Richard Okibe from the Federal Ministry of Environment and representative of Nigeria at the UNFCCC talks on climate change adapation.

1. RICHARDS OKIBE Special Climate Change Unit Federal Ministry of Environment FCT – Abuja Presented by:

2. INTRODUCTION What is adaptation? Adaptation is an act of building resiliance to a problem that one doesn’t control, such as Climate change. One has to live with the problem symbiotically

3. Developing countries are most vulnerable to climate change due to: i. Low adaptive capacity ii. Growing dependence on scarce resources iii. Lack of sensitivity to change in climate

5. WHY WE NEED THIS STUDY : Climate change has undermined development efforts in the developing world like Nigeria and has hit the poorest and most vulnerable sections of society thereby threatening to reverse the gains of sustainable development and additional pressure on already overstretched resources

6. KEY ECONOMIC SECTORS AFFECTED ARE: Agriculture, water, energy, health, wildlife, tourism. The majority (96%) of subsaharan African population depend on rainfed agriculture. In some countries crop yeilds are predicted to drop by 50% in 2050 while arable lands will decline by 6%. Food security and access to food will be severe in such situation hence the need for adaptation measures

7. This gathering is about water, the very essence of life. In the Cancum meeting in Mexico December 2010 some countries said that water should be included in the conference of parties for future negotiations

8. OUR EFFORT IN NIGERIA After the conference of parties meeting in Copenhegen (COP 15) in December 2009 it became neccessary for Nigeria to develop a National Climate Change Policy and Response Strategy which will go through a validation process on the 23/07/11. During the meeting, policy makers recognised the need to integrate climate change adaptation into all spheres of public policy making, especially key climate change governance issues

9. To further enhance policy makers participitation, the Federal Ministry of Environment has also started developing an adaptation framework called NASPA – National Adaptation Strategic Plan of Actions . It will be subjected to a National Stakeholders workshop to finalise the document by our development partners in which the document will then be available for public use.

10. The document considers many sectors where there is a need to build the resiliance of our people to the effects of climate change e.g. housing and other infrastructural developments in regards to adaptation measures to curb extreme weather, heat waves etc.

11. THANK YOU