The National Assembly has assured Nigerians it would pass the bill which seeks to provide legislative framework to check the devastating effects of climate change in the country.
Rep. Sam Onuigbo (PDP-Abia) chairman, House Committee on Climate Change, gave the assurance on Wednesday in Abuja at the official unveiling of a new initiative, Globe Nigeria.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the initiative is the brain child of Climate Change committees of both arms of the National Assembly.
Globe Nigeria is the Nigerian chapter of the global legislators’ organisation (Global International), an international organisation comprising of parliamentarians from over 80 countries.
Members of the organisation are committed to developing and overseeing the implementation of laws in pursuit of sustainable development.
Onuigbo said the bill would ensure that government policies, plans, programmes and projects were formulated on sound environmental and climate considerations.
He said that the objective of Globe Nigeria was to create institutional framework to foster coordination and collaboration among government ministries, departments and agencies on tackling climate issues.
He said, “Globe Nigeria has recognised the vulnerability of Nigeria’s economy and its local communities, particularly, the poor, women and children to the dangerous consequences of climate change.
“When this bill is signed into law, it will enable Nigeria meet international climate obligations among other things,’’ he added.
The chairman said the bill had passed first reading in the House of Representatives.
According to him, the bill aims at creating the framework for the private sector to actively participate in combating the effects of climate change in Nigeria.
He said the private sector would have access to 60 per cent of the funds that would be put together to address issues of climate change while the government would have 40 per cent.
“This is aimed at allowing the private sector to be actively involved in coming up with innovations on how to combat climate change,’’ Onuigbo said.
Earlier, Sen. Bukar Ibrahim, President of Globe Nigeria, said the new initiative would facilitate budgetary provisions to tackle the challenges of climate change.
Ibrahim, who chairs the senate committee on Ecology and Climate Change, added that the initiative would also inspire active involvement of critical government sectors in mitigating the effects of climate change. (NAN)