…How Climate Change is Causing Poverty

By Alice Onukwugha

Recently countries of the world, especially the global north, have identified climate change as one of the dangers to human health, thus the need to move from fossil fuel to renewable energy.

 

International Bodies such as the United Nations, the Conference of Parties for Climate Change (COP), etc.

, are taking the lead in coming up with Documents and Decisions to help nations of the world, especially the Global South take conscious steps in adopting renewable energy.

Already, 11 countries of the world, including Costa Rica, Scotland, Iceland, Germany, Uraguay, Denmark, China, Morocco, New Zealand, and Norway, are taking the lead in adopting renewable energies.

However, Nigeria, Africa’s crude oil production and export giant is yet to come up with conscious policy to adopt renewable energy. The resultant effect, is the continued degradation of the Niger Delta region where oil exploration and exploitation have been going on for over five decades.

While people of the region still grapple with the challenges of degradation, the region in the last decade has also been ravaged with yearly flooding, destroying more crops, farmlands, communities, and as well resulting in death of many.

Recently, the Lekeh Development Foundation facilitated the maiden edition of the  Niger Delta Climate Change Conference in Port Harcourt the Rivers State capital to chart a course for the Niger Delta people through conscious Action Plan.

The Conference, which attracted both Nigerian and international environmental bodies and activists, targeted deepening conversations around climate change impacts and awareness on the negative impacts of fossil fuel extraction, particularly on women and young people living in the region. It also afforded the opportunity to interrogate the climate policies in Nigeria.

According to participants, climate change effects have added to the woes of the Niger Delta region and it’s people in terms of hunger, poverty and deaths.

In his paper titled: “Loss and Damage in the Context of Global Climate Justice Movement, Executive Director, We the People, Ken Henshaw, said the people of the Niger Delta were dying of hunger as a result of flooding that submerge their farmlands and communities as a result of excess rain caused by climate change.

According to him, while the annual perennial flooding had been attributed to opening of the Dam at Cameroun, the primary reason for the flooding is increase in waters as a result of excess rain fall due to climate change. 

He said his interactions with people from the Orashi region in Rivers State, showed that large portions of community lands have been washed off due to flooding, thus resulting in shortage of farm products and means of livelihood of the people.

Also, in her paper titled: “Climate Change Impacts: Niger Delta Realities and Women’s Peculiarities, Executive Director, KebetKatche, Emem Okon, submitted that climate change have affected the livelihood of women in the Niger Delta who are mostly farmers, thus resulting in poverty and hunger in the region. 

She said: “Most women are bread winners of their families and when they don’t have a means of livelihood, when they can’t farm because their crops have been destroyed by climate change, then it leads to hunger, it leads to poverty. The family can no longer survive.

She identified the impact of climate change on the Niger Delta to include; infertility, decrease in crop yield, increase in food prices and decrease in water supply, amongst others.

Also, people from Odual communities in Abua/Odual local government area of Rivers State, who spoke to this reporter during interviews, said they were going through excruciating hunger and hardship as a result of the ravaging flooding that destroy their farmlands, crops and products on yearly basis.

A woman who gave her name as Victoria told this reporter that last year and uptil now her family mostly survived on palm kernel for meals.

“In my community, Odau, we survived on palm kernels. If you walk round the community you see people breaking kernels to eat. There was no way for survival. The flood destroyed all our cassava, our banana and plantain plantations.

“And you know that we depend on our cassava and plantations for both food and as source of income. So you can see that the suffering is too much. We are just hoping and praying that the flood will not come this year”, she said. 

She added that the hunger has reduced because it is Ogbono season. “We can now eat and survive because it is Ogbono season. When you pick ogbono and sell you have money to buy food for you and your family. We are hoping that by the time ogbono is over our cassava would have matured for harvesting and that is why we are praying that the flood should not come this year.”

A widow from Okolomade community, who gave her name as Mary, also lamented how she almost died of hunger. “At a point I had to do menial jobs because my children were no longer providing for me. I was sick so I could not harvest any of my farm products before the flood came. I lost everything. I did not take a pin out of my farm. How I survived until this day is just by miracle,” she lamented.

Furthermore, a trader from Okolomade community, who trades on banana, garri and plantain products, Madam Charity, told this reporter that her business was no longer thriving because theere were no enough farm products for her to buy and trade on.

“You know the flood uprooted all the banana and plantains. Then we lost our cassava too to the flood and you know that these are my source of business. Some times I don’t even go to market because I don’t have what to go to the market with.

“Most times I go to some neighbouring communities in Bayelsa and Mbiama to buy. Some times I don’t even see what to buy and I come back empty handed. This had affected my business and profit margin.”, she said.

In charting a way forward, the participants at the conference, in it’s Communique issued at the end of the Two-Day Conference identified environmental injustice against the Niger Delta as a major problem and called for an end to use of fossil fuels by the Nigerian Government.

The Communique, which was signed by representatives of different Environmental Activists who attended the Conference, noted the impact of Climate change on the physical environment and livelihoods with respect to the citizens’ health condition, increases poverty and unemployment, as well as displacements of the people. 

“There is a need for awareness creation and mobilization of communities on the dangers of climate change as well as adaptation and mitigation strategies.

“That development partners should intensify their support to community groups to execute climate change mitigation projects to reverse the adverse effects of climate change”, the Communique read in part.

Some recommendations from the Communique included: “Implementation strategies to help communities adapt to climate change. This includes promoting sustainable agriculture practices, enhancing coastal protection measures, and improving flood management systems to reduce the vulnerability of communities to extreme weather events.

“To encourage reforestation initiatives and protect existing forests as forests play a crucial role in absorbing carbon dioxide and regulating temperature, thus mitigating climate change impacts.

“End the continued illegal and unconstitutional routine gas flaring in the region. Halt the expansion of fossil fuel extraction in the Niger Delta and carry out comprehensive clean up and restoration of the heavily degraded environment.

“Promote and implement recommendations of the Bayelsa State Oil and Environment Commission Report and the demands contained in the Niger Delta Alternative Convergence Manifesto. 

“Capacity building programs including learning from indigenous knowledge, to enhance knowledge, skills, and resources for climate change adaptation and mitigation.”

Onukwugha is DAILY ASSET Correspondent in Port Harcourt