NIGERIA: Climate Change and Sustainable Development

Climate Change and Sustainable Development in Nigeria

Sofoluwe, Abayomi Olumade

Ph.D, Dept. of Educational Management

University of Ilorin, Nigeria

E-mail: [email protected] or [email protected]

Abstract

The main purpose of this paper is to examine climate change and sustainable development in Nigeria. This was necessary because, Nigerians are increasingly being confronted with number of challenges which demand urgent attention. These challenges tend to be characterized by environmental pollution, poverty, flooding, droughts, and spread of vector borne disease, biodiversity and desertification. Climatic forcing includes historical and archaeological evidence, greenhouse gases, aerosols human activity solar variation, orbital irregularities, deforestation and radioactive factors. Consequently, the concepts of climate change, sustainable development, barriers and strategies are identified.

Finally, for the nation to survive, it is imperative that, the present environment should impose restrictions on emissions of green house gases and people should engage in economic activities that create wealth and lead to technological progress.

Introduction

The changes that are confronting modern societies affect many areas: economic, geopolitical, sociocultural and environment. Climate change is the increase in the average temperature of the earth’s near surface and oceans since the mid 20th Century and its projected continuation. Climate change is a long term change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over period of time that range from decades to millions of years. In the context of environmental policy, climate change usually refers to changes in modern climate. It may be qualified as anthropogenic climate changes, more generally known as global warming or anthropogenic global warming (agw).

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (1992) defines climate change as “a change of climate which is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere” and in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods. In the latter sense, climate change is synonymous with global warming.

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (2001) opines climate change as statistically significant variations that persist for an extended period, typically decades or longer. Itincludes shifts in the frequency and magnitude of sporadic weather events as well as the slowcontinuous rise in global mean surface temperature.

Climate Change and Sustainable Development in Nigeria 139

Radiation Process that Lead to Climate Change (CC)

A quick explanation of how weather work will lead to easier understanding of the concept of climate change. According to Spore (2008) each day, the sun emits rays of light onto the earth’s surface. The earth absorbs part of the heat reflects another share into the atmosphere and sends out a third share in the forms of intra-red rays. These rays are cushioned by the clouds and water vapour, which stabilizes the earth’s temperature under normal circumstances. The gases absorb the terrestrial radiation from the earth and re-radiate the heat back to earth, thereby, leading to a general increase in temperature known as global warming (ERM 2002). This is illustrated in figure 1.

Sustainable development is the development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Sustainable development contains two key concepts – the concept of needs, in particular and the essential needs of the world’s poor, to which overriding priority should be given.

Figure 1:

Radiation Process that leads to climate change

Sun

(1) Absorbed by the earth

(2) Reflected rays of light light from the earth

(3) (GHG) Intra-red rays from the earth

Bebbington and Gray 2001 opines that sustainable development is a pattern of resources use that aims to meet human needs, while preserving the environment so that these needs can be met not only in the present but also for generations to come. Sometimes, taught as ELF – Environment, Local People and Future. United Nations (1987) used the term sustainable development as to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generation to meet their own needs. The United Nations (2002) World Summit Outcome Document refers to sustainable development as economic development, social development, environmental protection and cultural development. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Sahel Studies (1989) sees sustainable development as involving the maximization of the next benefits of economic development subject to maintaining or enhancing the service and quality of natural resources over time.

Akorede and Onuka (2008) sees sustainable development as a way by which the society is managed in an effective and efficient manner such that it benefits all and sundry, with enough resources still available for the continuation of the human race. This is achievable through the judicious and the sustainable development hub seeks to promote prosperity (economic objective) through growth, equity and efficiency in all sectors of development. It seeks to support people (social objectives) through empowerment participation of all stakeholders, social mobility, cultural identity and various institutional developments. Finally, in the tripod, it seeks to maintain the planet (ecological objectives) through improving the state of the ecosystem, biodiversity conservation, ensuring adequate carrying capacity and responding in sustainable manners to other global issues as shown in figure 2. 140 Sofoluwe, Abayomi Olumade

Figure 2:

Viable Solutions towards achieving sustainable development Source: Onuoha (2001)

Sustainable Development

Hub, Prosperity (Economic objectives), Growth, Equity, Efficiency

Peoples (Social objectives)

•Empowerment

•Participation

•Social mobility

•Cultural identity

•Institutional Development

Planet – Ecological objectives

•Ecosystem

•Carrying capacity

•Bio

•Global issue

Causes of Climate Change

Climate change is already happening and represents one of the greatest environments, social and economic threats facing the planet. It is the increase in the average temperature of the earth’s near – surface air and oceans since the mid – 20th century and its projected continuation. Causes of climate change are attributed to historical and archaeological evidence, greenhouse gases, human activity, solar variation, orbital irregularities, and land use.

