MAINSTREAMING CLIMATE SMART PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICES AMONG FAITH BASED COMMUNITIES IN NIGERIA

LAW AND THE ENVIRONMENT

Abstract

There was a Papal encyclical of 16 June 2015 entitled Laudato Si focused on the care of our common home-the Planet Earth. The content of the said scriptural verses underscored the relationship of God, man and the environment. Significantly, it should be obvious that any act of man that changes the course of God’s ordained purpose for the environment should therefore be of concern to Faith Based Organizations. This, presumably, must have informed the declaration of Pope Francis. The paper therefore weighs the inter-relatedness of the trilogy of ecological economics and education; simplicity; and concomitant spirituality as well as a call for divestment from oil, gas and coal, in preference for other and alternative power source. The author argued logically that if it is accepted that the environment is the main forte and natural refuge for man, then the sustenance and protection of the same environment must ipso facto be seen as the fundamental right of man. Consequent on the above, the paper by diverse reasoning concluded with respect to the Nigerian constitution 1999 that the creation of novel section in Chapter 4, invoking the rights, duties and obligations of the citizens in relation to the environment.