Sodiq Ojuroungbe In this exclusive interview with SODIQ OJUROUNGBE, the Minister of State for Environment, Dr Iziaq Salako, sheds light on the Federal Government’s key initiatives to preserve Nigeria’s rich biodiversity while addressing the challenges posed by climate change, among other topical environmental issues. What are the ministry’s plans to address the challenges posed by climate change, especially in light of the increasing number of environmental disasters and extreme weather events occurring? Climate change has been described as perhaps the most important crisis that the world is currently facing. And it affects virtually everything, especially our agricultural outputs.
As you said, it affects the weather, transportation, and virtually everything that humans engage in. So, it’s a very central issue for the Federal Ministry of Environment and has a cut-cutting implication for several other ministries, including health. For the Ministry of Environment, therefore, our approach is two-pronged – adaptation and mitigation.
With these two, we focus on how to mitigate the effect of climate change, which means how do we reduce the factors contributing to what we see as climate change, which is reducing greenhouse gas emissions? So, with this, you see the policies of government revolving around transportation. Also, for example, when we talk about compressed natural gases, which are less emitting, you will see the policies of the government around energy. We also .
