Human activities, primarily the burning of fossil fuels for transportation and energy
production, are increasing the concentrations of greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the
atmosphere – trapping heat and causing global warming, climate change and sea
level rise.
Nigeria-Canada Climate Change Capacity Development Project
END OF PROJECT COMMUNIQUE
MAY 2004
Human activities, primarily the burning of fossil fuels for transportation and energy production, are increasing the concentrations of greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the atmosphere – trapping heat and causing global warming, climate change and sea level rise.
Nigeria is highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and the country’s
fragile economy makes the local ability to respond difficult. Recent studies have
shown that climate change may be already impacting on Nigeria (e.g., flooding,
delayed rains, enhanced desertification, increasing bush fires, food insecurity, etc.). A preliminary needs assessment showed that Nigeria had a low level of awareness and activity on climate change, an institutional framework that needed strengthening; and poor information sharing and dissemination systems to facilitate action.
Therefore, the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) provided almost $1.4 million dollars to build Nigeria’s capacity to respond to climate change and its challenges. The project was implemented by Global Change Strategies International (GCSI) and the Nigerian Environmental Study/Action
Team (NEST), and ran from September 2001 to May 2004.
The goal of the project was to strengthen the capacity of Nigeria to
participate in global efforts to combat climate change.
The project focused on four activity areas
- Strengthening Capacities of Federal Institutions
- Targeted Awareness Raising: Building a Support Base for Climate Change Action
- Inventory and Mitigation Assessment
- Vulnerability and Adaptation Assessment
Over the last few years, the project has been able to achieve its goal. Many of the barriers to effectively implementating climate change policies and programs have been identified and are being addressed (increased capacity in the Federal Ministry of Environment, increased awareness about the importance of climate change with stakeholder groups, up-to-date country-specific science on climate change). Although the results of these efforts are not yet mainstreamed, there have been clear achievements.
A wide range of stakeholders have been involved with the information and findings of the project – both as groups involved in delivering the outputs (i.e. research centres, community based organizations (CBOs), Federal Ministry of the Environment - FMEnv) and those receiving the information from the findings (i.e. participants at targeted workshops such as federal and state policy-makers, donor agencies, media, industry, environmental groups, educators, etc.). Capacity has been built among all the groups engaged in the project. In many cases, the
Nigeria-Canada Climate Change Capacity Development Project
Participants have become dedicated advocates themselves, particularly among the Nigerian media, environmental groups and legislators. Sourcing out of activities ensured capacity was spread widely across the country and that there were a large range of beneficiaries and target audiences.
Some of the key products produced by or facilitated through the project included:
- Nigeria's First National Communications.
- Draft Climate Change Policy for Nigeria.
- Draft Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) Manual for Nigeria to take advantage of the global resources available to help countries respond.
- National GHG Emission Inventories up to the year 2000.
- Atmospheric Research and Information Analysis Laboratory (ARIAL) and trained students on mitigation analyses research, inventory updates and climate modeling/statistical downscaling.
- Mitigation options analysis in four key sectors: energy; land-use change & forestry; agriculture; and, rangelands & savannah.
- Vulnerability and Adaptation (V&A) studies in five key sectors: energy, industry and financial; human health and settlement; freshwater ecosystems; agriculture, food security, forestry and biodiversity; and, coastal and marine ecosystems. Each of which considered gender equity issues associated with V&A.
- Education and outreach activities that reached thousands of Nigerians and products to increase awareness of climate change in the future (e.g., Communications Guide on Climate Change for the Media; Comic Book on Climate Change for school age children).
This project has been successful in establishing a foundation - a core capacity - for Nigerians to further climate change work. Capacity has been built and assessments and products have been developed that can be used in the future to further build Nigeria's response to climate change.
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