Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta State in Nigeria’s Niger Delta region, has challenged the international community to pay more attention to the impact of climate change on the people living in the rural communities.

Speaking at a panel discussion on “Enhancing adaptation and resilience at the local level” at the UN conference on climate change (COP 19/CMP 9) holding at Warsaw, Poland, Uduaghan stated that so far not enough is being done to increase their resilience to cope with climate change.

He lamented the challenges of adaption to climate change on the rural people, who are most vulnerable to the devastating impact of flooding.

“What I see here is a lot of attention being given to issues in the cities and urbanisation, which is important but I will like to see some attention paid to the lives of the people in the rural communities. During extreme weather event like flooding, these are people whose economic and social means are destroyed and they have a lot of difficult time getting on their feet. So the text that will emerge from this conference must reflect the necessity of providing means to improve the adaptation and resilience of the rural communities,” Uduaghan said.

He informed his audience that his administration has been doing a lot within the constraint of resources to implement robust adaption and mitigation measures as the state is prone to flooding.

His words: “Over the past five years, my administration has worked hard in developing an integrated approach in addressing the menace of climate change. Our approach is to promote sustainable development and the diversification of the energy economy of the state. We have been collaborating with international institutions and corporate organisations to achieve this.” Governor Uduaghan listed the collaboration with UNDP to orgainse the Territorial Approach to Climate (TACC) study, which is now completed with the production of the Integrated Territorial Climate Plan (ITCP) report that captures adaption and mitigation strategies across all, including the rural communities.

He also explained that based on the ITCP report, the state will encourage the use of energy saving stoves, to reduce the felling of trees for energy use at the rural communities. He also listed the use of energy efficient fish dryers and biogas digester that will turn kitchen waste to cooking gas as other initiatives his government is encouraging.

Uduaghan stated that his administration will pursue tree planting initiatives to act as green belt in coastal communities to forestall Erosion and Flooding.

He also talked about the recently launched Carbon Exchange Desk, explaining: “The Carbon Exchange Desk will serve as a clearinghouse for carbon credits related transactions. Delta state is the first State in Nigeria to do this.”

•Photo (R-L) shows Delta State Governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan; Mr. Tunc Soyer, Mayor of Seferihisar, Turkey; Mr. Mark Kember, CEO, Climate Group; Mr. Gustavo Petro, Mayor of Bogota, Columbia; Mr. Paul H. Oquist, Minister and private secretary for national policies of Nicaragua; Ms Wilma Mansveld, Minister of Environment, Netherlands and others . . . yesterday at the UN conference on climate change (COP 19/CMP 9) holding in Warsaw, Poland.