Senate President Vows To Secure Climate Change Funds During COP28

The president of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, has vowed to secure climate change funds for Nigeria during the COP28 climate summit.

COP28 will take place from Nov. 30 to Dec. 12 in Dubai.

During an interactive session with the management of the Nigerian Ecological Office at the Senate complex in Abuja on Thursday, Akpabio said the global body of parliamentarians, the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), has a budget of $30 billion to curb the impact of climate change in developing countries like Nigeria.

He vowed to help Nigeria secure some funds during the COP28 summit.

"I was elected into the executive committee of the Inter-Parliamentary Union. I have found that within that organization itself, there are budget intervening countries through parliament in ecological matters and climate change is about $30 billion," he said, Premium Times reported. "In the session for COP28 in Dubai, we have our own session on climate change. I will let them know that Nigeria is a place they should intervene."

He said the country witnessed flooding in recent times because of climate change, adding that the situation became worse after neighboring Cameroon opened its dam in September.

"Whenever the dam in Cameroon is opened, it happens on an annual basis, the amount of water that comes normally wipes out a lot of islands including most of the uplands in Bayelsa, those houses will wash away," he said. "It goes all the way to Ondo, down to Akwa Ibom. Most of the villages do not exist during that period of the rainy season and when those dams are being built through renovation of yearly maintenance."

Akpabio pointed out that due to flooding, many people have to leave their villages every six months and look for a place to hide before returning to their homes. In southern regions of Nigeria, even without a war, there are people displaced due to the impact of climate change, he noted.

He also urged the federal government to allocate more funds to address the issues.

Shehu Ibrahim, permanent secretary of the Ecological Project Office, said the funds allocated now are not enough, noting that his office receives just between N2 to N3 billion every month.

"We have more than 5,000 requests running into trillions of naira and what we usually get from the monthly due to the office is in the region of between N2 to N3 billion monthly," Ibrahim said, adding that there is a "public misconception" that the office has a lot of funds already.