The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Mr Festus Keyamo, has said that the federal government has concluded plans to roll out early warnings on climate change threats, especially for rural areas, to mitigate economic losses.
Keyamo was speaking at the closing ceremony of the 2024 annual edition of the Regional Climate Outlook Forum of the seasonal forecasting of agro-hydro-climatic characteristics of the Sahelian and Sudan regions of West Africa co-hosted by the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) and the the Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency (NIHSA) over the weekend in Abuja.
He said, “One of the greatest challenges of the 21st Century is climate change, extreme weather events and food security, to mention a few. To combat these challenges, it has become imperative that weather and climate information are not only accurate but also produced and disseminated early. Thus the need for early warnings.
“In 2022, we had one of the worst cases of flooding in decades. For weeks, the movement of people and goods between the Northern and Southern parts of the country was severely disrupted. By the end of that flood period, millions of people had lost their homes and livelihoods, properties worth millions of dollars had been destroyed, investments in farms and other agricultural products had disappeared, and lives had been lost.
“The Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria has taken seriously the issuance of early warnings for its citizenry to de-risk sectoral activities and avert economic losses because our economy can’t afford further losses due to effects of climate change and we are taking the campaign to the grassroots for Nigerians who do not have privilege to access some private information.”
Also speaking, the Director General of NiMet, Prof Charles Anosike, said the recommendations that were deliberated upon had been adopted for immediate action to avert the effects of climate change, especially now that the rainy season was approaching.