Ekoclimathon 1.0 will bring solutions on climate change

By Ifeoma Ikem

Mr Victor Afolabi, founder of the Eko Innovation Center and curator of the Artwork of Technology Lagos, says Ekoclimathon 1.0 will provide sustainable solutions to address problems of climate change.

Afolabi said this during the launch of EkoClimathon 1.0, the first hackathon technological solutions for resolving problems related to climate change.

He said the EkoClimathon 1.0 is with a focus on issues of agriculture, waste, the circular economy, transportation, nature-based solutions, power and energy.

“Ekoclimathon 1.0 has received 1034 entries from contributors in 11 different countries. The contributors were divided into different groups and required to work together for three weeks to come up with fresh ideas depending on their main areas.

“Each group will get a chance to present their ideas to the top 10 teams with the workable ideas which will compete for a chance at the $7,500 prize pool and an acceleration program to get their products ready for the market in the finals on August 5. A jury of material experts will judge the finals.

“It will bring together business organizations, government agencies, policymakers, associations, agricultural sectors, and innovation centres to build a different fast track that may get the globe closer to the net-zero goal”.

He said that in order to address the issues of climate change, it is critical to start utilizing the creativity and skills of young people in Africa who are preoccupied with technology.

” Because climate change is reliant on clean energy sources and greenhouse gas emissions, Nigeria is one of the top 50 countries on earth that contributes to the problem of climate change.

“However, agriculture is Nigeria’s largest employer of workers and best contributor to the financial system.

“We rely so much on forests and agriculture, and everything we do has an impact on the effects of local weather change that we are currently seeing”.

He said that climate change can have an impact on immigration, noting that the high amount of immigration from other regions has left North Central in a state of turmoil.

“People can no longer go fishing since Lake Chad is drying up. Some of them have relocated. The headers lack a place to call home. It affects the level of wellbeing over time, ”he added.

Afolabi, said in terms of technology that addresses the issue of climate change, there are five areas of digital options that are susceptible to hacking: foundational applied sciences, cloud applied sciences, decision-making applied sciences, sense and management applied sciences (Web of Issues), and blockchain applied sciences.

“The more hackathons and other activities that promote this, the better for everyone, the expanding range of digital solutions can help us decrease the impact of our decisions.

“Funding for weather technology surged by a factor of two during the last years of 2022 and 2021, going from $28.4 billion to $87 billion.

“There may be significant money for weather expertise, and the investing communities are able to connect with organizations, policymakers, and engineers who are ready to participate in the effort to mitigate local climate change”.

Chairman/Founder Lekki Urban, Forest and Animal Shelter, Mr Desmond Majekodunmi explained that in the beginning it was quite embarrassing to be an environmentalist, now it’s really changing with the support from the younger people and some elders who are now getting it because it is our lives support system and not ours only but our children’s.

Majekodunmi, said that if our environment is not healthy then we can not be healthy, also Nigerians need to work very fast to prevent catastrophe.

He noted that the job description of a leader especially in government is a civil servants which means you are a servant to civilian society you are suppose to be serving the people and one of the effective ways of serving people is to safeguard lives, health and vitality.

“Meanwhile all these can be negatively impacted by a degraded support system and environment so if you are really a leader this should be your top priority,” he said.

He frowned against sand filling because the sand are being taken from places that could impact the environment very negatively.

“If you are sand filling mangrove, it’s one of the important ecosystem that protect us from waves and erosion, it is also a massive elements of carbon dioxide so we need to be very careful in Nigeria,he added

Chief Field Office, UNICEF Nigeria, and Generation Unlimited Lead, Celine Lafoucriere ,described the launch of Ekoclimathon 1.0 as a good idea saying no one should not be left out especially the younger ones.

“Eko Innovation Centre’s ideas appear to be very promising and I will be keeping an eye on the hackathon’s growth.

” It’s important we keep an eye on this influencing Nigerian children between the ages of 10 – 30 to become active and productive citizens by ensuring that they are all enrolled in some kinds of school, training, or employment by 2030.

“It is our responsibility to make sure that no one is left behind.

“By 2030, Technology Limitless 9Ja hopes to have an impact on 20 million young people with its digital ability platform, which can help Nigerians on skill learning.

“It’s simple math; 2.5 million people live in Nigeria annually; we’re on the right track. We provide a free digital platform that allows you to access digital learning. It is a really exciting to have digital platform where all friends can debut for free and offer any kind of skill,” she added.