There has been a slow
progress in climate discussions over the years with global leaders
now realizing it's no fluke after all but, they never needed to wait this
long to know that what the activists and scientists were calling their
attention to was indeed real. While in high school, I could only associate
the word "refugees" with war but today, the word is more dominant with
climate change and quite disappointingly, the next generation may only know
refugees to be victims of climate change.
As a kid, I watched water sink into the earth when it rained
but today, the water runs atop the earth as flood
even after it has stopped raining. It is also not surprising that the flood
of Syrian refugees into Europe has spurred European leaders to call for an
"ambitious, robust and binding global climate deal". This was the mood set by
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker who frankly
observed that "climate refugees will become a new challenge - if we do not act
swiftly." He made these comments during Junker's first annual State of the
Union speech to the European Commission in which he pointed out that climate
change is "one of the root causes" of the ongoing refugee crisis out of
Syria. The drought in Syria a few years ago reportedly displaced about
2 million people which contributed to the current crisis and that number is
part those now knocking on the doors of the EU as refugees.
A senior British political leader, Lord
Ashdown, succinctly captured the situation thus "the Syrian crisis is
simply a dress rehearsal for an immense climate-fuelled
disaster, which I think will begin to be felt within the next decade,
perhaps within five or six years from now." Indeed, Nigeria had an ugly
experience of what climate change could do in 2012 when an unprecedented
flood disaster happened affecting about 30 of her 36 states. In 2013, the
director general of the National Emergency Management Agency(NEMA),
Alhaji Sani Sidi, said of the 2012 flood, "We recall what happened last
year, the unprecedented flood which led to the displacement of 2.1 million
people across the country and it affected over seven million people. It led
to the death of over 363 persons". The hardship the displaced citizens passed
through is better imagined than experienced. Of course the flood owed much
to the release of excess water from the Ladgo dam in Cameroon
without the prior knowledge of the Nigerian authorities but the accumulation of
excess water in the dam was just a clear indication of how swift climate
change impact could be. Now, as of August 2015, three of Nigeria's 19
northern states have seen 86, 710 hectares of land valued at N1.58 billion
destroyed and a total of 20, 477 homes also affected while about 50, 000
people have been rendered homeless as well as 11 deaths recorded all
because of flooding owing to just heavy rains and this figures are expected to
increase massively across the country in a few weeks. We simply cannot
continue like this! We can't keep walking the path of defeat and shame of
our inactions as it's time to simply get off the beaten track.
As we prepare for the talks and binding
agreement in Paris this December the Nigerian government must look into
immediate/short term solutions for this scourge as we
can't simply watch citizens being displaced and killed year after year by
floods and other climate change consequences and only offer a well-intended
but meaningless pity. Nigeria has to embark on massive afforestation
as its deforestation rate is clearly the highest in the world. The new
President, Mr. Muhammadu Buhari, has ordered the encouragement of the use of
Liquefied Natural Gas(LNG) by most Nigerians for domestic purposes to
reduce the rate at which trees are cut in search of firewood. Mr.
Buhari has also ordered the federal ministry of Environment to look into
the 1920 Lake Chad report which proposed ways of saving the lake- which has
shrank from 33,000square kilometers to 300square kilometers in the last two
decades- from drying up. This Lake provides water to about 68 million
people from communities in Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon and Niger living around
the area and economic activities has since been grounded. There's also
the idea of introducing Clean Cookstoves to help reduce emissions,
which is still starched in controversy, and these, in addition to the Great Green
Wall project which the ex-President started to stop desert encroachment in
most states especially in northern Nigeria are all laudable projects that
will have an immense positive impact on the environment butbeyond that, we
have to enact new laws and enforce existing ones that will help us protect
our environment. We have to make laws that will make it the mandatory duty
of all government ministries, departments and agencies as well as private
firms to be concerned about the state of their respective environment. It
has to be in form of a mandatory Corporate Social Responsibility.
Again, the government has to jump to the
chance of investing in renewable energy as we have
the limitless potentials for that. It is also
important that the federal, state and local governments in Nigeria take a
closer look at their drainage channels to not just get them free of
materials that block free passage of flood but also construct adequate
improved ones. But then, Nigeria and other countries in Africa can only do little
to stop the looming crisis of climate refugees as Africa contributes just
about 3% of global emissions but ironically, the continent is at the
receiving end of the actions of big emitters like the US, European Union and China
whose combined emissions stand at 51% meaning that what the
US, EU and
China say or agree to at the COP 21 in Paris is where Africa must pay attention
as it will directly affect the continent. So, it will be wise if we carefully
study the situation in the aforementioned places and draw up a proposal of
the way which those countries should go that will favour Africa as the
climate crisis really is a global challenge and must be solved collectively.
It was good to know that Junker wanted it
to "be very clear to our international partners" that the
EU "will not sign just any deal" at the UN climate
talks in December. This he concluded would include a strong global
emissions reduction target of at least 60% by 2050. It shows that the world and more
pointedly, the big emitters, have been woken up to their responsibilities
by the Syrian refugee crisis. However, analysts believe that unless the
UN climate talks agree to make sharper short term goals, we may risk
soaring over the 2 degree mark and that's what Africa has to do at the COP 21, to
push the big emitting nations to agree to great short term goals and also
ensure their implementation. The negotiations in Paris will be more crucial
than any in the history of the COP and African leaders must be alert, aware
and resolute in their stand for a short term solution to climate change
as that will make the nations more committed in achieving the targets. But
just as it is for Africa, the EU should indeed, do all within its powers to
come to the COP with an implementable and effective short term plan that will
have an immediate impact on climate. It is important to state here that
if EU refuses to act strongly, they should be ready to welcome
overwhelming number of climate refugees from Africa in a few years. Not even the walls of
Hungary or the police barricades of Croatia will stop the army of climate
refugees that will swim to the gates of EU and US. As Lord Ashdown recognized,
"Once the crisis is upon you, it's too late to start working out your
priorities". At the Conference of Parties in Paris, we have a chance to make history
and secure the future for the next generation or forever remain villains for
ending the possibility of the continued existence of humans in this planet.
CHIAGOZIE UDEH is the Eco-Generation
Ambassador to Nigeria,
Climate Justice Ambassador, Climate Tracker and a young Radio Host.
Climate Justice Ambassador, Climate Tracker and a young Radio Host.
