By Gabriel Ewepu

ABUJA – AS climate change continue to ravage humanity, environment, and food production, a scientist and Special Adviser Technical to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, Prof Babatunde Bolaji Benard, asserted that climate change triggering food crisis.

Benard made the assertion on sidelines of the ‘High-Level Stakeholder and Policy Engagement on Climate Change, Sustainable Land Use and Agriculture’ hosted by African Center for Climate Action and Rural Development, ACCARD Initiative and African Climate Change Foundation, ACCF, in Abuja, where he warned that if the impact of climate change is not slowed down humanity will be consumed.

According to him, politicians refused to listen to scientists on the warning against the activities contributing to climate change, and he also added that polluters need to slow down their activities, and activate funding that would mitigate the impact, especially in Africa that is the less polluter.

He said: “My position as a scientist is that we are running out of time with the issues of climate change. In the 60s, when we should have arrested this issue in the first place, we did not.

“Politicians did not listen to scientists, and here we are.

He also lamented the consequences,band described them as “far-reaching” and have become fatal than ever.

“Here in Nigeria, on a daily basis, as much as I may try to predict the weather and send out information to communities, we are still having floods, devastating lands and taking lives. That is why I meant that the impact of climate change has become very fatal because we record fatalities from some of these incidents.

“Now, the government of the day in Nigeria has taken the issue of climate change very seriously, especially its impact on agriculture. They are doing everything to augment adaptation and resilience, which is very good but this must be far-reached internationally as some people still do not believe that climate change is real despite the changes.

“That is why I meant that humanity is like that until we ourselves are consumed by the consequences of climate change. The temperatures are still rising, as we speak, in some parts of Europe, they are experiencing between 46 and 50 degrees, as against minus zero that they are used to.

“These changes are not about to stop, they can only be slowed down, and hence the consequences as well. There is a need for everyone, every hand to be on deck, every government, every leader to be serious.

“The issues of hunger cannot be resolved if the issues of climate change are not resolved.

“Climate change is now at the centre of driving so many types of changes around the world. Security, insecurity, food insecurity, and otherwise, there must be concerted effort.

“There must be some form of determination by all leaders of the world to come together and believe in what they profess, and believe in what they agree, so that we can at least slow down the impact of climate change.”

However, he argued that Conference of Parties, COP, Summits are not waste of time amid daunting environmental and climatic challenges plaguing the world, especially, in Africa.

“Now, the Conference of Parties, COP, is not a waste of time at all. It is as a result of this gathering that the information on the adaptation and resilience is trickling down to even developing countries. So it cannot be taken as a waste of time.

“Such gatherings only should have started a lot earlier. It is not a waste of time or resources.”

Meanwhile, he said, “The developed world who are still polluting and may not be able to go down below a certain threshold, they need to make the finances available. The commitment needs to be backed by action.

“Let them make the finances available so that those people who can generate the climate change, I mean the Climate Certificate of Emission Reductions, can be funded for their own adaptation and resilience.

“The impact is mostly felt by us back here. Meanwhile, our carbon footprint is pretty low. So they are the corporates. They are the major corporates. So they need to finance the developing world so that they can stand on their two feet in terms of adaptation and resilience.”