TheCable

Salisu Dahiru, director general of the National Council on Climate Change (NCCC), says the federal government has approved the siting of a plant to manufacture environment-friendly cooking devices in Ogun state.

Dahiru said the cooking device known as Atmosfair Save80 Clean Cookstove, would be manufactured by a Nigerian subsidiary of the German company, Atmosfair Climate and Sustainability Limited, as part of efforts to mitigate the effects of climate change in Nigeria.

He said issues around climate change were of priority to the President Bola Tinubu administration.

Dahiru said the Tinubu administration had recognised that dealing with climate change provides it with the opportunity to achieve many of its objectives such as revamping the economy, providing security and ending the country’s over-reliance on fossil fuels.

Highlighting the advantages of the cooking device at the south-west sensitisation programme, Dahiru urged the people of Ogun state to embrace the initiative, saying the plant would be the only one in the south-west geopolitical zone.

“This government wants to revamp the economy, provide security, it is interested in ending super dependence on fossil fuels,” he said.

“We want to use our natural resources to address challenges that the country is facing and addressing them could be possible by prioritising climate change discussions.

“To revamp the economy, we want to say that we want to stop using our natural resources in a bad way.

“Take for instance the issue of this clean stove, it helps to address issues of health for the women, issues of time saving, issues of money and deforestation.

“We are saying we are not going to be importing it, no, it will be produced here in the country providing employment for the people and more revenue for the country in form of tax, among other value chains.

“Also take into consideration what we are doing in the area of electricity, we want to make it available to Nigerians at very affordable costs, we are talking about renewable energy, solar.

“We are talking about reducing our petrol and diesel consumption, we are talking about using gas, having electric buses. All of these require investment, technology, creation of jobs, it requires revenue.”

Egbemuyiwa Olatunji, Ogun state director of special duties and climate change, ministry of environment, said the government of Dapo Abiodun would always embrace efforts aimed at combatting climate change.

He added that the Abiodun administration had equally distributed 1,000 clean cookstoves to residents of the state.