By Chuks Oyema-Aziken
Stakeholders have called for synergy at the federal, state and local governments to produce credible climate change data.
The call was made at the just concluded 3-day Stakeholder’s Consultation Workshop on Data Analysis towards the preparation of Nigeria’s First Biennial Transparency Report (BTR1) to the UNFCCC in Abuja.
The workshop was organized by the National Council on Climate Change Secretariat with the support of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
Mr. Arum Nnamdi of the Enugu State Ministry of Environment and Climate Change said data collection should cascade down to the local governments, hence capacity building is needed for those at sub-national.
While commending efforts of the National Council on Climate Change, he said more needed to be done to carry the sub-national components along as data is sourced from the localities.
The Deputy Director and Head of Climate Change Department said states must have people that understand the issues of climate change and sponsor’s.
He noted that the Enugu State Governor, Dr. Peter Mbah is very much interested in green environment.
“Our governor has shown political will to tackle climate change, by establishing smart schools. The governor is taking the state back to its original design.
Also speaking, Alhaji Umar Saleh Anka, Director, Environment and Climate Change, Kano State Watershed Erosion and Climate Change Management Agency called for a bottom approach for data procurement to support development planning.
He emphasized need for a clearly defined relationship between the national and sub-national components to make credible data available .
He stressed that they should be inter- ministerial and departmentel synergy at the state and federal levels.
The BTR preparation is an obligation to countries who are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) of which Nigeria is a party to.
The Abuja workshop was attended by Climate Change Focal Person and Sectoral Data Compiler from the States.
