To mark World Environment Day on Wednesday, President Bola Tinubu has called for earnest effort and action by citizens, stakeholders, institutions, and development partners to safeguard the environment and ensure a win-win transition to a prosperous and clean economy for all.
World Environment Day, established by the United Nations during the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment in 1972, was an important moment for raising awareness on environmental matters.
The theme of this year’s occasion, ‘Land restoration, desertification, and drought resilience’, was very significant, particularly for Nigeria, where the scourge of drought threatens parts of the country.
According to the projections of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification, about 40 percent of the planet’s land has been degraded, which directly impacts half of the world’s population.
The UN Convention to Combat Desertification also said the number and duration of droughts have increased by 29 percent since 2000 and that without urgent action, droughts may affect over three-quarters of the world’s population by 2050.
According to a release by his spokesman, Ajuri Ngelale, Tinubu, in his determined march towards Nigeria’s aspiration to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060, established the Presidential Committee on Climate Action and Green Economic Solutions, which he chairs, to oversee the nation’s climate mitigation and adaptation efforts, as well as green economy initiatives.
The President also approved the establishment of Nigeria’s first Green Industrial Zone, Evergreen City, poised to be the leading manufacturing hub in Africa for renewable energy technologies, green solutions, and climate-adaptation technologies.
The President restated his commitment to ensuring the planting of 25 million trees by 2030, not only to protect the environment but also to provide opportunities for Nigeria’s youths within the green-economy value chain.
While calling for a more proactive approach to protecting the land and ecosystem through afforestation, water conservation, and the cessation of indiscriminate felling of trees, the President emphasized that to heal the world, we must begin by healing the land and its people.
