FG, China collaborate on afforestation to check desertification in Nigeria

July 26, 2024July 26, 2024

By Chesa Chesa

The Federal Government has commenced partnership with China in afforestation and counter-desertification to address the fall out of climate change in Nigeria.

This was disclosed by the Special Envoy to the President on Climate Action (SPEC) and spokesman to President Bola Tinubu, Ajuri Ngelale yesterday.

Ngelale in a note detailing his activities as the SPEC in China said that “on Thursday, a congested schedule and upcoming return flight to Abuja forced me to depart from the team early during lunch to participate in an important bilateral meeting with China’s Ecology Minister, Mr. Zhao Yingmin, who represented my counterpart, China’s Special Envoy on Climate – who was out of the country on official duty – during which numerous important areas of mutual concern and cooperation in the sphere of climate action were broached.

“We also agreed to advance technical cooperation in afforestation and counter-desertification efforts that seek to empower vulnerable Nigerian populations in the Lake Chad region and in different parts of the country to find sustainable economic opportunity in the process of building our nation’s climate resiliency. Nigeria’s active carbon sink development is one that wins for our people and for our environment.”

He further disclosed that the Nigerian and Chinese sides share the view that new and clean energies must be sufficiently financed, developed, and operationalized before any attempt at modifying traditional energy supply and demand ecosystems can occur. 

“The old supports the development of the new and the new must enhance, rather than cancel, the old. This is the perspective.

“The two sides further exchanged views on how to deepen coordinated collaboration within multilateral fora in the areas where we share common perspectives and approaches with respect to the various ways in which climate change is impacting emerging markets in the global south”, he stated.

Ngelale also revealed that he communicated Nigeria’s position relating to its development of a truly circular economy amid its new push for value chain localization across renewable energy technology manufacturing industries and the need for Nigerian workers to benefit from the energy transition on a mass scale. 

“I further emphasized that China’s new Africa Solar Belt programme will be incomplete if it does not inculcate supply chain diversification into developing markets, especially Africa’s largest market. This point was well received by the Chinese side with further discussion expected in this direction in the time to come”, he added.

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