The Federal Ministry of
Environment has said it would focus more on the issues of deforestation, green growth and green industry in 2015.
The Minister of Environment, Mrs Laurentia Mallam, who led other officials of the ministry, disclosed this at the Reviving the Climate Change Donor Group meeting held in Abuja.
Mallam solicited more support from the development partners, saying that the ministry needed their support to address environmental challenges facing the country.
“We want you to join hands with us, collaborate with us and help us to build a healthy Nigeria,’’ she said.
The minister told the meeting that the Federal Executive Council had approved some policies that would help to address the impact of climate change in the country.
Mrs Nana Mede, the Permanent Secretary, said the ministry would prioritise the issues of deforestation to create awareness on the dangers of trees felling.
Mede said that President Goodluck Jonathan had recently inaugurated the Great Green Wall (GGW) Project aimed at tackling deforestation in the 11 frontline states.
She said the 11 frontlines states were Kebbi, Zamfara, Gombe, Yobe, Jigawa, Adamawa, Bauchi, Katsina, Borno, Sokoto and Kano states.
“The minister will be in Katsina on Wednesday to inaugurate the GGW project, which will make people aware of the dangers of felling trees, burning of bushes and the need to plant trees.
“We also want to focus on the green growth and green industry.
“To this end, we realise we have to collaborate with other agencies; I want to inform you that we have started talking with the other key line ministries to achieve our focus.
“We have started talking with the ministry of water resources – in terms of developing irrigation infrastructure; ministries of trade and investment, health and power.
“We are collaborating with the ministry of power because the issue of renewable energy is critical; so there is already a committee set up at ministerial level to look at some of these issues,’’ she said.
The permanent secretary added that the ministry had also developed a plan on the involvement of the private sector, saying “this is where we need awareness, advocacy and campaign.
“We have designed a plan, which we intend to present at the next meeting; the kind of campaign we need on the electronic media, print, bill board and other media.
“We also need to sensitise Nigerians on how their activities can contribute to climate change; we hope to increase awareness on these issues,’’ she said.
Mede solicited the support of the development partners to contribute to the 21st Conference of Parties (COP) on climate change coming up in Paris, France later in the year.
She said that Nigeria wanted to shine at the conference and represent Africa very well, adding that work had already started in that direction.
She explained that, however, technical support from development partners was needed to achieve that goal.
Also speaking, Ms Francoise Marie-Nelly, the World Bank Country Director, said the organisation had in 2014 conducted two important studies in Nigeria on climate change.
The two studies, according to her, are on Climate Resilient Development and Assessing Low-Carbon Development in Nigeria.
Marie-Nelly called for effective collaboration with other key line ministries in addressing climate change and other environmental challenges in the country.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that meeting reviewed the achievements and challenges in the sector in 2014.
There were also discussions on methodology to capture and track donor programmes and to agree on the priorities areas for 2015.