Climate change is defined as a description of the meteorological average and extremes in a limited area. Climate is naturally variable with the seasons and years. This variability is normal and is due to the fluctuations of various natural factors: sea currents, volcanic eruptions, sola radiation and other components of the climate system that are still not fully understood. Furthermore, our climate has extremes (e.g. heavy rainfall, droughts, hail, tornadoes and hurricanes), which can have considerable impacts on regions of the world.

Climate change refers to any change, climate over time, whether due to natural variability or as a result of human activity and is widely recognized as the most serious environmental threat facing our planet today (Ozor 2009). According to IPCC (2007), the changes in climate are attributed directly or indirectly to human activities and alter the composition of the global atmosphere over comparable time periods. These changes occur due to variations in different climate parameters such as cloud cover, precipitations, temperature and vapour pressure (Federal Republic Government of Nigeria 2003; Anyadike 2001)

Historical and Archaeological Evidence

Archaeological evidence, oral history and historical documents offer insights into past changes in the climate.

The evidence includes:

•Glaciers – most sensitive indicators of climate change, advancing when climate cools and retreating when climate warms.

•Isotopic composition of snow, corals and stalactite

Climate Change and Sustainable Development in Nigeria 141

•Examining records of the time of crop harvests, the treeline in various locations and other historical records to make inferences about the temperature.

•A change in the type, distribution and coverage of vegetation occur and give a change in the climate. Larger, faster or more radical changes, results in vegetation stress rapid plant loss and desertification in certain circumstances.

•Ice cores – Analysis of ice in a core drilled from a ice sheet such as the Antarctic ice sheet is used to show a link between temperature and global sea level variations.

•Dendochronology is the analysis of tree ring growth patterns to determine the age of a tree. It also indicate the climatic conditions for a given number of years. Wide and thick rings indicate a fertile, well-watered growing period, whilst thin, narrows rings indicate a time of lower rainfall and less than ideal growing conditions.

• Pollen Analysis – Polynology is used to infer the geographical distribution of plant species. Changes in the type of pollen found in different sedimentation levels in lakes, bogs or river deltas indicates changes in plant communities.

•Insects – Remain of beetles are common in freshwater and land sediments. Different species of beetles tend to be found under different climatic condition.

Greenhouse Gases (GHG)

Greenhouse gases are produced mainly by the burning of fossil fuels. The GHG effect is the process by which absorption and emission of infrared radiation by gases in the atmosphere warm a plant’s lower atmosphere and surface. Naturally, occurring GHGs have a mean warming effect of about 33 oC (59oF) – The major GHG forcing contributions include:

Water vapour which causes about 36-70%, Carbon dioxide (CO2) which causes 9-26%,

Methane (CH4) which causes 4-9% (enteric fermentation), Clouds – composed of liquid water or ice, and Nitrous oxide from fertilizer.

Aerosols

Aerosols are small particles or droplets suspended in the atmosphere. Sources of aerosols are; biomass burning such as slashes and burn deforestation. Aerosols produced are primarily black carbon; Industrial air pollution, which produces soot and airborne sulfates, nitrates and ammonium; Dust produced by land use effects such as desertification. These aerosols exert a cooling effect by increasing the reflection of incoming sunlight.

Human Activity

Presently, the scientific consensus on climate change is that human activity is very likely the cause for the rapid increase in global average temperatures over the past several decades. The crucial component that causes a greenhouse gave such as CO2, Methane, Chlorofluorocarbon (CFC’s), and Nitrous Oxideto be released into the atmosphere is human activity. The burning of fossil fuels (i.e. non renewable resources such as coal, oil and natural gas) has significant effect on the warming of the atmosphere (Archer 2005; Mc Michel, Woodruff and Hales 2006). The heavy use of power plants, cars, airplanes, buildings and other man-made structures release CO2 into the atmosphere and contribute to global warming. The report of U.S.A. National Academy of Science (2007) emphasized that “Greenhouse gases are accumulating in Earth’s atmosphere as a result of human activities, causing surface air temperatures and subsurface ocean temperatures to rise. Temperatures are in fact, rising”. 142 Sofoluwe, Abayomi Olumade

Solar Variation

The sun is the predominant source of energy input to the Earth. The energy output of the sun increased and atmospheric composition changed, with the oxygenation of the atmosphere being the most notable alteration. The luminosity of the sun will continue to increase as it follows the main sequences. These changes in luminosity and the sun’s ultimate death as it becomes a red giant and then, a whiter dwarf will have large effects on climate, with the red giant phase possibly ending life on Earth. Furthermore, over the last decades, proxy evidence of local or planetary warming has been observed on Mars Pluto, Jupiter and Neptune’s largest moon (Wilson and Hugh 1991). This has affected global warming on Earth (Wilsa and Alexander 2003).

