Lagos climate summit seeks creation of Green Fund

LIKE in other countries, stakeholders, who met at the just concluded 7th Climate Change Summit, organised by the Lagos State government has called for a need to create a Green Fund Initiative for the state.

This was part of the 24-point recommendations reached during the conference.

Although, it was reiterated that climate change was a global common problem, the experts, however, called for sustainable approaches to keeping the phenomenon at bay, as humans and indeed living things need the nature to survive.

It was also observed that green economy makes a lot of business sense and going green is a profitable business. It also provides new opportunity for global cooperation in the area of promoting energy mix, including renewable, for sustainable socio-economic and environmental development; that civilization challenges provide an opportunity to transiting to green economic development path; that Lagos, as a coastal city, is highly vulnerable to the impact of climate change and that rapid and unguided urbanization, poor institutionalization of public mass transportation with unsatisfactory commuter/freight demand are responsible for rapidly growing use of private vehicles in Lagos.

Tree planting is an effective mitigation measure for reducing the impact of climate change. Urban reforestation, in particular, is a laudable approach to improving carbon sequestration of urban areas and mitigating climate change-induced urban heat island.

Climate proofing agriculture and its resilience to variations in climate is critical for sustainable food security in the state and that there are a number of research opportunities in climate change that could support the state in its pursuit of sustainable development.

The summit noted that research outputs are not properly disseminated to policy makers for appropriate decisions, while sectoral research approach to climate change issues remains the order of the day.

It also noted that civil society organizations have been active in advocating the imperative for coherent state and national responses to climate change.

Specifically, the summit agreed that Eko Atlantic City Project is potentially an effective adaptive response to mitigate the impact of climate change on the coastal city, Lagos, and the use of only private sector resources for the execution of the project is an innovative way to ensure its sustainability.

The observations led to suggesting 24-point recommendations, including that government should continue to invest in climate change to promote environmental sustainability and assured future for human existence in the State.

Lagos as mega city must commit to address greenhouse gas emissions reduction; including introducing Controlled Parking Zones to deter the use of private vehicles and establishment of carbon registry to monitory GHG emission levels, among others and that the state should further enlarge its mass transit programme to transit it into an integrated, coordinated and functional public mass transport system, complimentary road furniture’s and a comprehensive urban transport policy driven by empirical research study.

Besides, it was recommended that urban development should be controlled through appropriate measures that will reduce dependency on motorised vehicles and reduce the increasing need for urban infrastructure.

Lagos State should continue to showcase the benefits of its tree planting initiative, as a climate change mitigation and adaptation measures to other parts of the country.

It should look into the feasibility of enriching its remaining forest areas in the context of REED+ to create financial value for carbon stored in forest, address the drivers of deforestation, enhance its carbon sequestration for climate change mitigation, and even provide additional means of livelihoods for the concerned communities and should develop a climate change information management system in which all research outputs are catalogued and widely disseminated on a regular basis.

Technology should be put in place to reduce GHG emissions from waste in the State.

Youths should be encouraged and involved in the development of climate change mitigation technology.