A coalition of civil society organizations (CSOs) has addressed the Nigerian government to propose and explore partnerships for collaboratively implementing the African Activists for Climate Justice (AACJ) project throughout Africa. Through this collaboration, the group seeks to offer Africans a stronger voice and ensure that they are properly included in the global climate change conversation.
According to the alliance, climate change is having the greatest impact on Africa. This, they added, was what sparked the concept for the AACJ campaign, a €50 million, five-year effort sponsored by the Dutch government that would be implemented in eight African countries to raise awareness and seek climate justice for their people.
The group lamented that many Africans still see the issue as a myth or something beyond human comprehension due to their lack of understanding of the matter. They discovered that these people do not understand how to connect some of the most common safety issues, such as farmer-herder confrontations, which are common in Nigeria, to climatic instability.
“We have contributed as little as 3% to the global climate crisis,” says Kenneth Akpan, the AACJ project’s Nigerian coordinator, emphasizing the need to prioritize Africa while making climate change decisions.
Following a courtesy visit to the Minister of State for Environment in Abuja, Akpan stated that his team is eager to work with the Nigerian government to help the country meet its National Determined Contributions (NDCs) targets.
This is because the government cannot carry out these tasks on its own; rather, everyone must be involved in developing responsibility, assisting them in comprehending and executing their part of the agreement.
The project, according to Akpan, began in Nigeria in 2021 and has already made tremendous progress. Among the campaign’s achievements are convincing politicians to pass the Climate Change Act 2021, mobilizing and educating the public about community development, and encouraging a group of young attorneys to become climate change activists.
He concluded by stating that, as part of their efforts to expedite the program, his organization is looking at working with Nigerian legislators to increase their capacity to successfully make the proper policies to help the country reach its climate goals.
In the same way, Mr. Benson Simba, head of the AACJ project’s program management section, acknowledged that Africa needs aid in addressing its climate concerns, particularly how to adapt to its harmful impacts.
Simba feels that the Nairobi Declaration, a product of the just finished African Climate Summit held by the Kenyan government, accurately reflects Africa’s interests, particularly the emphasis on loss and damage.
This is something he wants Nigeria’s Environment Minister and his counterparts in other African countries to remember as the world ready for this year’s global climate change conference, which will be held in Dubai from November 30 to December 12.
He also believes that land rights, environmental justice, and climate financing are critical issues for Africa that should be addressed in the global climate change debate.
Simba emphasized that his organization, Pan African Climate Justice (PACJA), has created a lot of solutions, especially related to agriculture, to assist those in need in adapting to climate change. According to Dr. Izaiq Salako, Nigeria’s minister of state for the environment, the country is one of the ten most susceptible to the harmful repercussions of climate change.
As an outcome, he conveyed his heartfelt gratitude to the Dutch government for its support of the AACJ effort, particularly the initiatives in Nigeria. He assured them that the government was going to keep supporting them as they worked toward accomplishing their objectives.
