President Bola Tinubu has called for earnest effort and action by citizens, stakeholders, institutions, and development partners to safeguard the environment and ensure a win-win transition to a prosperous and clean economy future for all.
President Tinubu stated this in his message to mark the 2024 World Environment Day which has as its theme: 'Land restoration, desertification and drought resilience', noting that this was very significant particularly for Nigeria where the scourge of drought threatens parts of the country.
The World Environment Day was established by the United Nations during the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment in 1972 for raising awareness on environmental matters.
About 40 percent of the planet's land is degraded, according to the projections of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification, with direct impacts on half of the world's population.
The UN Convention to Combat Desertification also says the number and duration of droughts have increased by 29 percent since 2000, warning that without urgent action, droughts may affect over three-quarters of the world's population by 2050.
According to a statement by presidential spokesman, Ajuri Ngelale, the president, in his determined march towards Nigeria's aspiration to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060 had established the Presidential Committee on Climate Action and Green Economic Solutions, which he chairs, to oversee the nation's climate mitigation and adaptation efforts as well as green economy initiatives.
The President also approved the establishment of Nigeria's first Green Industrial Zone, Evergreen City, which is poised to be the leading manufacturing hub in Africa for renewable energy technologies, green solutions, and climate-adaptation technologies.
The President restated his commitment to ensuring the planting of 25 million trees by 2030, not only to protect the environment but also to provide opportunities for Nigeria's youths within the green-economy value chain.
While calling for a more proactive approach to protect the land and ecosystem through afforestation, water conservation, and the cessation of indiscriminate felling of trees, Tinubu emphasised that citizens must heal begin by healing the land and its people in order to heal the world.
