LAGOS - Ogun State government has inaugurated an inter-ministerial committee on climate change to provide a strong platform that will ensure that the state is well prepared and fortified against the direct and indirect effects of global warming on its economy and the social well-being of its people.
Ola Oresanya, acting Commissioner Ministry of Environment, while inaugurating the inter-ministerial committee in Abeokuta, said the committee is to facilitate efforts at mitigating carbon emissions in all sectors, help the state to adapt to the effect of climate change as well as harness economic and green growth opportunities arising from the change and encouraged public awareness and action on climate change.
While noting that the earth is experiencing the increasing intensity of unprecedented extreme weather events such as heat waves, floods, wildfires, drought, disruption and almost unpredictable rainfall patterns with the migration of animals and vectors with the concomitant advent of novel diseases that are pandemic in nature, Oresanya added that the state had to take the lead in Nigeria by setting up the inter-ministerial committee to tackle the climate change problem.
He, therefore, charged members of the committee to take their assignment with a high level of commitment so that at the end of it, they will be able to provide the state government with the much-needed response to climate change in terms of policy development and other legal frameworks as well as the statewide plan of action and multi-sectorial programmes and projects, especially in the area of adaptation, mitigation and communication.
Olatunji Egbemuyiwa, Director of Special Duties and Climate Change, Ministry of Environment, who is the Secretary of the committee thanked the state government for finding members worthy of the important assignment and pledged their total commitments.
The 19-member committee which is domiciled in the Ministry of Environment has representatives from the Ministries of Forestry, Agriculture, Works and Infrastructure, Education, Science and Technology, Transports, Industry, Trade and Investment, Ogun-state Waste Management Authority, Physical Planning and Urban Development, Community Development and Cooperative, Rural Development, Nigeria Meteorological Service and Ogun State Emergency Management Agency.
