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The Executive Director of Environmental Defenders Network (EDEN), Barrister Chima Williams, has encouraged tertiary institutions to go beyond mere academic exercises in their contribution to addressing environmental issues and climate change by providing opportunities for challenging established assumptions, sharing innovative ideas, and building partnerships that extend beyond the walls of the institutions.

Williams, who is the 2022 Goldman Environmental Prize Winner for Africa, gave this charge at the Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Ndufu-Alike (FUNAI), Ebonyi State’s 2026 “International Multidisciplinary Hybrid Conference on Climate Change and Environmental Sustainability: Global Perspectives and Local Issues” where he was special guest and keynote speaker.

EDENChima Williams (right) join in tree planting

The event, which he said was part of his “home coming”, featured a host of activities including his donation of exotic species of fruits and ornamental trees to the University on behalf of the EDEN and Chima Williams & Associates, where he is principal.

While delivering the keynote, Williams said that climate change is no longer a distant prediction or an abstract scientific concept but a lived reality as the global community now experiences rising temperatures, prolonged droughts, heat waves, devastating floods, sea-level rise, biodiversity loss, desertification, and increasing threats to food security and public health.

He explained that these challenges is a reminder that environmental sustainability is not merely an environmental concern; it is fundamentally a matter of justice, development, human rights, peace, and survival.

He said that the international community has made commendable efforts through frameworks such as the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Kyoto Protocol, and the Paris Agreement. Yet, despite these commitments, greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise, and vulnerable communities – particularly in developing countries – continue to bear the greatest burden of a crisis they contributed least to creating.

He went on to explain that Nigeria presents a compelling example of this paradox.

“Across our country, communities face severe environmental degradation from oil pollution, gas flaring, deforestation, erosion, flooding, desertification, and the growing impacts of climate variability. The Niger Delta remains one of the most environmentally impacted regions in the world, while northern Nigeria continues to confront desert encroachment and water scarcity. Coastal communities face increasing threats from erosion and rising sea levels, while urban centres struggle with flooding caused by poor planning and inadequate waste management. Examples abound!”

The EDEN boss also explained that the climate crisis also presents an opportunity as it invites the global community to rethink models of development, transform energy systems, promote circular economies, restore degraded ecosystems, and build societies founded on justice, sustainability, and resilience.

He also noted that the choices made today will determine the environmental legacy the current generation leaves to future generations.

In his recommendations, he pointed out that there is need for participants to engage across disciplinary lines, challenge current assumptions and share innovative ideas beyond the event even as he insisted that environmental justice is not only about protecting nature but also about protecting humanity.

At the end of the keynote address, he requested the university authority to support the students to form the FUNAI’s branch of the Students Environmental Assembly Nigeria (SEAN). Through the vehicle of that association, he pledged to institute two awards – the Vice Chancellor’s Award for the Cleanest Faculty in the university and the Dean of Faculty of Arts Award for the cleanest Hostel in the university. Both awards will go with a cash prize of NGN200,000.00 and NGN100,000.00 respectively.

The lawyer explained that the essence of the awards is to encourage students’ involvement in the environmental sustainability of the institution among other offers by the Ebonyi State Civil Society Leaders.

Before the conference commencement, the Ebonyi State Commissioner for Environment, Chief Sylvester Nwenugwu Nwite, led Williams, the Dean of Faculty of Arts, Prof. Arua Oko, leaders of Ebonyi State Civil Society Organisations, Professors and Academic Leaders of the university and others on a tree planting exercise as part of Climate Resilience Practices.