Executive Summary
Climate change is one of the most challenging issues of our time. It is now more certain than ever, based on many lines of evidence, that human beings are changing the Earth’s climate. Climate change is evident in Nigeria from increased temperature, rainfall variability, drought, desertification, rising sea levels, erosions, floods, thunderstorm, bush fires, landslides and loss of biodiversity etc. However, despite the immerse havoc caused by climate change, research has shown that a greater percentage of people are yet to understand the causes and effects of climate change, as well as the urgent need for the establishment of new ways of limiting

climate change impacts and adapting to its unfavourable effects, while some are yet to come to the realization that climate change is real.
It is in view of this that the TGED Foundation organized a day workshop on climate change tagged Climate Crisis: Causes, Impacts and Adaptation to close the
knowledge gap and open up relevant discourse around climate change in our society. In order to achieve this goal, important stakeholders from different parastatals both
government and non-governmental agencies that have affiliation with climate matters were invited for the workshop so as to proffer a sustainable solution to the menace of climate change in the state and the country at large. Topics of interest discussed during the course of the workshop include;
● Climate Crisis: Causes, Impacts and Adaptation
● Climate change and human health
● Climate change and human rights
● Climate change and ecosystem services
● Climate change and insecurity in Nigeria.

Another important highlight of the workshop was the pre and post workshop questions that were administered to all participants present at the workshop. This was done to help assess the participant’s level of understanding before and after the workshop on the topics discussed at the workshop and to measure the impact of the workshop. In addition, during the course of the workshop, various mitigation and adaptation measures were recommended as measures to tackle the issue of climate change. At the end of the workshop, experts and stakeholders reiterated that reducing carbon emission is no longer enough to halt the impacts of climate change. Efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions need to go hand in hand with policies aimed at building resilience and adapting to the impacts of climate change.

• Introduction Climate change is the most severe problem our planet earth is facing today. It has been suggested that it is a more serious threat than global terrorism. Warmer temperatures over time are changing weather patterns and disrupting the usual balance of nature. This poses many risks to human beings and all other forms of life on earth. Changing temperature causes changes in rainfall patterns. This results in more severe and frequent storms, flooding and landslides, destroying homes and communities. Water is becoming scarcer in more regions making many people face the threat of not having enough water on a regular basis, deserts are expanding, reducing land for growing food and thus driving food insecurity among many other problems making the realization of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 become blurier by the day due to the multifaceted problem of climate change. It is therefore imperative to take actions in so as to mitigate these problems.
  • Stakeholders in Attendance
    Stakeholders in attendance during the workshop include;
  • Ministry of Education
  • Ministry of Agriculture
  • National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency
    (NESREA) Ekiti State
  • Ekiti State Waste Management Authority
  • Ekiti State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA)
  • National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) Ekiti State Office
  • Nigerian Red Cross Society
  • National Human Right Commission
  • NAWOJ Ekiti State Chapter
  • Nigerian Union of Journalist
  • Rotary Club of Ado Ekiti,
  • The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC),
  • The Nigerian Police Force,
  • The Federal Fire Service
  • Media
  • Department of State Security Service (DSS)
  • Fountain International High School
  • Shepherd International High School
  • NGOs
• Welcome Address/Goodwill Messages
  The workshop started at exactly 10am with the introduction of guests and a welcome address by Mrs Oluwaseyi Ebenezer, the founder of TGED Foundation. This was followed by Goodwill messages.
  Mr Afolayan, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) Zonal Coordinator for South West Nigeria rendered his message by congratulating the founder of TGED Foundation, Mrs Oluwaseyi Ebenezer for her commitment both in the past and present in other to secure a sustainable environment for the sake of humanity. Furthermore, he noted that, Nigeria like other countries in the world share in both human and nature induced disasters which has fueled all forms of social vices in our communities such as banditry, kidnapping, terrorism and communal crisis which has led to the loss of human lives and properties. According to him, in line with the statutory mandate of NEMA, their organization engages and partners with various agencies at the state and local government levels including NGOs and private sectors to exploit areas of mutual support in achieving a better society as witnessed in the workshop. He therefore used the medium to charge every participant to contribute positively during the course of the workshop.
  Mrs Aluke Omowumi, the president from Rotary Club of Nigeria (Ado Ekiti Chapter), in her message, appreciated TGED Foundation for working tirelessly in making sure that the workshop became a reality. She went further to explain that climate change is a global problem caused mainly as a result of human activities and that humans need to ensure the sustainability of the environment because man depends on the environment for his survival. According to her, achieving a sustainable environment for all is part of the goals of Rotary Club International. She therefore used the medium to call on all stakeholders present to pay attention to every teaching so that at the end, they will all go home better stakeholders and as well better Nigerians.
  Mrs Bosede Toroni, the State Coordinator of NESREA Ekiti Office, in her message thanked all stakeholders and the organizers of the workshop and went forward to explain that human activities are the greatest contributors to climate change and that climate change has a negative impact on humans, plants and animals. She called on all Nigerians to embrace the use of greener technologies that are eco friendly as this will help reduce our carbon footprints.
• Overview of the Presentation
  The Founder of TGED Foundation, Mrs. Oluwaseyi Ebenezer opened the floor with her presentation on Climate crisis: Causes, Impacts and Adaptations. She started by noting the fact that although some people view the climate crisis as a down the road problem, something we wait to deal with later. However, we failed to realize the fact that it is not, because the climate crisis waits for no one. Her presentation focused on the meaning, causes and impacts of climate change as well as ways of adapting to the climate crisis.
  During her presentation, she listed the anthropogenic factors contributing to climate change to include greenhouse emission from economic sectors such as industry, energy, electricity and heat production, transportation, buildings, agriculture, forestry and other land uses. In addition, she reported that climate change has a growing impact on the African continent, hitting the most vulnerable and the poor the hardest, and contributing to food insecurity, population displacement and stress on water resources. She reported that more than 100 million people in Africa are facing food insecurity due to mainly drought, crop losses and conflict as a result of climate change. Furthermore, she pointed out that extreme weather events such as rising sea level, rising temperature, heat waves, increased rainfall will have a severe impact on health, social and economic sectors She therefore call for afforestation/ecosystem restoration, green energy/clean energy, innovations, women empowerment, promoting socio economic growth especially agriculture sector, awareness and sensitization and change in lifestyles to be put in place as all these will help curb climate change impacts. In addition, she also stressed on the need for local/indigenous knowledge to be harnessed and sort after in the fight against climate change because the indigenous people have collective knowledge of the land, sky and sea, and that these people are excellent observers and interpreters of change in the environment and as such, their collective knowledge can go a long way to complement scientific research.
  Dr Abayomi Oshatimia lecturer at the Federal University Oye-Ekiti (FUOYE) in his presentation on the link between climate change and human health pointed out that climate change is the biggest health threat facing humanity and according to him, climate change affects the social and environmental determinants of health, clean air, safe drinking water, sufficient food and secure shelter. He further reported that between 2030 and 2050, climate change is expected to cause approximately 250,000 additional deaths per year, from malnutrition, malaria, diarrhea and heat stress. He was of the view that although no one is safe from these risks, the people whose health is being harmed first and worst by the climate crisis are the people who contributed the least to its causes, and who are least able to protect themselves and their families against it, especially people in low-income and disadvantage countries and communities. In addition, he opined that these climate-sensitives health risks are disproportionately felt by the most vulnerable and disadvantaged, including women, children, ethnic minorities, poor communities, migrants or displaced persons, older populations, and those with underlying health conditions. He suggested that reducing greenhouse gases through better transport, food and energy-use can result in improved health, particularly through reduced air pollution. He recommended that by lowering our carbon footprints, we can help save the earth and preserve human lives.
  Mr Theophilus Gbadeyana, a Senior Investigation Officer at the National Human Right Commission, gave a presentation on the link between climate change and human rights. According to him, climate change is not just an environmental issue, but is fast becoming the greatest human rights challenge of our time. He was of the view that climate change is an issue of justice and inequality for the millions of people and communities around the world who already are experiencing climate harms and that climate change caused by human activity has negative impacts on the full enjoyment of human rights including the rights to life, self-determination, development, food, health, water, sanitation and housing. He recommended that mitigation and adaptation efforts that put people at the centre, that are gender sensitive, that ensure the rights of persons, groups and people in vulnerable situations, including women, children, indigenous people and the poor, could go a long way to ensure that climate actions benefit those facing the greatest risks.
  Mrs Oguntuase Mary gave a presentation on the impact of climate change on the ecosystem. She started by establishing the fact that ecosystems provide enormous services such as food, fuel, timber, water, clean air, medicines and also services such as regulation of local climate conditions and aesthetic value or cultural identity. However, despite the enormous benefit that the ecosystem provides, climate change threatens to jeopardize the numerous services that ecosystems provide to human societies. She stressed on the need of protecting and restoring our ecosystems as this can help us reduce the extent of climate change and help us cope with its negative impact.
  Mr Odunayo, the last presenter, gave a presentation on the link between climate change and insecurity. He stated that the idea that climate change can trigger conflict is sometimes dismissed by conflict analysts who have failed to see the link between climate crisis and conflicts. According to him, although the physical impacts of climate change may not directly trigger conflict, these impacts from slow- onset phenomena like sea level rise and rising temperatures to sudden catastrophes can fan the flames of conflict. When this impact occurs in areas where there are already intercommunal tensions, resentment towards local authorities, deep inequality, extreme poverty or marginalization, he opined that climate change can accentuate conflict drivers and contribute to dangerous chain reactions. He further pointed out that when disasters like flooding occur, damage and losses on infrastructure usually shift the attention of formal and informal security institutions from maintaining social order to coping and recovery measures. This increases the vulnerability of the affected communities to criminal activities. He calls on all security agencies to be on alert whenever disaster strikes in order to secure not just properties and save lives but to also watch out for predators that would want to take advantage of the situation.
• Pre and Post Workshop Questions
  Pre and post workshop questions were administered to all participants present at the workshop to help assess the participant’s level of knowledge and understanding before and after the workshop on the topic under discussion. From the result of the pre workshop questions, 70% of the participants claimed that the major contributing factor to climate change is as a result of burning of fossil fuel, 15% bush burning, 8% indiscriminate waste disposal, 5% deforestation while the remaining 2% were able to categorized the factors contributing to climate change to include both human and natural induced factors.
  However, the result of the post questions tends to differ when compared with that of the pre questions. The post questions result indicated that 90% of the participants at the end of the workshop came to the realization that human activities as well as natural factors were responsible for climate change, while the remaining 6% maintained burning of fossil fuel and 4% deforestation. The result indicated that the participants at the end of the workshop were able to comprehend that various human activities such as burning of fossil fuel, deforestation, agricultural activities, indiscriminate waste disposal and as well as natural factors like volcanic activities, orbital changes contribute to changes in climate. The data is presented in figure 1 and 2 below.

Furthermore, the result of the pre and post workshop questions also revealed that 65% of the participants agreed to have undertaken mitigation measures to help curb climate change by tree planting and engaging in sensitization programs while the remaining 45% claim not to have undertaken any mitigation measures so far. The data is presented in figure 3.
It is evident from the result of the pre and post questions that although the word climate change have become a household name, people still need to understand the factors contributing to climate change as well as the serious threat climate change poses by it and ways of mitigating and adapting to its unfavourable effects.

6. Questions and Recommendation At the end of the presentations, the floor was opened for questions and recommendations. Mr Brown from the Nigerian Police Force commended TGED Foundation for organizing such a wonderful workshop to help sensitize people on climate change. He however pointed out that measures should be put in place to help reach out to people in the rural communities since they are more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Mrs Oluwaseyi Ebenezer, explained that community based outreach programs are part of the Foundation activities. She stated that the organization always undertook various community based sensitization and awareness programs that were aimed at raising awareness on the causes and impact of flood disaster and also, the mitigation and adaptation measures to be taken before and during flood occurrence and equally school outreach programs, that aims at educating students to become more environmentally sensitive. She also noted that as part of their tradition of the foundation, it organizes a monthly environmental sensitization outreach program which is targeted mainly at the vulnerable and the poor in communities within the State. Mrs. Fajana, a representative from the Ministry of Education thanked the management of TGED foundation for organizing such an educative workshop and recommended that climate change education targeted towards teachers and students is an essential factor in the ever more urgent global fight against climate change. According to her, it is only when we understand the problem that we can profer solutions to it. She stressed on the need for NGOs to partner with the Ministry of Environment so that environmental education as a subject can be introduced into primary and secondary school curriculum.
   Dr Eze Remigius a representative from Justice Development and Peace Initiative (JDPI) was of the view that it was not possible to achieve sustainable development if other alternatives are not provided to help shift from human activities that contribute to climate change. He recommended that the government should provide grants on research on climate change to help bring new innovations that we could switch to like green energy to help prevent climate change.
   Mr Oluwajuyigbe a representative from Parliamentary Staff Association of Nigeria (PASAN) Ekiti State chapter spoke on the role of the of the legislature in combating climate change and suggested that there is a great need for the legislatures to join hands in the efforts to combat climate change and that our country should come up with policies necessary to combat climate change instead relying on foreign policies which end up yielding little or no positive result.
   Dayo Akeredolu Esq, a lawyer present at the workshop pointed out that the Nigerian President just recently signed the Climate Change bill into law and that Ekiti State to be the pace setter in Nigeria in the creation of her own climate change law as this will help in mitigating and adapting to the effects of climate change in the State.
7. Conclusion It is now more certain than ever, based on many lines of evidence, that humans are changing the Earth’s climate. Based on this evidence, experts and stakeholders reiterated during the workshop that reducing carbon emission is no longer enough to halt the impacts of climate change. Efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions need to go hand in hand with policies aimed at building resilience and adapting to the impacts of climate change. TGED Foundation is therefore using this medium to call on all relevant stakeholders including government and non-governmental agencies and the general public to join the unending fight against climate change because the best time to act is NOW.

For further reading;

https://tribuneonlineng.com/stakeholders-seek-strong-policies-citizens-support-in-addressing-climate-change-challenges/

https://www.environewsnigeria.com/climate-change-experts-stakeholders-reiterate-policies-towards-protecting-environment/