A CLIMATE CHANGE, THE ENVIRONMENT AND ITS IMPLICATION FOR NIGERIA’S NATIONAL SECURITY: AN ANALYSIS

Abstract

This paper examines the effects of climate change on the environment and its implication on
security in Nigeria; in doing this an attempt was made to try and establish a link between climate
change and security using evidences provided by the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change, the Central Bank of Nigeria and the United States Department of Defence’s
Quadrennial Defence Review. The study revealed that climate change is able to stir up negative
effects in the socio-economic development of countries like Nigeria. That climate change
undermines human security in the present day, and will increasingly do so in the future; it does this
by reducing people’s access to natural resources that are important to sustain their livelihoods. It
also undermines the capacity of states to provide opportunities and services that help people to
sustain their livelihoods, and which help to maintain and build peace. These direct and indirect
impacts of climate change on human security and the state may in turn increase the risk of violent
conflict. The paper recommends an integrated approach to development which must seek to
understand the existing vulnerability and coping strategies of the local people to changes in their
environment and build on them through policy formulation with adequate participation of the local
people. Investments in combating climate change; climate adaptability; agricultural and
climatologic research should be enhanced to combat desert encroachment, and in the long run
reduce inherent conflicts.