Climate change: AMAC stakeholders drilled on sustainable action plan

By Stanley Onyekwere

To help tackle the devastating effects of climate change in the society, the authorities of Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) have embraced strategic steps to developing a Sustainable Energy Access And Climate Action Plan (SEACAP) for the Council.

Our correspondent reports that AMAC, as a signatory of the Covenant of Mayors for Sub-Saharan Africa (CoM SSA) Initiative, has made commitment to develop and implement SEACAP, a tool which allows city to identify actions and infrastructure projects as well as provide a long term vision to fight against climate change and improve access to energy to the population.

Also, in developing a SEACAP, series of workshops on sensitisation and capacity assessment will be held in Abuja, between April 2021 and March 2022, which aims to identify and introduce key players and actors to the initiative and SEACAP development process for AMAC.

Speaking yesterday at a sensitisation and capacity assessment workshop for selected AMAC staff and other stakeholders, held at Reiz Continental Hotel, Abuja, AMAC Chairman, Hon. Abdullahi Adamu Candido, described the workshop timely, relevant and appropriate to developing action plan that would position the council on a defensive path of global warming.

Candido, who was represented by Council Secretary, Ramat Abisola Abdullahi, reiterated commitment of the council to actively get involved with the initiative to reduce the impact of climate change.

According to him, “Though in our little way from time to time, we take measures in addressing some of these human activities in our local environment by embarking on tree planting exercise, discouraging community members from burning of bushes and felling of trees, however we believe a lot still need to be done especially in mobilizing to drastically reduce the generation of carbon monoxide in the atmosphere from the burning of fossil fuels.

“We appreciate the supports from Covenant of Mayors in sub-Saharan African (COM SSA) Gesellschaft Fur International Zusammenarbeit  (GIZ) and ICLEI Africa towards this direction, and we are highly optimistic that the outcome would turn out successfully”.

Participants at the workshop were drilled on understanding of the concept around climate change initiative, especially climate change adaptation and mitigation measures as well as available support for the development, integration and monitoring of SEACAP in AMAC.