Coalition of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and experts in academia have called on the federal government to give priority to climate adaptation rather than mitigation to overcome the challenge of climate change’s impact on women.

They made this known at the ongoing 23rd National Council on Women Affairs in Calabar, Cross Rivers State.

Led by the development Research and Projects Centre, (dRPC), during a panel discussion on Nigeria’s preparedness in mobilizing resources for climate adaptation for women in the agricultural sector and economic empowerment organized by the federal ministry of Women Affairs, the coalition pointed out that adaptation holds more benefits for overcoming the consequences of the phenomenon.

Dr. Sa’adatu Umar-Baba of the Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Kaduna State University revealed that Africa and Nigeria’s focus on climate mitigation remains a wrong priority as both the continent and the nation are producing insignificant percentage of global emission but suffer significant consequences from climate change because of the actions of most developed nations.

‘’Although Africa strikes a better balance between adaptation and mitigation than other regions, mitigation accounted for 49% of climate finance flows, followed by 39% towards adaptation, and 12% to dual benefits.

“This contrasts with other regions globally where adaption represents only 7%–16% of total climate finance. Accordingly, this is a positive trend, given that Africa is disproportionately high vulnerability to climate change, yet funding for both adaptation and mitigation must increase by at least six and 13 times, respectively if the continent is to make any significant progress’’ She said.

Baba-Umar urged the federal and states government to invest more in climate adaptation such as providing the needed national adaptation farmwork which will clarify the country’s approach to its national adaptation process and serves as a reference point for bringing together various adaptation plans from the difference sectors for decision making.

‘’Nigeria has several national action plans and policy frameworks to enhance its adaptation plans, however, most of the times, we focus on climate mitigation which has far less ability to resolve the challenges we are facing, especially for women who are the most vulnerable and who are affected most by the impact of climate mitigation’,’ she adds.

Earlier, Deputy Director Gender, federal ministry of agriculture, Mrs. Ifeoma Anyanwu, disclosed that subnational levels must adopt and domesticate the national policy on gender in agriculture as a tool for implementing interventions to prevent women in agriculture from the impact of climate change.

She said eleven elements highlighted in the national policy, if implemented by the 36 states, would go al ong way in improving the nation’s adaptation capacity and enhancing women’s economic empowerment in Nigeria.
In his presentation, Director Economic Services federal ministry of women affairs, Alhaji Idris Muhammed, revealed the readiness of the federal government to partner with local and international organizations working in the areas of climate mitigation and adaptation to enable the nation maximize opportunities, especially for the Nigerian women.

Contained in a statement by the dRPC Director, Partnerships Development and Communication, Hassan Karofi, the panel discussion hopes to enlighten participants at the National Council on Women Affairs take informed decisions on climate interventions that will benefit women especially those in agriculture.