, Department of Climate Change in the Federal Ministry of Environment, Iniobong Abiola-Awe, in her opening address assured that several engagements with relevant stakeholders have been ongoing at the national level for effective implementation of the NDC which will help to mitigate the impact of climate change.
She added that one of the key objectives of the workshop is to obtain inputs and project ideas from the states to be incorporated in the NDC implementation plan.
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