Climate Change: FG renews pledge to fight biodiversity loss and pollution
By: Abudu Olalekan
The air in Katsina had that busy, end-of-meeting feel. People walking fast, folders tucked under arms, quick handshakes that say “we’ll talk later.” Inside the Katsina State Secretariat, the 18th National Council on Environment (NCE) meeting was closing out, but the message from Abuja was meant to carry far beyond the room.
Nigeria’s Federal Government says it is renewing its commitment to face what everyone kept calling the “triple planetary crises” — climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution. Big words, yes. But the officials insisted the reality is already sitting in farms, streets, rivers, and homes across the country.
The three-day council meeting, hosted by the Federal Ministry of Environment, pulled in state commissioners, environmental experts, policymakers, and development partners from across Nigeria. The theme was direct and heavy: “Tackling the Triple Planetary Crises of Climate Change, Biodiversity Loss, and Pollution for Sustainable Development in Nigeria.” It sounds like a conference title, but people there talked about it like a warning label.
Malam Balarabe Lawal, the Minister of Environment, said the theme wasn’t just timely, it was necessary. In his view, these three problems don’t sit neatly in separate boxes. They overlap. They feed each other. And they hit livelihoods first, before they ever show up as numbers on a report.
He pointed at what Nigerians already recognise without any PowerPoint: rising temperatures, desertification, flooding, pollution, degraded ecosystems. Not in theory. In real life. When heat stretches longer, when farmlands turn dusty, when floodwater takes roads apart, it’s not “environmental talk” anymore. It becomes food, money, safety. Simple.
Lawal stressed that because the crises are connected, responses must be integrated too — science-driven and multi-sectoral. Not just government talking to government. He said solutions should cut across energy, agriculture, industry, finance, planning, and health. That’s the only way it makes sense, he implied. And honestly, it does.
Katsina State got a public nod from the minister as well. Lawal commended the state for what he called strong leadership in climate governance, noting its second-place ranking in the 2025 Subnational Climate Governance Performance Ranking. That kind of praise is not given casually at gatherings like this.
He also highlighted Katsina’s Green Economy Roadmap, which is basically the state trying to turn harsh conditions into workable opportunities. The roadmap prioritises renewable energy, dryland agriculture, eco-tourism, waste-to-energy solutions, and climate-smart development. There are plans too, including establishing a Green Investment Fund and rolling out a 2025–2030 Climate Action Plan. It’s ambitious. It’s also the sort of planning other states can borrow, tweak, and run with.
Lawal’s message to other states was clear: don’t just complain about desertification and soil degradation. Use them as a push to innovate, attract investment, and create jobs. Easier said than done, sure. But the point landed.
On the national side, he referenced ongoing initiatives already on the table: the Nigeria Energy Transition Plan, the Great Green Wall Programme, the National Policy on Plastic Waste Management, plus renewable energy and clean cooking policies. None of these are magic wands. But together, they form a direction, and direction matters when the problem is this wide.
Money, of course, came up. It always does. The minister called for innovative financing mechanisms such as public-private partnerships, green bonds, climate funds, and carbon markets. In other words: government can’t carry this alone, and pretending otherwise would be unserious.
He also pushed for stronger private-sector involvement, pointing to corporate players like the Dangote Group and Nigeria Bottling Company as potential partners in environmental restoration and sustainability efforts. Some people will raise an eyebrow at that, because industry can be both problem and solution. But that’s the reality Nigeria is managing.
Earlier, Katsina State Governor Dikko Radda reaffirmed his administration’s commitment to environmental sustainability. He was represented by the Deputy Governor, Malam Faruk Jobe, who noted the state’s early approval of funding and continued support that helped the council meeting happen smoothly.
Jobe described the NCE as a key platform for policy harmonisation, collaboration, and coordinated action. And that may be the most important part: not just speeches, but alignment. Because climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution don’t respect state borders. They don’t wait for budgets either. They just move.
