Stakeholders Seek Inclusion In Climate Change Policy Structure

Employers’ organisation and the Organised Labour have demanded for inclusion into the newly constituted National Council on Climate Change, NCCC established under the Nigeria Climate Change Act 2021.

This was part of a ten point resolution reached at a Social Partners Policy Retreat on Climate Justice through Just Transition held in Calabar, the capital of Cross River State, southern Nigeria with the support of the International Labour Organisation, ILO.

The stakeholders identified as social partners demanded for “nominees from the Nigeria Employers Consultative Association, the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, and the Trade Union Congress, TUC of Nigeria to be included in the National Council on Climate Change.”

They further demanded for delegate status at global and regional climate change engagements, noting that “our demands are consistent with the spirit of the Paris Climate Change Accord and the Silesia Agreement signed by Nigeria at the COP 24 in Katowice, Poland.”

Other Resolutions

Other resolutions reached at the retreat included that the Nigerian Government should collaborate with the social partners for increased public awareness on the provisions of the Nigeria Climate Change Act as well as urged the legislative and executive arms of government across all the states to domesticate the Climate Change Act.

The retreat further called for funding for research to gather data on climate change, types of green jobs or alternative jobs and just transition.

The social partners reasoned that the research would serve to “generate usable data on the impact of climate change on workers and employers; explore opportunities for green jobs and just transition needs assessment to enhance climate change advocacy initiatives.”

Protecting Workers

The stakeholders, who participated in person and online at the retreat, stressed the need for regular capacity building to keep abreast with global, regional, and national trends on climate change as well as expand advocacy to include workers at the states and local government levels and non-governmental organisations.

The participants demanded for statutory financing through carbon tax and green tax to tackle the challenges of green jobs deficit and just transition gaps.

“Funding is a major challenge to addressing green jobs deficits and just transition gaps and so we are demanding that a significant percentage of statutory climate change revenue particularly carbon tax and green tax to finance upskilling and reskilling of workers as well as aid employers of labour retrofit their production processes to align with the demands of the emerging green economy,” the participant urged.

The participants emphasized the need for workers to be involved in the transition from fossil fuel economy to green economy by expanding and strengthening existing social security frameworks.

Confidence Okwuchi