EcoSciGen, a non-governmental organisation focused on climate change research, has maintained that involving and equipping youth in Nigeria with scientific research skills will help in solving the climate change crisis.
This was the focus of the Youth Climate Symposium and Exhibition 2023 put together by the organisation, with the theme, ‘Fostering Creative Solution for Climate Innovation.’
During the symposium, held at Leaders’ Hub, Bodija, Ibadan, on Saturday, the co-founder, EcoSciGen, Jumoke Omodeni, noted that the government’s inadequate funding and attention to the role of research in solving the climate change crisis is the bane of innovation in the sector.
Omodeni added that the organisation aims to bridge the research gap in the climate change talk by empowering the youths with the research capacity that they need to drive economical solutions to address climate change and provide them with crowd-sourced funds to carry out their research.
She said, “Scientific research is the backbone of everything in life. When there is policymaking and decision process and the government is not putting that on the table, it shows a lot about how they see and perceive research and education.
“At EcoSciGen, we empower the youths with research capabilities and we help them with crowd-sourced funding for their research. We also want to be at the front of global discourse: we want Nigeria to lead in global discoveries and not have to rely on foreign development. If we want to solve the climate crisis, we have to start developing and adopting home solutions and not contemporary ones that are mostly not applicable to the African context.
“If the youths can come together and find solutions that are specific to the African context, this will go a long way in helping the country. A lot of youths also don’t recognise the opportunities in the climate space. So, the symposium is a way of exposing our youths to opportunities in the climate space. There are lots of solutions that if taken as a business, one can really make profits while also solving the climate crisis.”
Basheerah Lawal, Project Manager, EcoSciGen, said the symposium aimed to stir up research among Nigerian youths in proffering sustainable solutions to the climate crisis and adapting global solutions to the country’s peculiarity.
“One of the reasons we planned this programme is that we found out that in Nigeria, the research gap is very wide. We see other countries bring out innovation from technology but in Nigeria, there is nothing innovative; we depend on people in the developed countries.
“EcoSciGen is there to bridge the research gap in the climate space in Nigeria; provide the youth that are curious, creative and inquisitive enough to go into research with the resources they need; connect with other organisations and those in Diaspora so that we can also learn from them and have their kind of innovations in Nigeria,” she said.
In his presentation on ‘Developing Economical Solutions to Addressing Climate Crisis,’ Emmanuel Ola-Olowoyo of SDSN, who was represented by Oluwatobiloba Ojuoluwa, urged the participants to identify and provide solutions to social and climatic problems that would be profitable and create sustainable employment for others.
He listed such areas to include sustainable transportation, sustainable buildings and cities,, circular economy, sustainable waste management, equitable and sustainable food systems, among others.
“As individuals, we are key to solving the climate crisis by taking sustainable actions in our daily living and being more mindful of our carbon footprints. We can make an economic impact by switching off unused appliances in our homes, building a good consumption pattern, our shopping habits and how we discard our plastics. We have a responsibility to consider the implications of our choices. That particular choice you make today tells what the unborn generation will meet,” he said.
Some of the participants including Abigail Otolorin from Qualipea and a final year student of Animal Science, University of Ibadan, said the symposium has opened vistas of opportunity to leverage while providing solutions to the climate change crisis.
Otolorin said, “Through this symposium, I was able to learn how we can deliberately prevent the climate crisis and promote sustainability. Another thing I learnt was the need to reduce our consumption. We tend to consume a lot from fashion, food, etc but we should be more concerned about discarding these things. Another thing is giving quality climatic education from the primary school level and putting it in people’s mind of the need to be deliberate about solving the climate crisis.
The symposium featured a storytelling presentation on climate action by Iqmat and a panel session on ‘The Role of Eco Entrepreneurship in Promoting Climate Action’ with Oluwadunsin Bolaji, founder of Dunsin Crafts and Gift Ifokwe, a development practitioner.
It also had a pitch deck session where participants shared innovative climate solutions they would be carrying out in the walk towards solving the climate crisis in their communities.
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