By Shannon Gwamna
National Climate Change conference COP27 and Beyond kickstarted in Abuja, yesterday.
The conference was organized by Corporate Accountability &Public Participation African (CAPPA).
The programme is holding from 29th -30th of September 2022.
Speaking at the event, the Executive Director of CAPPA, Akinbode Oluwafemi in his welcome address said, the agenda of the event was for participants to brainstorm on issues that are crucial to all.
“ Climate change is now an indispensable reality and experts have confirmed that Africa carries the biggest burdens of the climate crisis”.
He explained that, since COP27 is holding a month away from the 27th session of the conference of parties (COP27)to the United Nations Conference on climate change (UNFCCC) billed fro Sharm El-Sheikh in Egypt, the programme is a prologue to that event.
“CAPPA decided to bring together under this roof frontline community representative from different parts of Nigeria impacted by climate change, civil society, development experts, academic, government representatives, labour unions and media among others to discuss and chart the way forward “.
He said, “the intergovernmental panel on climate change (IPCC)2022 report released earlier this year warns that going by current tends,by the year 2030 about 250 million people may experience water stress in African, with up to 700 million displaced.
“ This figure is half of current 1.4 billion population of African”.
He further explained, that the ominous message from recent IPCC is that climate change will contribute to the global burden of disease and premature deaths.
“It also advocated for adaptive capacity needs to be improved especially in middle income countries including Nigeria to meet this challenge”, Oluwafemi noted.