By Olasunkanmi Akoni
It has been discovered that cities with high concentration of people and buildings, particularly those along the coasts, including Lagos, will be more adversely affected by climate change in the future.

This among other revelations were brought to the fore at the just concluded 6th Lagos State Climate Change Summit 2014, at the Eko Hotel and Suites, with the theme; Exploring Business Opportunities in Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation: Lagos State in Focus which was hosted by Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN).

The summit, partly supported by one of the new generation banks, brought together a broad spectrum of about 750 stakeholders, including traditional rulers; senior civil servants from Federal, State, and Local Governments; political office holders; members of the academia; students, representatives of the private sector; national and international experts in climate change; non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and environmentalists, among others.

Declaring the summit open, Fashola, expressed concern about the rapid rate of population growth all over the world and the choices made as human beings. “These are compounding our response to the increasing challenge of climate change and our efforts to pursue sustainable development.”

According to him, with the current global population of seven billion people that may reach about 10 billion in the next few decades, the world faces a daring challenge of meeting the needs of the people within the available and technological proven resources, unless deliberate attempt is made to slow down the rate of population growth, particularly in the face of changing climate.

Fashola, in his view, is one of the main reasons why the state, under his leadership, continued to see the import of an annual dialogue on climate change so as to continuously draw attention on the need to pursue climate compatible development.

However, as the Commercial Center of Nigeria, the state sees a lot of business opportunities in the pursuit of climate compatible development, and it is currently channelling its efforts towards harnessing  such opportunities which abound in implementing climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies, hence, the focus of the summit.