Orbital Irregularities

Slight variations in Earth’s orbit lead to changes in the amount of sunlight reaching the Earth’s surface and how it is distributed across the globe. The three types of orbital variations are variations in Earth’s eccentricity; changes in the tilt angle of Earth’s axis of rotation; and precession of Earth’s axis.

Combined together, these produce Milankovitch cycles which have a large impact on climate change, are notable for their correlation to glacial and interglacial periods (Gale 1989; Solomon 2009).

Land Use

Another cause of global warming is the land-use changes such as deforestation. When forest land is destroyed, carbon dioxide is released into the air thus, increasing the long wave radiation and trapped heat. As we lose millions of acres of rainforest a year, the nation is also losing wildlife habitat, natural environment. Furthermore, worldwide, livestock production occupies 70% of all land used for agriculture, or 30% of the ice-free land surface of the Earth. FAO (2007) attributes more than 18% of anthropogenic to livestock and livestock – related activities. Specific attributions to the livestock sector include: 9% of global carbon dioxide emissions; 35-40% of global methane emission and 64% of nitrous oxide emissions.

Volcanism

Volcanism is a process of conveying material from the crust and mantle of the Earth to its surface. Volcanic eruptions, geysers and hot springs, are example of volcanic processes which releases gases into the atmosphere.

Effects of Climate Change and Sustainable Development

Climate change manifest in a number of ways. The environmental effects of climate change include: environmental, social, economic, oceanic acidification, melting of the polar ice gaps, albedo, monitoring and publicity and climate conventions (Boulanger 2008; La Revere 2002; Solomon et al. 2009).

Environmental Effect

The increase in the warming of the atmospheric has significant effects on both natural environment and human life. Obvious effects include glacial retreat, arctic shrinkage and worldwide sea level rise. As climate changes, everything changes from the natural habitats of wildlife to the culture and sustainability of a region. IPCC (2001) reported that glacial retreat, ice shelf, disruption, such as that of the sea level rise, changes in rainfall patterns and increased intensity and frequency of extreme weather events are attributable in part to climate change. Other expected effects include water scarcity in some Climate Change and Sustainable Development in Nigeria 143 regions and increased precipitation in others, changes in mountain snowpack and some adverse health effects from warmer temperature (Wana 2010; SDN 2004).

Social Effects

The social effect is exacerbated by growing population densities in affected areas. Temperature regions are projected to experience some benefits such as fewer cold – related deaths. There is an increase in intense tropical cyclone activity in the North Atlantic Ocean in correlation with the increase in the surface temperature. Anticipated effects include: sea level rise of 0.18 to 0.59 metres; new trade routes resulting from arctic shrinkage; possible thermohalline circulation slowing; increasingly intense (but less frequent) hurricanes and extreme weather events; reduction in the ozone layer; changes in agricultural yields; increased atmospheric CO2 increases to amount of CO2 dissolved in the ocean and changes in the range of climate dependent disease vectors which has been linked to increase in prevalence of malaria and dengue fever and ocean oxygen depletion (Michel et al. 2006).

Economic Effect

IPCC (2001) reveals that the average social cost of carbon is US $ 12 per tone of CO2. Extreme weather might reduce global gross domestic product by up to 1% and that in a worst – case scenario global per capital consumption could fall by the equivalent of 20% (DNEP 2002) opines that economic sectors likely to face difficulties related to climate change include: banks, agriculture, transport and other developing countries dependent upon agriculture will be particularly harmed by global warming.

Melting of the Polar Ice Caps

One of the most obvious effects of global warming involves the melting of the polar ice caps. According to Archer (2005) there are 5,773,000 cubic miles of water: ice caps, glaciers and permanent snow on our planet. As these continue to melt, sea levels rise. Rising sea levels are also caused by expanding ocean water, melting mountain glaciers, and the ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica melting or sliding into the oceans. Rising sea levels result in coastal erosion, coastal flooding, increased salinity of rivers, bays and aquifers and shoreline retreat. With the continuous melting of ice, there will be less habitat opportunities and a risk in extinction of the species. Furthermore, as Carbon Dioxide emissions increases, the ocean becomes more acidic. This acidification affects everything from an organism’s ability to absorb nutrients to changes in chemical equilibrium and therefore natural marine habitats (Lindzen 2005).

If global warming continues to melt glaciers in the Polar Regions, as expected, the supply of freshwater may actually increase. Freshwater from the melting glaciers will mingle with salt water in the oceans and become too salty to drink. The increased ocean violence will cause sea level to rise, contaminating freshwater to sources along coastal regions with seawater (Ponce 2008).

