Stan Okenwa
5 November 2009
In keeping with her bright dream of transforming Lagos State into a mega city as soon as possible, a collaborative effort that would assist the state to learn from the wealth of experience of the Swedish Government to find a means of building a sustainable city is emerging. The deal is also coming with a synergy that would confront the threat of global warming and its attendant climate change on the state.
The partnership coming at government level is being designed to allow to share common platform on healthy and sustainable environment, waste disposal system, waste reduction, recycling, pollution monitoring and control and greenery.
Experts say Sweden which presently heads the European Union and is in a position to influence the decisions of developed nations towards the developing nations in terms of threat of climate change at the fast approaching Copenhagen summit in Denmark.
Speaking at a one-day seminar organized by the Lagos State Government in collaboration with the Swedish Embassy, Abuja, held in Lagos on "Sustainable City Development-No Time To Waste", Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, said the human family was at once confronted with immense opportunities for greater progress and improvement as well as real dangers to the survival of the specie on "our vulnerable home mother earth."
Fashola noted that "the reality of the threat of unsustainable development has become a major source of worry to all discerning minds the world over", adding that "declarations from world summits on the environment had emphasised the need for sustainability and respect for precautionary principles to protect the environment".
"Our economic, social, industrial and personal activities have no doubt impacted negatively on the ecosystem resulting in global warming and change in climatic condition of the world. Using Lagos State as a case study, a retrogressive glance at the climatic condition of the State over the past years, clearly reveal significant changes in weather, temperature, rainfall, wind and precipitation patterns"..
Fashola, who spoke through his deputy, Mrs Sarah Sosan, said the solution to reclaiming the environment is: "We must change our attitude to the environment and re-order the use of nature's gift. The methodology requires everybody to be involved. The most potent weapon to achieve this is advocacy".
He commended the Swedish Ambassador to Nigeria for the commitment he has shown in the partnership, saying the state government has embarked on public awareness and enlightenment as one of the cardinal priority through the launch of massive media campaign which have been impacting positively on the attitude of the people towards the environment.
Responding, Swedish Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr Peter Lindgarde, said his country has a long history of focusing on the environment. He said since the oil crisis of the 1970's, a national focus on energy conservation and efficiency measures as well as development of renewable energy has been present.
He said the energy conservation and efficiency measures have been strengthened with the increasing awareness of the threats of climate change. "We have reduced our dependency on oil dramatically. Today, 40 percent of the energy supply is from renewable sources".
Lindgarde said Swedish industries have been at the forefront of developing energy efficient technology solutions, saying important applications have for example been urban infrastructure solutions for water, energy and waste.
The ambassador said the Swedish experience of working with integrated urban planning and environmental technology in a holistic approach is presented through a platform known as SymbioCity.
Continuing, he explained that "the SymbioCity concept builds on the increased environmental and economic performance that can be achieved by using the different parts of the urban infrastructure systems to strengthen each other".
Lindgarde noted that sustainable urban development cannot only help boost local economies and quality of life, but also play a strategic role in transforming economies to a competitive and welfare-producing zero-carbon economy, stressing that "striving towards sustainable urban development thus makes sense not only from an environmental perspective but also for economic reasons".
While recognizing the fact that the state has enormous urban renewal challenges, he noted that some admirable steps have already been taken to tackle the problem of climate change. "The new city being developed, the Eko Atlantic City expected to combat the effects of climate change by reclaiming land lost over the years to the Atlantic, represents a significant effort and has received international recognition".
In his speech, Commissioner of the Environment, Dr Muiz Banire, said the effect of climate change especially on Africa and other developing nations of the world has reached an alarming stage and there is the need to urgently address it frontally by all known means. He said although Africa is incidentally, the least contributors to the high emission of green house gases, "they are currently the most vulnerable to its effects".
Banire admitted that "ours is an environment where quite a lot still require to be done to reclaim the environment from degradation, monitor and regulate development to ensure great reduction in global warming".
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