The Federal Ministry of
Environment is to begin the implementation of a succession plan to involve the youth in climate change activities, an official has said.
The acting Director in the Forestry Department of the ministry, Mr Salisu Dahiru,  said this in an interview with newsmen in Abuja recently.
Dahiru, who is the Lead Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) Negotiator for Nigeria, said the ministry had included some younger officers to participate in the ongoing climate change conference in Poland.
The ongoing 19th Session of the Conference of the Parties (COP-19), United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference (UNFCCC) in Warsaw, Poland, which started on Monday is expected to end  November, 22.
Dahiru said: “The Ministry of Environment has given the directive that we must begin to implement a robust succession plan.
“There has been a concerted effort to involve young officers in the team going (to Poland); these are officers that are two or three years in service.
“Nobody teaches negotiation, you have to learn it; you have to be there to participate and get the experience.
“We normally do training annually to prepare us and we have a number of professors that are on the team.’’
Dahiru, however, expressed optimism that the next crop of officers that would take over from the senior ones would be knowledgeable enough to participate in the climate change negotiation business.
He recalled that his first participation in the climate change negotiation process, in 2009, exposed him to environmental issues, saying that if an officer worked very hard, he would excel within two years in the process.
According to him, the Conference of Parties (COP) on Climate Change is a yearly event that affords countries the opportunity to negotiate on climate change issues.
Dahiru observed that the entire negotiation process would be on as long as the issue of climate change remained a threat to human existence.
However, he said that specific milestones had been achieved in the areas of mitigation and adaptation to climate change during the past conferences.
He listed those achievements to include Bali Action Plan, Copenhagen Accord and Durban Platform, which, he said, were names or tags given to specific decisions of each of those conferences.
He said: “Each COP will have a set of achievements at the end of the negotiations.
“Countries go to these negotiations (conferences) to protect their own interest because climate change is about development; some of the decisions that are usually taken have implications for your development.
“They have implications for your security, for economic welfare and well-being and they have implications for the effort that you need to undertake to ensure that your development is in tune with global best practises.’’

L-R: Director, Ogun State Emergency Management Agency, Mr Timothy Oyenekan, Zonal Coordinator, National Emergency Management Agency (Nema), South West Zone, Mr Iyiola Akande, General Manager, Ekiti State Emergency Management Agency, Mr Osasona Olufemi and National Coordinator, Centre For Disaster and Crisis Management, Mr Kolawole Hamzat, during the Consultative Forum on Camp Management in Ibadan, recently.
Photo: NAN