Governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu has unveiled a five-year Climate Action Plan for the state.
Gatekeepers News reports that Lagos State Governor, South-West, Nigeria, Babajide Sanwo-Olu has unveiled a five-year Lagos State Climate Action Plan – a policy document that will make the State project impacts, coordinate responses and achieve resilience under challenging climate conditions till 2025.
The Second Five-Year Plan 2020-2025 is an updated action document succeeding the 2015 Climate Change Policy and Action Plan adopted by Lagos after the landmark Paris Climate Change Conference, which encapsulated the State’s vision for achieving a zero-carbon Lagos.
With the new document, the State Government will be responding to prevailing issues threatening the realisation of zero-carbon ambition, which are energy use, waste management and transport. They account for 90 per cent of total greenhouse gas emission in Lagos. The summit also focuses on the relationship between climate change and delivery of critical infrastructure transportation, agriculture and healthcare sectors.
Sanwo-Olu said the increased impacts of natural disasters felt across the world in the past year showed that climate change was no longer a speculative danger, but a real, phenomenal threat to humanity and safety of the environment.
Sanwo-Olu launched the new action plan at the 8th Lagos State International Climate Change Summit organised by the Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources at Lagos Continental Hotel, Victoria Island.
Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Gboyega Akosile quoted Sanwo-Olu to have said:
“This summit is an opportunity for us to present new Lagos State Climate Action Plan to the world. Painstaking effort has gone into it, and we are proud that we have been able to come up with a document that has robust plan for the environment. We have successfully updated the climate change action document adopted by Lagos in 2015 to reflect the targets and goals of the Paris Climate Change Agreement. The final product is the ‘Lagos Climate Action Plan: Second Five-year Plan 2020- 2025.
“The updated Climate Action Plan reveals three main areas of threat to our zero-carbon ambition in Lagos, which are energy, waste and transport. They account for 90 per cent of our total greenhouse gas emission. We are now more adept at incorporating climate-friendly thinking into everything we do as a Government. Our goal is to entrench the action plan across the entire State, and get Lagosians imbibe the culture of climate-awareness in their homes, workplaces and lifestyles.
“Lagos has been outstanding in the annual environmental reporting on the global disclosure system by the CDP, an international non-profit that measures the commitments of investors, companies, cities, states and regions to reducing their greenhouse gas emissions. For three consecutive years, Lagos has emerged with a B score, which is well above the African and Global average score. This annual reporting has helped us greatly in understanding where we are and what still needs to be done.”
The Governor thanked his predecessors for laying the foundation of developing climate action plan, paving the way for consolidation by his administration.
