Former House of Representatives member, Chief Sam Oniugbo, has urged African nations to be consistent in the implementation of policies aimed at mitigating the impact of climate change.
The climate change advocate, who participated in the just-concluded CoP29, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Abuja.
He said that many African countries were trying to enact Climate Change Acts to guide them in policy directives.
“More importantly, there must be consistency in policy pronunciation and implementation. To avoid policy somersault there must be a framework to guide its implementation,“ he said.
He said that African nations went to the Cop 29 to negotiate for a good deal and not to beg for money.
The former lawmaker said to have access to money from the international bodies, it was important to follow due process and stringent conditions.
Onuigbo said that the 54 African nations contribute only three per cent to climate change, but they bore the brunt of climate change.
“Africans are on the disadvantage side, we are not supposed to be bearing the devastation coming from climate change.
“Climate change is human activities like pushing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. This has been done by developed countries who have been using coal and fossil fuel over the years,“ he said.
He said that Africa and other developing nations at CoP 29 demanded the developed world to contribute 1.23 trillion dollars per annum to tackle the issues of climate change.
“After a long negotiation what was approved was 1billion dollars per annum and to now work to attain the 1.23 trillion over a period of time,“ he said.
On the part of Nigeria, he said President Bola Tinubu was working assiduously to mitigate the impact of climate change on Nigeria.
“Tinubu had clearly said that Nigeria will use climate change to attract investments to the country
“He also said that the developed world must bring money to the activities of climate change,“ he said.
Onuigbo said that to achieve that he had attended several meetings in Dubai on the issue of tripling renewables and activities of the carbon market.
He said the conversation Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) policy of the current government was a far-reaching action to tackle climate change impact on the country.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Onuigbo sponsored the Climate Act in the 9th National Assembly. It provides the legal and administrative framework for Nigeria’s climate change policies and actions (NAN)
