By Chiamaka Okafor

“Just throw it there, you are not abroad.” These were the words of my sister a few days ago as I unsuccessfully tried to locate a trash can at a park. We had driven there to pick up another family member. On our way, we stopped by a store to buy ice cream (the weather in Abuja where I live is unbearable, and super hot).

I could not bring myself to litter the environment with a non-biodegradable material. I would have been comfortable leaving it there if it was biodegradable, knowing full well that sooner than later it would decompose.

The incident with my sister reminded me of how many of us are left out of the climate change and environmental preservation conversation, how elitist the conversations are, how the key people affected by climate change are left out of policy conversations, and how much climate/environmental literacy is needed.

While at #cop28uae last December, the most attended COP so far, with people moving in different directions at Expo City, one thing stood out for me: the indigenous people from Amazonia, the region formed by the basin of the river Amazon (the river with the largest volume of water in the world) and its tributaries. You could tell them apart from the crowd from a distance. They weren’t dressed in nice trendy outfits, which contributes to the carbon footprints like many of us did. They represented their home, which is being threatened by climate change and several human activities. They understood the impact human activities have on the changing climate and were in Dubai to make sure their voices were heard.

There weren’t a lot of indigenous people at COP28; there was no one from Ayamelum in Anambra State, Nembe in Bayelsa State, Ogoni in Rivers State, or Argungu in Kebbi State, all in Nigeria, or similar communities at the frontline of climate change across Africa. Of course, there were climate and environmental activists from Nigeria and the continent, but their numbers were nothing compared to the climate change realities of Africa.

I was left wondering why that was the case until I sat on a health panel with my Brazilian colleague, Ana Carolina Amaral, (a great journalist reporting on the indigenous people of Brazil and Amazonia). On the panel, “When Climate is a Health Story,” organised by Internews and Earth Journalism Network, Ana let me in on the big secret of why the people of Amazonia are very big on protecting their land and their heritage. She said the indigenous people of Amazonia believe that the rivers flowing through their land are the same as the blood which flows through their veins and as such if the river dries up, they are affected directly.

CNN has an easy-to-read article about Amazonia (https://edition.cnn.com/2024/02/14/climate/amazon-rainforest-climate-deforestation-collapse-int/index.html)

After listening to Ana, it dawned on me that there is a huge gap between people’s understanding of the climate change conversation and the several ambitious Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) of countries, especially Nigeria, to combat climate change.

You may have come across many people referring to the floods of 2022 in Nigeria as an “Act of God” (the floods were caused by several factors and exacerbated by climate change) or even the current heatwave in the country as something other than what it is – climate change. Have you seen Nigeria’s Air Quality Index?

Does an average Nigerian/citizen understand why they should not leave a plastic bag unattended? Why they should properly dispose of non-biodegradables? Do they know what non-biodegradables are?

Climate literacy is an unexplored/unexploited window to meeting NDCs, especially in the global south. There need for community ownership of ambitious NDCs.