AIR POLLUTION AND CLIMATE CHANGE IN LAGOS, NIGERIA: NEEDS FOR PROACTIVE APPROACHES TO RISK MANAGEMENT AND ADAPTATION

Abstract

The significance of air pollution as one of the contemporary issues and accelerating factors that propel climate change in both developed and developing countries cannot be overemphasized. The problem of air pollution has seemingly become intractable with the incessant failure of both global and local environmental policies purportedly emplaced to address its devastating trend, particularly in growing megacities of the world. The devastating effects of the phenomenon are more pronounced in megacities of developing countries than in developed ones. Lagos, as an industrialized, commercialized and an emerging megacity in Nigeria, has been subjected to several predictions of the negative impacts of changing climatic conditions partly caused by ubiquitous air pollution. Efforts at stemming the tide of the increasing challenges of air pollution worldwide has significantly been thwarted by inadequate funding, hence the need to review the literature on the environmental implications of growing air pollution, its contributions to climate change and its negative impacts on the lives and properties of teeming inhabitants of Lagos. A review like this will provide a synthesis of knowledge and information on mitigative and adaptive measures that can be adopted to minimize the impacts of air pollution on the mega city.This study utilizes consciously selected and current literatures on the subject matter and found that Lagos inhabitants have been vulnerable to virtually all forms of damaging effects of climate change majorly propelled by seemingly uncontrollable air pollution. This implies that the situation requires proactive measures, otherwise, avoidable loss of lives and large scale destruction of properties may be inevitable. The paper therefore advocates involvement of all stakeholders in both mitigation and adaptation measures to climate change through enhancement of indigenous knowledge and creation of awareness among citizens about the need to be conscious of their carbon foot prints.