Climate Change: Implement Energy Transition Plan To Avert Disaster, Environmental Engineers Tell FG

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Climate Change: Implement Energy Transition Plan To Avert Disaster, Environmental Engineers Tell FG

Environmental Engineers have charged the Federal Government to implement the $1.9 trillion Energy Transition Plan (ETP) to avert climate change and other environmental hazards ravaging the country currently.

They gave the charge yesterday at the 2022 conference/yearly general meeting of the Nigerian Institution Of Environmental Engineers (NIEE), Lagos Chapter held Nigerian Society Of Engineers (NSE), Ikeja Branch, secretariat with the: “Understanding Nigeria’s Energy Transition Plan (ETP)

The National Chairman of, the Nigerian Institution of Environmental Engineers (NIEE), Sesan Odukoya, said the current flooding that has led to the loss of lives and properties worth billions of people is because of the climate action plan that was not yet taken into consideration at a time the country needed to do so.

He said several reports were done in the past proposing solutions to tackle climate change and its devastating effects with national committees set up, but the government did not do anything about them.

Odukoya said there were proposals of three dams in the country as well as the creation of or barrier walls to avert climate change hazards as well as provide jobs, which were never taken into consideration by the government.

“I am part of the National Committee set up by the Federal Government to come up with an action plan to resolve the flooding in the country. We have been proposing solutions and technical papers submitted to the federal and state governments. In the past three dams were proposed and none of them is nonexistent. Solutions, which we proposed to the federal and state governments, have not been implemented till now and once you don’t implement a plan or an action, everybody will witness a disastrous situation, just like the flooding in the country.

“We have not done anything, which is why we are seeing the effects of climate change due to emissions. If we had done something about waste and we don’t allow it to get to our drainage and rivers, what is happening will not happen. What we are experiencing now is the overflow of our rivers; we should have created solutions like dams that would have contained the situation,” he said.

He said the government should urgently implement the ETP to avert further climate change hazards, which he said could be grievous if left unattended to.

The Chairman, NIEE, Lagos State Chapter, Mrs. Abiola Kosegbe, said the desertification in the north, floods in the centre and different part of Nigeria, air pollution and coastal erosion, which have resulted into socioeconomic effects are all indicators of the truth and serious effects of climate change in the country, which requires quick action to limit the effects of climate change.

She said in order to guarantee better living conditions for millions of Nigerians, quicker development is required in light of the country’s rapidly increasing population.

Kosegbe said a truly equitable transition can be achieved in Africa’s largest economy by combining economic development and climate action over the course of the next two decades.

She said the environmental engineers would not relent in finding new ways in the new normal to protect the ecosystem as well as orientating people regarding the environmental impacts and hazards ahead.

The Chairman, Steering Committee, Nigeria’s Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Associations Alliance (REEEAA), Prof. Magnus Onuoha, said there were warnings of climate change, which the country has seen the effect of with the current flooding, overflowing dams and rivers.

Onuoha, who is the President, Sustainable Energy Practitioners Association Nigeria (SEPAN), said Nigeria must put up measures to address greenhouse gas and carbon emissions to curb the effect of flooding ravaging the country.

Meanwhile, Engr. Yusuf Majolagbe (PMP) emerged as the new Chairman of the NIEE, Lagos State Chapter, at the association’s Annual General Meeting.

See the full list of the new executive members for NIEE Lagos State Chapter below:

1. Chairman – Engr. Yusuf Majolagbe (PMP) Lagos State Wastewater Management Office (LSWMO)
2. Vice Chairman – Engr. Mrs Helen Lanke Taiwo – Director Water Resources, LASG ODS OEWR
3. Secretary – Engr. Ibrahim Mumeen Private Sector – Cadbury
4. Treasurer – Engr. Anise Olaniyi LASG LASWA
5. Financial Secretary – Engr Abidemi Yusouff LASG MEMR
6. Technical Secretary – Engr Oladele Fadipe – Private sector -Elfad
7. Assistant Technical Secretary – Engr. Osilamah Osuma LASG MPPUD
8. Publicity Secretary – Engr Omoefe Kudehinbu Private Sector – EIA, ESG Consultancy
9. Membership Secretary – Engr. Seyi Adebayo LASG MEMR
10. Assistant General Secretary – Engr. Ridwan Ifayemi – Private Sector – Zebra
11. Ex Officio I – Engr. Mrs Abiola Kosegbe PS LASG
12. Ex Officio II – Engr. Dr. Muritala Ibrahim German Aerospace Centre
13. Ex Officio III – Engr. Olawale Akinsanya – LASG LSMTL