African Countries Lack Resources To Tackle Climate Change – Nigeria
No commentsNo country in Africa south of the Sahara has the money or the other resources needed to cope with the effects of climate change, Nigeria says.
By Michael Simire
Mr Chuka Odom, Minister of State for Environment, Housing and Urban Development, was speaking in an interview at the UN climate change talks in Poznan, Poland.
“No national government in sub-Saharan Africa has the amount of resources needed to checkmate the ravaging effects of climate change”, he said.
“National government budgets cannot address the magnitude of the devastation it causes.’’
He said the developed countries had a great role to play in assisting African countries to cope with the impacts of climate change, considering their financial situations.
He said: “It is the industrialized countries that are carrying out major oil contracts and Clean Development Mechanism projects in developing countries. Yet they are not forthcoming in assisting.”They should be the ones in the forefront of research into new and environmentally friendly technologies that will aid oil exploration without causing major damage to the environment and necessarily emitting greenhouse gases’’, he said.
The Minister said Nigeria was already feeling the impact of climate change. The government would require about N8 billion to address gully erosion in only two states of the south east.
“The mitigation and adaptation funds established to cushion the impact of climate on developing countries has not assisted any African country’’, he added.
