The 16th National Council on Environment opens in Abuja on Tuesday, with experts at all levels of government consulting on environment issues.
The forum serves as a means for the government to expand the landscape of reasoning to generate policy frameworks capable of confronting the emerging menaces in the environment.
It will set the tone for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, a testimony of Nigeria’s global commitment to building climate change resilience for sustainable development by addressing all major forces that worsen environment challenges.
“I am much delighted to welcome our distinguished stakeholders in the environment sector to the 16th meeting of the National Council on Environment. Our theme for this important event, “Pursuit of Zero emission; a new trajectory towards global environment renaissance” has been carefully chosen to reflect the reality of what seems to be unnecessary hype by a layman yet with fundamental consequences already routing our communities at such a catastrophic dimension that the continuous comfortable existence of humanity is already been threatened.” Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Mr. Hassan Musa, said.
Mr. Musa stressed that efforts were made toward ensuring that all production forces were preserved for sustainable national development.
“The government is mindful of the goals of environmental sustainability, a major objective of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as there is a global consensus that climate change is increasing the frequency and intensity of the extreme weather and climate events affecting the country’’ Mr. Musa explained.
.“Our reliance on climate-sensitive natural resources and development gaps are at the greatest risk of climate hazards. It is well established that if left unattended, climate hazards will increase poverty, worsen inequalities, exacerbate food insecurity and cause health problems, amongst others.” The Permanent Secretary stressed.
The Permanent Secretary, therefore, urged stakeholders to take advantage of the opportunity of the forum to jointly address the issues, through submitted memoranda and other matters that may arise in the course of the Council meeting.
The National Council on Environment is Nigeria’s highest policy-making body on the environment sector aimed at deliberating and guiding consultations on environment issues.
The theme for this meeting of the National Council on Environment event is “Pursuit of Zero emission; a new trajectory towards global environment renaissance”.
Dominica Nwabufo
