Following the deliberations at the 27th Session of the Conference of the Parties (COP27) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Egypt, Sterling One Foundation has asked the Nigerian government not to waste any time in adopting resolutions that would quickly mitigate the effect of the crisis in Nigeria.
In a statement titled “Waste No More Time” and signed by Olapeju Ibekwe, head of the Foundation, it also urged the international community to fulfil its obligations to African countries and others who are particularly affected by the crisis but who contributed little to climate change.
Ibekwe said: “We must waste no more time because we have little or no time at all to waste, this is the time to accelerate action on climate change,” she said.
Sterling One Foundation had in recent times organised stakeholders, government and experts in roundtables in a bid to galvanise comprehensive action towards mitigation.
“Time is running out, and nature is in emergency mode. There has never been a more urgent need to revive the damaged ecosystems than now and we need urgent action to address these pressing issues,” Ibekwe said.
While urging government to shift from “harming the planet to healing it”, the Foundation said this can only happen through concerted efforts and strategic partnership across government and development organisations.
Referring to the consequences of climate change which is now evident in flooding as recently experienced across Nigeria, Olapeju bears her concern on the lack of consistent push for lasting solutions and warns of the danger of inaction and strategic coordination on the part of government and the policy community.
In the just concluded Conference of Parties (COP27), strong submissions were made on how to accelerate actions that will enable countries actualise the Paris Agreement century goal of emission cut to 1.5 degree Celsius.
The Paris Agreement was reached in 2015 among 193 countries plus the European Union. It contained an ambitious global goal to reduce carbon emission to 1.5 degree Celsius; at 1.5 degree Celsius by the end of the century, the planet can be considered safe for human and plant habitation.
According to a UN Climate Change report published in October 2022, the “combined climate pledge of all 193 parties under the Paris Agreement can at best put the world on track for around 2.5 degree Celsius of warming at the end of the century, it is still far from the 1.5 degree Celsius target,” spelling the need for urgency.
