Climate Change: Lagos govt unveils five-year ‘action plan’

The Lagos State Government on Tuesday unveiled a five-year Climate Action Plan (CAP) 2020-2025, towards combating the challenges of climate change.

Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu told the state’s eighth International Climate Change Summit in Victoria Island that the CAP was geared toward achieving the ultimate goal of a zero-carbon Lagos.

The governor noted that prior to the Paris Climate Change Conference of 2015, the state government set out to develop a Climate Change Policy and Action Plan.

He said the Climate Change Policy and Action Plan encapsulated the state’s vision for combating the challenge of climate change and achieving the ultimate goal of a zero-carbon Lagos.

According to him, the state government has successfully updated the document to reflect the targets and goals of the Paris Climate Change Agreement.

”The product is the ‘Lagos Climate Action Plan: Second Five-year Plan 2020- 2025’.

”I am delighted to let you know that Lagos is the first state in Nigeria to have developed a Climate Action Plan to help achieve an emission-neutral city by 2050. The emergence of this updated plan establishes Lagos as a national leader.

”Our gratitude goes to the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, which Lagos State signed up for in 2018, and which has helped us update our Climate Action Plan in line with prevailing realities.

”This year’s summit is for us an opportunity to present the new Lagos State Climate Action Plan to the world. Painstaking work has gone into it, and we are proud that we have been able to deliver a robust document,” he said.

The governor said the updated CAP showed that the three main areas of threat to zero-carbon ambitions in Lagos State were energy, waste and transport.

He said that energy, waste and transport accounted for 90 per cent of the total greenhouse gas emission, hence the focus of the summit.

Mr Sanwo-Olu said the summit had, over the years, served as a catalyst for the Climate Action Plan: a choate and well researched document that encompassed what must be done to make the state less vulnerable to climate change, more carbon and climate resilient.

He acknowledged the foundation laid by his predecessors, under whom the work of developing a Climate Action Plan and launching a Climate Change Summit begun.

ALSO READ: Climate Change: Nigerian researchers develop solutions for troubled West Africa’s coasts

The governor said that successful projects arising from previous editions of the summit included an annual Tree Planting Exercise, the development of gas-powered Independent Power Plants, the deployment of a multi-modal transport system across the state, to mention a few.

”We are now much more adept, as a government, at incorporating climate-friendly thinking into everything we do as a government in Lagos State.

”Our goal now is to extend this awareness to the entire populace, to get Lagosians to imbibe the culture of climate awareness in their homes, workplaces and lifestyles.

”We have a rich pipeline of projects being undertaken to address climate change and fast-track the attainment of our zero-carbon goal, across transportation, healthcare, energy, agriculture and waste management.

”Multiple seemingly-modest interventions successfully implemented across a wide variety of sectors can and will add up to substantial positive impact in terms of climate change adaptation and mitigation,” he said.

The Consul General of Switzerland Embassy, Thomas Schneider, congratulated Lagos on the unveiling of the Climate Action Plan, noting that effects of environmental problems knew no borders.

Mr Schneider said the call for action must be reinforced, given the significant impacts which degradation of agricultural land had had on global food security.

He reiterated the commitment of Switzerland to international conventions and protocols on climate change in its bilateral dealings with Lagos. (NAN)