The Lagos State Government has launched the Art for Climate Project as part of efforts to promote climate change advocacy and action through artistic expression.
The project, which is in partnership with the Creative Youth Community Development Initiative – Solution17 for Climate Action, and New York University (NYU) Abu Dhabi, among other things, targets children between the ages of eight and 12 who will be co-creating local and global solutions using Canvas.
Speaking during the launch, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources, Omobolaji Gaji, said that the Art for Climate Change is a follow-up to the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), signed between New York University (NYU) Abu Dhabi and COP28 UAE.
According to him, the MOU aims to enhance the role of higher education institutions in knowledge-sharing, climate action, and youth engagement, in the lead-up to the 28th session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
He said that this is expected to increase the contribution of youths towards an inclusive and solutions-oriented climate conference.
“For the project, artists from Lagos will collaborate with Tech Innovators, Experts in relevant fields, students from NYU Abu Dhabi and the Universities Climate Network UAE, to co-create innovative solutions to problems around key thematic areas relevant to COP28, which will be depicted in ART,”he was quoted as saying.
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According to Gaji, the Art for Climate Change project will also be building on a previous partnership of the Lagos State Government with The Vision of the Child (VoTC), through which the renowned Nobel Laureate, Prof Wole Soyinka, mentored thousands of young artists, and poets between the ages 8 and 12 from 2012 to 2019.’’
Story was adapted from Leadership.
