Gov. Otti’s hard work propelled Abia to improved climate change rating – Kanu
From Boniface Okoro, Umuahia
Abia State has been ranked 8th out of the 36 states in the country on the climate change governance ranking.
The state Commissioner for Information and Culture, Prince Okey Kanu, disclosed this to newsmen during the weekly post-State Executive Council meeting media briefing in Umuahia. He attributed the positive ranking to the hard work of Governor Alex Otti.
“This is a positive development that speaks to the new Abia and the stellar performance of the His Excellency, Dr. Alex Otti,” the Commissioner said. “In the past, Abia State used to be ranked 36 out of 36 in all the indices of governance and development but all that has changed in the new Abia,” he added.
Kanu explained that the ranking was based on initiatives put in place by the state government. He listed the initiatives to include climate change action; number of climate change tag projects in the current year’s budget; embarking of serious work on developing climate change policies; online media visibility and participation and quality inputs in national climate change programmes.
The Commissioner also said that the state achieved the feat because government has taken on its primary responsibility of ensuring that “our immediate environment is fit for habitation.”
Weighing in on the state’s improved green rating, the Commissioner for Budget and Planning, Mr. Kingsley Anosike, explained that the N567 billion2024 Abia “Budget of New Beginning” was patterned to improve and protect the environment.
The Commissioner said: “Some the things that moved Abia upwards included budget tagging; a process which intentionally speaks to projects that align with carbon reduction or green project.
“If you recall in 2023 December when we were finalizing our budget, we tagged our budget a Green Budget which means that projects that are being carried out in the state are essentially green.
“If we are having new designs for buildings, we intentionally factor in the planet, that is how do we position the building; the ventilation – is it possible that we use energy bulbs in place of the filament bulbs; is it possible that we align the windows in such a way that it will be airy enough so that we don’t have to use air conditioners all the time.
“So, all these are the factors that make the budget the Green Budget. The budget was intentionally designed to align with all these and that is why if you see the street lights that we are planting recently, all of them are solar lights.
“The other one is media presence. You will see that this year, we have been holding these conferences every Monday so that the state can tell the public through the media what it is doing in projects management. So we do all that and we have done it very well and it is because of this that the institution that does the ranking credited our efforts with the position that we presently occupy.”
