UN chief, others seek action on climate change, SGDs

The director of the United Nations Information Center for Nigeria, Ronald Kayanja, has called for a concerted effort to combat the impact of climate change on the environment.

Kayanja said this at the Babcock International Model United Nations event and said implementing the Sustainable Development Goals would help address the challenge of climate change.

Kayanja also lamented the impact of COVID-19 and urged countries to scale up their vaccination program.

He said: “The pandemic has presented many challenges; some of these challenges have always been there, others are new. Many children are out of school due to the pandemic, many others have lost their jobs due to the economic impact of the coronavirus.

“More than four million COVID-19 deaths have been recorded and it has caused great suffering to people around the world. One of the things countries around the world need to do is to scale up vaccination.

“The other challenge we currently face is the impact of climate change on our environment. We have come together to identify solutions; we have a framework to meet these challenges. If you look at Agenda 2030 and the SDGs, they fully address the concerns that are being discussed. Before the problem arose, we already had a framework to deal with them. We need to work harder to take action to achieve the 2030 agenda in Nigeria and around the world.”

Ms. Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire, the Senior Special Assistant to the President of Nigeria on Sustainable Development Goals, emphasized the importance of a cleaner environment for climate change.

“We must continue to work with the United Nations and other relevant agencies to mitigate the impact of climate change and protect our environment. It is time for urgent action to combat the impact of climate change on our world,” she said.

The Vice-Chancellor of Babcock University, Prof. Ademola Tayo, called for a multilateral approach in tackling environmental problems that could cause global warming.

He said: “There must be motivation for states to agree on a multilateral approach to tackle the increasingly important problem of climate change. It is much more desirable to promote environmental effectiveness where the action is needed in many countries to address environmental problems.

“There is a need for concerted efforts to reduce competitiveness concerns that would otherwise have hindered mitigation of environmental degradation and associated effects on the ozone layer and human habitation.

“Dealing with the climate challenge dimension can bring different forms of action and help close the gap between national commitments and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change goal to reduce global warming.”