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Climate change is no longer a distant environmental challenge but an urgent public health emergency threatening Nigeria’s fragile healthcare system, the Nigeria Academy of Science (NAS) has warned.
The Academy declared that shifting rainfall patterns, recurrent flooding, rising temperatures, worsening air pollution and environmental degradation are fuelling disease outbreaks, food insecurity, cardiovascular illnesses, respiratory diseases and declining living standards nationwide.
It urged the Federal Government to prioritise locally led climate adaptation, empowering communities to drive resilience and safeguard public health against escalating climate threats.
The warning was delivered on weekend during a media parley organised by NAS under the theme, “Climate Change, Health, and the Nigerian Reality.” The event gathered scientists and stakeholders to examine health implications and chart pathways towards resilience.
Speaking on behalf of Professor Abubakar Sambo, NAS President, Professor Chinedum Babalola, the Academy’s Public Affairs Secretary, said the theme could not have been timelier given Nigeria’s worsening climate realities.
Babalola explained that Nigeria is already experiencing harsh consequences, including flooding‑induced cholera outbreaks, extreme heat worsening cardiovascular diseases, shifting rainfall patterns undermining food production and nutrition, and rising air pollution driving respiratory illnesses.
“The World Health Organization describes climate change as the single biggest health threat of the 21st century. For Nigeria, with our population size, infrastructure gaps and double burden of disease, the impacts are direct and immediate,” she said.
Delivering a presentation titled “Climate Change, Health, and the Nigerian Reality: Securing Our Climate Future for a Resilient Nigeria,” Distinguished Emeritus Professor of Chemistry, Professor Babajide Alo, traced the crisis to the Industrial Revolution.
Professor Alo noted that human activities, particularly the burning of fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas, remain the primary drivers of global warming and its devastating consequences.
He described climate change as long‑term alterations in temperature, rainfall and wind patterns caused largely by greenhouse gas emissions from human activities, including fossil fuel combustion and deforestation.
The Professor of Chemistry warned that consequences include rising sea levels, more frequent and severe natural disasters, ecosystem disruption, declining agricultural productivity and mounting threats to human health.
He stressed that tackling climate change requires urgent efforts to reduce emissions, transition to cleaner energy sources, strengthen mitigation strategies and implement adaptation measures capable of protecting vulnerable populations.
Professor Alo cautioned that climate change poses an existential threat not only globally but also to Nigeria’s sustainable development, endangering lives, food security, public health, livelihoods, national security and economic stability.
He noted that rising temperatures, coastal erosion, flooding, desertification and other disasters continue to threaten communities across Nigeria’s six geopolitical zones, with the poorest populations, women, young people, farmers and fishing communities bearing the greatest burden.
Highlighting public health implications, he said climate‑related disasters disproportionately affect vulnerable groups, including older persons, people living with disabilities and the homeless.
He added that while about 100 million people worldwide are homeless, nearly 1.6 billion live in inadequate housing, leaving them less able to prepare for, respond to and recover from climate‑related disasters.
To build a climate‑resilient future, Professor Alo advocated a decisive shift from top‑down approaches to Locally Led Adaptation (LLA), where communities take the lead in identifying, designing and implementing climate solutions.
He explained that local communities experience direct impacts and possess valuable indigenous knowledge that can strengthen resilience and ensure sustainable adaptation.
“We need to empower local populations to take ownership of climate solutions. By leveraging indigenous knowledge, investing in local capacity and promoting inclusive decision‑making, communities can proactively mitigate climate risks and build long‑term resilience,” he said.
He argued that community‑led adaptation would produce more sustainable outcomes because locally owned solutions are better tailored to specific needs and more likely to be maintained over time.
Professor Alo added that empowering grassroots communities would also promote social cohesion and peacebuilding, particularly in conflict‑prone areas, as collaborative management of shared natural resources could strengthen trust while delivering environmental and economic benefits.
He acknowledged challenges to implementing locally led adaptation, including inadequate funding, limited technical capacity and concerns about inclusivity.
He urged government and development partners to provide adequate financing, technical support and inclusive policies that place vulnerable populations at the centre of climate action.
The Nigeria Academy of Science’s warning underscores the urgency of confronting climate change not only as an environmental issue but as a direct and immediate public health emergency.
With Nigeria’s healthcare system already strained, scientists insist that empowering communities through locally led adaptation may prove decisive in protecting lives, livelihoods and national stability against the advancing climate crisis.
