Chuks Oyema-Aziken
The Taraba State Commissioner of Environment and Climate Change, Hajia Aishat Barde has unfolded her plans to bring solutions to environmental challenges and climate change in the state.
She said in an interview on Monday that the Climate Change Unit in the State Ministry of Environment and Climate Change will be upgraded to the status of a department.
The new Department of Climate Change would feature units such as Adaptation, Mitigation and Vulnerability, Barde stated.
She said: “To a considerable extent, the people of Taraba State are ignorant of climate change effects, causes and attendant dangers. Hence, I shall sensitise Tarabans through awareness campaigns and sensitisation workshops, while targeting the three arms of government, clearly spelling out their roles and responsibilities.
“I will involve youths, being the powerful agents of change, and women, as the most vulnerable to climate change impacts, in afforestation programmes and all other climate change related endeavours in the state.”
Barde started her career as a staffer in the Department of Climate Change of the Federal Ministry of Environment, from where she was recently deployed to the National Council on Climate Change (NCCC), a council under the Presidency vested with the highest authority in mainstreaming climate change affairs in Nigeria.
Barde is a geologist, environmentalist, climate change and gender activist, as well as greenhouse gas waste expert.
