6 June 2008
Lagos — President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua yesterday said his administration would leave no stone unturned in its effort to achieve zero tolerance on gas flare in the oil and gas sector.
The president's reassurance came just as the minister of environment, housing and urban development, Arc. Halima Tayo Alao lamented the damaging impact of gas emission and other disasters associated with climate change on the food and economic potentials of the country.
Yar'Adua who was represented at this year's World Environment Day celebrations in Abuja by the minister of environment, housing and urban development, Halima T. Alao said government is intensifying efforts towards implementing relevant policies for the achievement of low carbon emmission as part of national mitigation and adaptation measures.
"Government will continue to pursue the policy of economic diversification not only in consonance with our obligation as an oil producing country and party to climate change convention and its protocol but also to save oureconomy from the hazards that could be consequent on monolithic economy soley dependent on oil as a main source of the country's revenues", he said.
The president said government is also pursuing measures to ensure sustainable use of our forests and prevent desert encroachment through a programme of reforestation and afforestation in parts of the country.
Highlighting the problem posed by climate change, the President said the desert encroachment in the north has progressed on an alarming rate while the coastal area of 153,000 sqKm, providing home to nearly 23m Nigerians in the Niger Delta is under threat of ocean inundation.
He said government is working towards mainstreaming the issue of environment and climate change in the 7-Point economic agenda.
Minister of environment, housing and urban development, Arc. (Mrs. ) Tayo Alao, in her own speech said climate change has adverse affects on agriculture and consequently undermines the food security of the nation.
She said federal government is proposing a policy that would promote low carbon emission, afforestation, energy and forest conservation as a way of managing the impacts of climate change in the country.
The minister urge Nigerians to always pay great attention to matter affecting the environment, adding that people
should join hands with government to seek a reduction in green house gas emission.
Commenting on the negative impact of climate change, Alao said the country has suffered terrible drought, crop
failures, rising sea level within coastal areas and high rate of water borne diseases.
Chairman of Senate Committee on Environment and Housing Development, Senator Grace Folashade Bent said the high rate of gas emmission has been as a result of the recent upsurge in industrialisation globally.
According to her, the impact of climate change poses a great threat to Nigeria's food security strategy and needed to be addressed systematically.
"Any effort to address the problem must require a multi-sectoral approach. One major way to effectively tackle the menace of climate change is for countries to implement the provisions of the Kyoto treaty which spelt out strategies and targets for reduction of green house gas emission", she said.
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