Renewable Energy Transition: A Panacea to the Ravaging Effects of Climate Change in Nigeria

Environmental issues linked to climate change and global warming have been at the centre stage of discussion all over the world, considering their magnitude and the broader scope of consequences. These catastrophic effects of greenhouse gases (GHG) such as CO2, CO, water vapour, nitrous oxides, ozone, coupled with other artificially induced chemicals like CFCs have shifted weather patterns across the globe, thereby threatening the environment unpleasantly. However, the effects of climate changes are more pronounced in Nigeria, due to an unprecedented utilization of fossil-based fuels as the main energy source for electricity, transportation, industrial, agricultural, and domestic purposes. As a result, air pollution and land spills by oil led to the destruction of agricultural land and increasing heatwaves were left behind. Consequently, these impacted negatively on the ecosystem by intimidating the environment, counteracting biodiversity, decelerating economy and provoking human comfort, while simultaneously antagonizing socio-economic growth and sustainable developments. Thus, an urgent need for the Nigerian government to redirect from fossil fuels to renewables and intensify the campaign for afforestation to support green conservation of biodiversity. These are considered plausible measures for remediating the lingering energy failure and ravaging effects of climate change. Therefore, this short review of communications X-rayed a few of the recent devasting incidences caused by climate change, their impacts on various sectors of the economy and the need to explore renewable energy resources in the country as a tool to finding solutions to the effects of climate changes and global warming.