Global Climate Change – What Nigeria Must Do (1)

By Idowu Oyebanjo 

 The Federal Government of Nigeria must begin to look at the potential opportunities for Nigeria to derive maximum benefits from the outcomes of the on-going COP 21 United Nations Framework Climate Change Convention (UNFCCC) in Le Bourget, Paris. To achieve an optimum benefit for Nigeria, not only is it imperative that policy makers fully understand the social, economic, environmental, financial, technological and political issues around the subject, but the generality of Nigerians need to be widely aware of changes in the global village they live in especially in the way energy is to be viewed in the wider world around going forward. As the subject of Climate Change is somewhat technical, it may suffice to give a background on the subject before driving us through to the point we have reached so far. This is what these series of articles on the subject will try to achieve.

(pix: phys)

Early contributors to climate change include Fourier, Langley and Arrhenius. That the climate is changing is not contestable but what is being argued over the years borders on the main causes of climate change. Climate change is made possible by the increase in the atmospheric concentration of Green House Gases (GHG) such as Carbon IV Oxide (CO₂), Nitrous Oxide (NO₂), Methane (CH₄), Hydrofluorocarbon (HFC), Perfluorocarbon (PFC), and Sulfurhexafluoride (SF₆). All these gases absorb terrestrial infra red radiations.