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By Dennis Agbo

The entertaining and hospitable Coal City of Enugu came alive, last Saturday, with a Climate change Music Concert, otherwise known as Climate Live, in a precursor to the 26th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change taking place in Glasgow, Scotland.

The Enugu concert was Nigeria’s beat in the series of international concerts in over 40 countries in a concert series developed by Fridays for Future organizers for a push and more sensitization on the climate change campaign.

Country Representative of Climate Live and National Coordinator of Fridays for Future in Nigeria who organised the Enugu Concert, Mr. Kingsley Odogwu said that the whole idea of the music concert was to use the power of music to gather people together, especially young people, to engage them in the peaceful and global campaign for Climate Justice.

The simultaneous global concerts that started on Saturday 16 October is intended to let world leaders know that more must be done to protect the planet and those who are experiencing the devastating effects of the crisis every day.

Odogwu said that the aim of Climate Live was to enlarge the global movement by engaging with a new audience through music, raise awareness of the challenges faced today by people on the front line of ecological breakdown, and the predictions by scientists for the future, as well as to pressure world leaders (political, economic and cultural) to take action to combat the climate crisis.

The Climate Change Activist said that the Music concert campaign aims at stopping fossil fuels and building up to 100 per cent renewable energy; genuinely protecting forests, oceans and nature; Legislate to stop banks and investors from funding climate-wrecking industries; investing in Climate Resilient Livelihoods and to act now to reverse biodiversity loss and reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by no later than 2030.

On the choice of Enugu for the Nigeria concert, Odogwu said it was to shift grounds from the already swelled music choice locations to the Southeast that has not been dense as a concert destination and from where the message of the climate live could transmit higher.

“The whole idea behind the Climate Live Music Concert is we are using the power of music to gather people together, especially young people, to engage them in this global fight for climate justice. The climate crisis is a threat to humanity and security and so the young people all over the world are coming together to fight the cankerworm called climate change because if nothing is done, we stand the chance of losing our lives and even the planet,” Odogwu said.

He stated that Clime Live is a pressure on world leaders, not just to talk in Glasgow and go, but to implement the decisions that will be reached at the conference when they get back to their various countries.

Artistes that performed at the Enugu Toscanna Villa concert included three popular upcoming musicians in the south east: Kaseklozo, Trap Mike and Shaggyblaq from the University of Nigeria Nsukka.