Strategies for the Sustainability of Climate Change

Increase in temperature has led some nations, states, corporations and individuals to implement strategies for the sustainability of climate change. These include mitigation, adaptation, geoengineering, economic cost, politics and monitoring, desalinization, United Nations Environmental Programme Building Nigeria Responses to climate change, national Carbon credit Train and Greenwalls and African Union (AU). 144 Sofoluwe, Abayomi Olumade

Mitigation

Mitigation of global warming is accomplished through reductions in the rate of anthropogenic greenhouse gas released. In the case of Nigeria, mitigation measures should include rebuilding and reintroducing rail transport in order to reduce the present massive use of long distance travel using buses, re-arranging urban transportation to introduce car-free zones and urban mass transit system, massive electrification of the entire country to reduce the use of generating sets. Efforts should be made to put an end to the present illegal practices of gas flaring in our oil fields in the Niger Delta and establishing a nationwide programme of re-afforestation.

Adaptation

A wide variety of measures have been suggested for adaptation to global warming. These measures include installation of air conditioning equipment, infrastructure projects, such as abandoning settlements threatened by sea level rise. Other measures include water conservation, water rationing, adaptive agricultural practices, construction of flood defences.

Geoengineering

Geoengineering is the deliberate modification of Earth’s natural environment on a large scale to suit human needs. An example is greenhouse gas remediation, which removes greenhouse gases from the atmosphere, usually through carbon dioxide air capture. Solar radiation management reduces absorbed solar radiation through painting roofs of houses white.

Companies Investing in Water (Desalinization)

The world’s population is growing rapidly. The Untied Nations estimates that the world population – approximately 6.5 billion in 2006 will grow to 9.4 billion by 2050. As a way of strategizing, environmental stakeholders should invest in desalinization and purification of water.

Building Nigeria’s Responses Climate Change (BNRCC)

The BNRCC is build to informed responses to climate change in Nigeria by enhancing capacity at the community, state and national levels for the implementation of effective adaptation strategies, policies and action, an improved livelihood, health, access to national resource, equality and governance. The BNRCC project is funded by the CIDA and will be managed by the consortium of CUSO and Marbek Resource Consultants both in Ottawa Canada (www.cuso.org and www.marbek.ca). It will be implemented in partnership with the Nigerian Environmental Study Action.

The National Carbon Credit Train Centre

It aimed at stakeholders groups from the rural and urban poor to policy – makers and managers in the public and private sectors and help them better understand the nature and benefit of climate change for developing countries and the forms of mitigation which are possible in their specific contexts. Key players in the activities include: Federal Ministry of Employment; Clean energy Global Systems Limited; The Environment Communications; CDM Consultants; Bank and other financial institutions; Decentralized Renewable Energy (DRE); Product Manufacturers; Reduced Emissions for Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) and Consultant (Avuru 2009).

Climate Change and Sustainable Development in Nigeria 145

Green Walls and African Union (AU) Challenge

The AU met in Libya in 2006 to endorsee the Green Wall Sahara Programme for 23 African countries affected by drought and desertification with the overall objective of controlling land degradation, enhancing environmental sustainability, promoting integrated natural resource management contributing to poverty reduction as well as creating job and wealth.

Climate Conventions

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) came into being in 1992 in order to prevent any dangerous disruption of climate. In order to strengthen this convention, the Kyoto Protocol was signed in 1997 entering into force in 2005, after bitter negotiations. The Kyoto protocol provides for penalties if a country does not achieve its reduction target. Another convention is the Copenhagen COP – MOP. This is an environment in which countries meet to discuss action to tackle climate change. The COP – MOP stands for Conference of the Parties – Meeting of the Parties Meaning Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC and Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (World Summit 2005).

United Nations Governmental Programme (UNGP) helps developing countries to reduce vulnerabilities and build resilience to the impact of climate change. UNGP supports national efforts to integrate climate change adaptation measures into development of planning and ecosystem management practices. It provides guidance and advice to government on reducing GHG emissions and preparing for the consequences of changed climate, and to develop international agreements on climate change.

Conclusion

In this paper, an attempt has been made to look at the facts of climate change and sustainable development. Climate change encompasses rising temperature (global warming), changes in other meteorological (changing wind precipitation patterned), oceanic parameters (rising sea level, acidification and sea currents) and biodiversity. Strategies in achieving climate change for sustainable development include mitigation, adaptation, geoengineering, publicity and monitoring, economic cost, companies investing in water or desalinization and climate conventions. Therefore government should establish a climate change advisory unit within the Ministry of Science and Technology. Government should work in collaboration with institutions, private sectors, the scientific community and Non Governmental Agencies. An agency should be set up to work for the actualization of diverting from oil to Ethanol Programme. The use of ethanol is to reduce gasoline use as a car fuel. To bring climate change to a halt, global greenhouse gases emissions must be reduced significantly.

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ISSN 1450-216X Vol.75 No.1 (2012), pp. 138-146