The Federal Government has vowed to deepen efforts to tackle climate change and its attendant effects to accelerate sustainable development.
The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Mr Festus Keyamo, gave the assurance at the closing ceremony of the 2024 edition of the Regional Climate Outlook Forum for West Africa and the Sahel on Friday, April 26, 2024.
In his closing remarks, the minister assured that the Federal government would deploy climate-smart predictions and warnings to enhance the socio-economic development of the citizens.
Specifically, he said the government would continue to take seriously the issuance of disaster early warnings for its citizenry, to de-risk sectorial activities and avert losses.
The minister recalled that the government through NiMet had a public presentation of the Seasonal Climate Prediction (SCP) early in the year.
According to Keyamo, SCP is an early warning tool that highlights vital weather and climate information that may affect socio-economic activities in air, land, and water transportation.
He said the SCP also gives useful information on agriculture, water resources, disaster management and mitigation, health, tourism, sports, power, and energy.
“A similar event was recently held by the Nigerian Hydrological Services Agency (NIHSA) where the Annual Flood Outlook was released to Nigerians.
Keyamo said the reports would help to forestall the reoccurrence of flood disasters witnessed in the country in 2022.
“In 2022, we had one of the worst cases of flooding in a decade.
“For weeks, the movement of people and goods between the northern and southern parts of the country was severely disrupted.
“After the flood period, millions of people had lost their homes and livelihoods, properties worth millions of Dollars had been destroyed.
“Investments in farms and other agricultural products had disappeared, and lives had been lost,” he said.
Keyamo said the outcome of the regional climate outlook forum would be a great planning tool for governments and policymakers across the region.
“Experts and researchers in meteorology and climate sciences from across the West African sub-region and the Sahel had dedicated their energy and intellect to develop a comprehensive forecast for the region, targeting the coming rainy season.
“Just as the general airspace is a continuum in aviation, weather and climate events are also transboundary, hence the need for us to work together irrespective of boundaries.
“We should downscale the outcomes of this forum to our local and rural communities to achieve the United Nations’ target of Early Warning for All (EW4ALL) by 2027,” Keyamo said.
The minister assured that Nigeria would continue to support regional efforts to mitigate the impact of climate change and encourage weather and climate-smart sustainable development.
By Gabriel Agbeja
