Ten schools from across Northumberland attended the event on Friday 21 November. Each of them made a brief presentation about a particular country from around the world and the climate change issues that the country faced. Phoebe and Anya from Year 12 gave a very professional speech about the climate issues affecting Nigeria and what was happening to try and address these. Each country then looked at ways that they could support and learn from each other and the financial costs they would incur to secure the future of their people and their country.
We are the delegation representing Nigeria, a country in West Africa.
Nigeria is one of the emerging nations on this planet, and we are the largest African economy. Climate change has an extremely heavy impact on us, as drought and desertification increases in the north, and major flooding worsens in the south. We
also have prolonged heatwaves, with temperatures sometimes exceeding 40 degrees. This is of course having a tremendous impact on us, with our agriculture, livestock and quality of lives heavily affected.Currently, we are determined to reach Net Zero by 2060, and we aim to be 47% below ‘Business As Usual’ by 2030 (provided we have international support). Following 2030, we are committed to shifting towards renewable energy.Already we have been extending areas of conservation, and in our megacity Lagos, we have a $40 billion dollar railway expansion, reducing carbon emissions and improving public transport. We are also a part of the African Union's ‘Great Green Wall’, where we combat desertification. To do more for our country, and this planet, financial support from other, wealthy countries is critical in our collective fight against climate change.Although it may seem like we are behind other countries, we are as determined as we could possibly be. We must focus on opportunity, and our potential to make planet Earth a better place.Thank you.
Chair of NCC Glen Sanderson gave a speech about all the things already happening in Northumberland to alleviate climate issues eg, recycling, transport etc. All schools also discussed things happening in their own schools and plans going forwards too.
