‘SDGs addressing challenges posed by climate change’

Vice Chancellor of Igbinedion University, Okada (IUO), Prof. Lawrence Ezemonye, yesterday urged new thinking and policy reengineering in Nigeria’s quest to address climate change.

According to the environmentalist, the current perplexities in the nation’s ecological matrices demand new thinking, policy re-engineering and legal audacity for effective inter-relations.

Ezemonye, who spoke during the maiden lecture of the institution’s Centre for Climate Change and SDGs with the topic, “Global Transformation, Emergencies, Dilemma and Decisions”, stated that global warming was a global issue with devastating impacts that affect ecological, economic, socio-political and environmental perturbations.

He stressed the need for a critical exposition that charts a course to change the narrative on the menace’s resilience, vulnerability and adaption, with SDGs providing the panacea.

“The Nigerian environment is characterised by a combination of natural features that makes it highly fragile and uniquely susceptible to emerging environmental perturbations,” the don added.

The guest lecturer and professor of Sustainable Development at the European Centre for Peace, United Nations University of Peace, Belgrade, Serbia, Richard Michael Pagett, said the United Nations-sanctioned Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were to end poverty of all forms globally by 2030, particularly terminating hunger, achieving food security and improving nutrition to promote enduring agriculture.