**2. Background**

Nigeria is ranked seventh in the world and has an estimated population of over 200.96 million. It accounts for about 47% of West Africa population including the largest populations of youth in the world [23]. Indeed, Nigeria is the giant of Africa with a federation that consists of 36 autonomous states, occupying a geographical area of 923,768 sq. km, has abundance of resources, is the largest oil exporter and is the largest natural gas reserve in the continent and yet a multi-ethnic and culturally

**17**

*The Developing World's Contribution to Global Warming and the Resulting Consequences…*

diverse society with over 500 different ethnic groups [24]. Nigeria is blessed with physical, natural and human resources; however, she is surrounded by numerous environmental problems that have been exacerbated by climate crisis affecting its

Nigerian and most developing countries in spite of their huge deposits in natural resources are still heavily dependent on agricultural production for their livelihoods. It is estimated that a total of 133 billion tonnes of carbon has been lost since humans first settled into agricultural life around 12,000 years ago. Also, crop production and cattle grazing have contributed almost equally to global losses too [25]. Further, a study carried out by Brandt et al. [26] also confirmed the contribution of agriculture to atmospheric carbon absorption by revealing that sub-Saharan Africa's vegetation carbon stocks changed between 2010 and 2016 with an overall loss of 2.6 billion tonnes of CO2 in the past 7 years and yearly losses averaging at 367 million tonnes of CO2. Developing countries like Ghana, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Uganda and Kenya are experiencing the largest drop in carbon stocks with implications that climate change could make extreme events

Hence, developing countries are exposed to climate vulnerability; as a result livelihoods, urban areas, infrastructures, human lives, health, socio-economic life and the built environment are threatened, particularly in Africa where sustainable resilient practices are mediocre. With low institutional capacity, sophisticated technology, finance and adequate resources are limited in these poor and most

It is quite alarming that the rate at which temperature increases is accelerating global warming incidence, revealing the need to operate environmentally friendly options and adaptive measures for climate regulation in order to ameliorate drastic weather predictions [3, 4, 28]. It is the need to review the developing world's contribution to global warming and the consequences of climate change in these regions with focus on Nigeria as a case study that has prompted these pertinent and

1.What is the present climate situation in Nigeria and other developing

3.What are the impacts of climate change in these regions?

2.What are the major limiting factors that exacerbate climate risks in these

4.What efforts are these regions making to salvage the climate situation?

5.What are the research gap(s) in climate change studies in Nigeria and other

The search of databases was carried out by the authors. The search of articles was limited to the English language only. The search list included studies, grey literature and policy papers with relevant documents. The information sources included articles from Springer, PubMed, ResearchGate, Google Scholar and Social Sciences Abstracts from January 1990 to June 2019. Referenced sections of

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.85052*

socio-economic and political sectors.

more frequent [26].

vulnerable regions [27].

their possible solutions:

countries?

regions?

**3. Method**

developing countries?

## *The Developing World's Contribution to Global Warming and the Resulting Consequences… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.85052*

diverse society with over 500 different ethnic groups [24]. Nigeria is blessed with physical, natural and human resources; however, she is surrounded by numerous environmental problems that have been exacerbated by climate crisis affecting its socio-economic and political sectors.

Nigerian and most developing countries in spite of their huge deposits in natural resources are still heavily dependent on agricultural production for their livelihoods. It is estimated that a total of 133 billion tonnes of carbon has been lost since humans first settled into agricultural life around 12,000 years ago. Also, crop production and cattle grazing have contributed almost equally to global losses too [25]. Further, a study carried out by Brandt et al. [26] also confirmed the contribution of agriculture to atmospheric carbon absorption by revealing that sub-Saharan Africa's vegetation carbon stocks changed between 2010 and 2016 with an overall loss of 2.6 billion tonnes of CO2 in the past 7 years and yearly losses averaging at 367 million tonnes of CO2. Developing countries like Ghana, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Uganda and Kenya are experiencing the largest drop in carbon stocks with implications that climate change could make extreme events more frequent [26].

Hence, developing countries are exposed to climate vulnerability; as a result livelihoods, urban areas, infrastructures, human lives, health, socio-economic life and the built environment are threatened, particularly in Africa where sustainable resilient practices are mediocre. With low institutional capacity, sophisticated technology, finance and adequate resources are limited in these poor and most vulnerable regions [27].

It is quite alarming that the rate at which temperature increases is accelerating global warming incidence, revealing the need to operate environmentally friendly options and adaptive measures for climate regulation in order to ameliorate drastic weather predictions [3, 4, 28]. It is the need to review the developing world's contribution to global warming and the consequences of climate change in these regions with focus on Nigeria as a case study that has prompted these pertinent and their possible solutions:

