TAPI is convinced that climate change is not only something that affects all Nigerians, but is an issue that cuts across all other issues. In other words, it examines how climate change impacts on overall socio-economic development and thus on people’s everyday lives. By extension, there is no aspect of TAPI’s analytical work that is not affected by climate change as it has a bearing on education, energy, health, governance, and, of course, job creation.
Put differently, government policy-making on climate change cannot fall under the ambit of one particular ministry. While it might seem obvious to domicile policy in the Ministry of Environment, the issue could justifiably also be housed in the Ministry of Water Resources, the Ministry of Health, of even the Ministry of Defence. TAPI’s research focuses both on possible mitigation of the causes of climate change (lowering fossil fuel consumption and concomitantly CO2 emissions, boosting renewable energy resources, etc.) but first and foremost on exposing the linkages that impair job creation in the short and long term. Examples would be: how climate change fosters insecurity; how climate change influences key input factors for agriculture; how climate change strains the primary healthcare and education systems.