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President Donald Trump announced recently that he would begin the process of withdrawing the United States from the historic Paris Agreement, the world’s first global plan to address climate change.
The historic agreement, approved in December 2015, commits nearly 200 countries to pursue all efforts to limit global temperature increase to 1.5°C to stave off some of the worst impacts of a warming planet.
Even in a developing country like Nigeria it is becoming clear that the transition to a low carbon society is inevitable. Shifts in international geopolitics will only determine the pace of that transition and at what level temperatures will peak.
The US withdrawing from the Paris agreement will delay the transition and could lead to temperatures peaking at higher levels, with concurrent climate change impacts on millions of people, but it cannot stop the economic transformation that is already underway.
Ibrahim Usman Jibrin, Nigeria’s Minister of State, Federal Ministry of Environment, has said Nigeria will not pull out of the agreement.
“Despite the pulling out of the United States from the Paris Agreement, I want to state categorically that Nigeria joined the Agreement as a Sovereign country taking into account its national circumstances and convection in a global approach to tackle climate change. Nigeria is committed to the provisions of the Paris Agreement as it is in National interest,” the Minister said.
Ramping up Nigeria efforts to combat climate change will also help to address developmental challenges through building new industries in the low carbon sector and increasing the resilience of vulnerable communities to extreme weather events and other climate change impacts.