Otu Inaugurates Green Plan to Create Wealth, Attracts Carbon Finance
By Judex OKORO
Governor Bassey Otu has inaughrated Cross River State's first-ever Climate Transition Plan, pledging to convert the state's forest wealth into green investments and protect vulnerable communities from climate change impacts.
Performing the ceremony on Tuesday in Calabar at a two-day induction workshop on the development of the Cross River State Transition Plan, Otu, who chairs the State Council Climate Change, stated that climate change is an urgent economic reality and not a distant threat.
The governor, represented by the Speaker of the State Assembly, Elvert Ayambem, said Cross River, which holds over half of Nigeria's remaining rainforests, is on the frontline of global environmental change and must lead under his People First agenda.
"Today, we are setting in motion a process that will shape the socioeconomic and ecological future of our state.
"The plan will begin with four baseline assessments across all 18 LGAs — a Greenhouse Gas Inventory, Climate Risk and Vulnerability Assessment, Climate Finance Landscape Assessment and Mitigation Strategy Assessment", the governor said.
Otu thanked international partners — Future Funds, the Under2 Coalition and the Climate Group — for the seed grant, and the FAO and UNDP for their support.
In a keynote, Special Envoy on Climate Change Missions Oden Ewa, said the state's future depends not on its natural wealth but on how wisely it is transformed into prosperity.
"The Transition Plan must be more than a policy document; it must be an instrument of development, investment and opportunity," Ewa said, urging stakeholders to link policy to budgets and environmental protection to jobs and public benefits.
Director-General of the Cross River State Council on Climate Change, Dr. Edu Effiom said the workshop has a dual mandate — to launch the assessments and finalize the first drafts of the State Climate Change Policy and Green Economy Policy, which will serve as legal pillars for the Transition Plan.
She pledged that the council is fully committed to providing the coordination, technical backing, and cross-sectoral synergy required to make this process seamless.
"Let us maximize this inception workshop to co-design a blueprint that is practical, locally owned, and globally competitive", she said.
