Pages: 59-76

Abstract

Climate change and its catastrophic effects is one of the greatest global concerns of the 21st Century. Adaptation and mitigation are two practical approaches to containing and/or reducing the adverse effects of climate change. The study examined all the climate change intervention programmes implemented by the Nigerian-state and its public administration up to 2012. This was in order to ascertain to what extent such intervention programmes implemented mitigated the adverse effects of climate change in the context of the Kyoto Protocol as a developing country. Instances of such intervention programmes include: the construction of dams, drainages, erosion control measures, dredging of River Niger, Green Wall Sahara Nigeria Programme and the enactment of laws to reducing C02 emissions into the atmosphere. Our theoretical exposition was based on Sustainable Development. Thus, we theorized that mitigation approach of which Nigeria was assigned to by KP is capable to contribute in sustaining and/or maintaining our environment at a steady level without exhausting our natural resources or causing some ecological damage, so that the environment and the Nigerian people are not put into jeopardy. The study established three hypotheses. The three hypotheses were consistent with the empirical evidence from our secondary sources of data gathered. The result arising from the test of our hypotheses show that poor climate change intervention programmes implementation significantly contributed to Nigerian governments’ inability to mitigate the adverse effects of climate change in Nigeria. The inadequate attention paid to the above mentioned programmes were linked to the absence of climate change policy. This was made worse by the unwholesome character of the leadership and those of public administration that executed those climate change intervention programmes Based on the findings of this work, it recommended some measures that would be taken in order to mitigate climate risks effectively in order not to betray our children and the future generation. Of which the emergence of good governance into the Nigerian polity is at the epi-centre to its realization.