In an attempt to assist Nigeria in realising its just-transition goal, the GreenWaka and Carbon Literacy Project (CLP) have wrapped up preparations to launch a significant climate education initiative in the country.
With this new arrangement in place, the two groups will work together to engage with various stakeholders, notably those in the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) sectors, to lower the nation’s emissions and reach its net-zero goal by 2060.
Nigeria is a very strategic country in Africa, says Michael Mbaike, GreenWaka co-lead, in response to concerns about the partnership’s importance and how it will help Nigeria achieve its just transition ambition.
“We must understand the influence that we have when we do anything and how it affects every other country on the continent,” he stated in Abuja shortly after receiving the endorsement letter, emphasising the importance of Nigeria taking the lead in this respect.
According to him, it is vital for Nigeria, as an oil-dependent country, to consider alternative sources of income to avoid socio-economic disaster and accelerate the transition to a more sustainable future for everyone.
He applauded the CLP for putting its trust in his group to pioneer this great endeavour in the country, urging all industry actors to cooperate to ensure that Nigerians become carbon literate so that they can contribute to and facilitate their path towards a just transition.
In the same vein, Phil Korbel, co-founder and director of advocacy at the CLP, believes that the need to improve the amazing skills and energy of the Nigerian people to take on this responsibility is becoming increasingly urgent.
“Nigerian solutions at all levels of society are vital if a just transition to a low-carbon economy is to be achieved,” he said.
Korbel hinted that the carbon literacy project is a globally unique, adaptable framework for a day’s worth of climate action learning and doing and has been devised so that it can be deployed anywhere.
He went on to disclose that the Carbon Literacy Trust, a Manchester-based non-governmental organisation (NGO), oversees the framework’s implementation and helps organisations provide carbon literacy training that is relevant to their people, no matter whom they are or where they live.
The CLP’s senior representative expressed confidence that GreenWaka has the potential to be a CLP pioneer in Nigeria and pledged that he and his organisation would devote both time and resources to developing carbon literacy training by Green Waka and its partners.
“We will assist them to explore the full reach and many models of our training that exist at the moment, mentor training design, and support the development of a sustainable business model for them to grow their training offer,” Korbel stated.
By Etta Michael Bisong, Abuja
