PROPERTY TRANSACTION GUIDE

Stakeholders canvass more awareness of climate change in Lagos
By Akinpelu Dada

Punch, Monday 12th April 2010

Stakeholders in the environmental sector in Lagos State have said that though appreciable impact has been made in creating awareness about climate change, a lot still needs to be done, especially in the areas of creating framework for sustainability and raising awareness.

The stakeholders, who gathered in Ikeja on Wednesday under the auspices of the Policy Advocacy Project Partnership on Climate Change in Lagos State, noted the volatility of impact of climate change across the globe in general and Lagos specifically because of coastal sea level rising, pressure of land reclamation, imminent impact of mega city development plan (e.g. new airport, free trade zone), carbon emission and so on.

The forum looked at the observations and recommendations from the last climate change summit organised by the Lagos State Government with a view to identifying areas of potential engagement for the media in order to strengthen the advocacy campaign with the policy makers as well as raising awareness among the populace.

While appealing to media workers to help in educating the populace about the dangers of climate change, the forum set out a broad agenda for journalists and their media organisations on their roles in mitigating the effects of the phenomenon.

In the area of policy, the partnership said that the media had the role of creating awareness on the need for policy change from governments at all levels and partnering with them to raise awareness, while urging the media to independently generate data/statistics on climate change and use such to drive and link interventions on climate change, monitor the use of official data and conduct independent follow up and assessment.

The forum also urged the media to increase awareness of climate change clubs in Lagos schools, publish and produce materials and programmes on the phenomenon, use education pages of newspapers to cover climate change issues and publish/produce materials and programmes on attitudinal change towards the issue.

On international partnerships, the forum urged the media to investigate the implementation of accords with international partners/donor agencies and follow-up financial accountability that would ensure that available funds were well utilised.

The forum discussed the forthcoming second Lagos state Climate Change Summit in May and urged the media to look into their identified roles and take them up ahead of the second Summit.

The Policy Advocacy Project Partnership on Climate Change in Lagos State is a group of civil society bodies committed to policy advocacy for climate change in Lagos state. The partnership objective is to increase awareness of and demystify the issues of climate change and advocate for policy framework and legislations on adaptation and mitigation of impact of climate change in the state.

Members of the partnership include, Friends of the Environment, Human and Environmental Development Agenda, Development Communications, Institute for Media and Society, Community Conservation Development Initiative, Nigeria Conservation Foundation, Development Initiative Network and Network on Water and Sanitation

Others include, Coalition of Issue-Based Politics and Good Governance, Centre for 21st Century Issues, Climate Change Department, Lagos State Ministry of the Environment, Henrich Boell Foundation, The British Council and State Accountability and Voice Initiative