Nigeria would need about $140 billion by 2030‎ to effectively take action on climate changes, Mr Benoit Bosquet, Practice Manager Africa, Environment & Natural Resources at the World Bank has disclosed.

He stated this in his presentation ‎at the ongoing workshop on Climate Change Knowledge Immersion Workshop in Kaduna.

In his presentation, he said, “In order to take effective climate action, which means both reducing greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to climate change, Nigeria needs about $140bn by 2030.  This is underpinned by Nigeria’s Nationally Determined Contribution and studies conducted by the World Bank in 2013.  Action is technically feasible and economically beneficial but the sooner it is undertaken, the better.  The longer it will take to undertake climate action, the more expensive it will be.‎”

He said, climate change could also increase the global poverty head count by more than 100 million people by 2030 describing it as a global challenge.

“Climate change and poverty are intimately related.  The poor will be affected the most, in particular, women, children and elderly citizens.  It is highly encouraging to see so many youth represented here at the workshop in Kaduna.  They are the leaders of tomorrow and will ultimately shape the future of our climate within Nigeria and globally” he stated.

Earlier in his remarks, the Honourable Minister Federal Ministry of Environment Amina J. Mohammed said “the impact of climate change that has befallen ‎us is. Largely our making if we fail to prevent runaway climate change, the earth will not disappear.”

Represented by the National Coordinator NEWMAP, Alhaji Dahiru Salisu, the Minister said, “it is consequent to this realisation that countries‎ around the world including Nigeria decided to take action through several formal initiatives, as far back as 1972 to date, with Nigeria signing the Paris Agreement last year.

“This Agreement by countries of the world is our commitment to join hands towards‎ speedily reducing the greenhouse gas emissions. We also agreed to building resilient communities to the menace of climate change, protect lives and livelihoods as well as improve health”.

The minister reiterated that translating formal Agreements for climate action can only ‎be successful when the stakeholders including the public agree to cooperate and collaborate towards taking concrete actions that will reduce emissions and promote adaptation to climate change.