Only innovation, partnership can save the climate – Expert
By Uche Anunne
An environmentalist, Chief Sam Onuigbo, says only partnership among countries and innovation into cleaner energies can save the climate from further devastating damage.
Onuigbo, former member of House of Representatives, said this on Monday in Abuja during an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
The All Progressives Congress Chieftain represented Ikwuano/Umuahia North and South Federal Constituency and former chairman, House Committee on Climate Change.
“To save the environment and mitigate climate change, we have to collaborate, network and innovate. There is nothing any country can do alone.
“We must innovate and collaborate because anything that has to do with the environment is borderless,’’ Onuigbo said.
Onuigbo sponsored Nigeria’s Climate Change Act.
Climate change has been largely blamed for some of natural disasters including flooding, desertification, drought, and the recent wild fire that ravaged parts of California, U.S.
He said the recently concluded World Future Energy Summit and 15th International Renewable Energy (IRENA) Assembly in Abu Dhabi, offered Africa can explore new areas of global partnership in renewable energy.
He said as the continent that bears the larger brunt of climate change, they also offered the continent the chance to deepen existing clean energy networks and investment opportunities.
Onuigbo said President Bola Tinubu had shown the desire for transition to clean energy such as his commitment to the Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) project and liberalisation of the energy sector by signing the Electricity Act.
In June 2023, Tinubu, signed the Electricity Act 2023 (“The Act”), repealing the Electric Power Sector Reform Act, 2005.
The Act empowers state governments to participate in areas previously reserved for the federal government, particularly transmission and distribution.
“The Summit offered Mr President the opportunity to speak to the world on investment opportunities in areas as CNG and electric vehicles, the Evergreen City. There are profound declarations,’’ he told NAN.
According to the National Assembly Most Valuable Parliamentarian Hall of Fame, 2019-2023, Tinubu’s clean energy initiatives are yielding results as international investors are showing interest in Nigeria’s lithium deposits to boost battery manufacturing.
He said there was a link among poverty, food security, diseases and climate change, saying mitigating the later would help in addressing the former.
For instance, he said, access to clean electricity would enhance economic activities and their attendant multiplier effects in families` income and wellbeing.
“You cannot talk about them in isolation. When there is desertification, drought—climate change impact has implications for sources of livelihood and this engenders poverty and insecurity’’, Onuigbo told NAN.
Onuigbo is a member representing South-East, Governing Board, and Chairman Committee on Security, Climate Change and Special Interventions, North-East Development Commission(NEDC). (NAN)(www.nannews.ng)
Edited by Joseph Edeh
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