NAS Urges Climate Action as Health Risks Intensify across Nigeria

Ayodeji Ake

The Nigerian Academy of Science (NAS) has warned that climate change is no longer a distant environmental concern but an unfolding public health emergency, urging governments, communities and the media to take urgent, coordinated action to protect Nigerians from its growing impacts.

The warning was  made at a media roundtable themed “Climate Change, Health, and the Nigerian Reality”, held at the Academy’s secretariat, recently in Lagos, where scientists and journalists examined the link between climate change and the country’s worsening health challenges.

Opening the event on behalf of the Academy’s President, Professor Abubakar Sambo, the Public Affairs Secretary, Prof. Chinedum Babalola, said science must move beyond academic publications and directly influence public policy and everyday life.

“This roundtable is one of the key ways the Academy publicises the impact of science on our daily lives. Science must not remain in journals and laboratories. It must speak to policy, to business, and to the Nigerian people,” Babalola said.

He noted that Nigeria is already experiencing the devastating consequences of climate change through recurrent flooding, cholera outbreaks, prolonged heat-waves, worsening air pollution and declining food security.

“The World Health Organisation(WHO) describes climate change as the single biggest health threat of the 21st century. For Nigeria, with our population size, infrastructure gaps and double burden of disease, the impacts are direct and immediate,” he added.

Babalola stressed that tackling climate-related challenges aligns with the Sustainable Development Goals(SDG), particularly SDG 3 on good health and well-being and SDG 13 on climate action, while also supporting goals on sustainable cities and clean water.

Drawing lessons from the recent FITC Sustainability and ESG Conference, he said sustainability should be viewed as a continuous process rather than a short-term project, urging institutions to measure success by improvements in people’s lives rather than the cost of remediation alone.

He also called for home-grown climate solutions tailored to Nigeria’s realities instead of relying solely on models developed in advanced economies.

Delivering the keynote presentation, environmental scientist and Emeritus Professor of Chemistry at the University of Lagos, Prof. Babajide Alo, described climate change as one of the greatest development challenges confronting Nigeria and the world.

According to him, rising temperatures, coastal erosion, flooding, desertification and changing weather patterns are threatening livelihoods, food production, national security and public health, with poor communities, women, youth, farmers and fishing communities bearing the heaviest burden.

Alo explained that human activities such as fossil fuel consumption and deforestation have disrupted the Earth’s natural carbon cycle, resulting in increased greenhouse gas emissions and rising global temperatures. 

He warned that unless urgent adaptation and mitigation measures are implemented, climate-related disasters would continue to worsen.

He observed that although Nigeria has developed a National Climate Policy, Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), the Great Green Wall initiative and the Nigeria Erosion and Watershed Management Project, climate action remains heavily concentrated at the federal level, leaving states inadequately prepared despite bearing the greatest impacts.

“The states need help,” he said, advocating stronger sub-national climate governance, dedicated budgetary provisions, improved public awareness and greater institutional capacity to implement climate policies.

Alo further called for empowering local communities through locally led adaptation, arguing that indigenous knowledge, community participation and inclusive decision-making are essential for building lasting climate resilience.

He recommended expanding renewable energy, promoting rainwater harvesting, restoring forests and wetlands, encouraging sustainable agriculture and strengthening access to climate finance.

Highlighting Nigeria’s international commitments, Alo noted that the country’s latest Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC 3.0) aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 29 per cent by 2030 and 32.2 per cent by 2035, while targeting net-zero emissions by 2060. The plan also includes reducing deforestation, expanding renewable energy, promoting electric mobility and delivering 2,000 climate-resilient primary healthcare facilities by 2030. 

However, he said implementation would require an estimated 337 billion dollars between 2026 and 2035.

Science journalist Wale Fatade, who spoke on “Reporting Climate Change, Health and the Nigerian Reality,” urged closer collaboration between scientists and journalists to improve public understanding of climate issues.

Fatade noted that climate change contributes directly to heat-related illnesses, cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, while indirectly increasing malaria, cholera, dysentery, food insecurity and malnutrition through changing rainfall patterns and worsening environmental conditions.

He encouraged both professions to build mutual trust, reduce communication barriers and leverage science communication platforms and research grants that support media engagement.

The NAS concluded that empowering communities, strengthening institutions and improving science communication remain critical to securing Nigeria’s climate future, with Babalola urging journalists to continue translating scientific evidence into information that drives public action and informed policymaking.