Accra, Ghana//-After piloting its Regional Climate Strategy for more than a year, the ECOWAS Commission has validated the strategy at a two-day high-level workshop held in Accra on April 26 and 27 to finalize the regional climate strategy, before its validation by the Specialized Ministerial Technical Committee in the morning of April 29.
The strategy according to participants from the 15 Member States of the ECOWAS, NGOs, experts, among others would create a coherent basis for ambitious, coordinated and united action on climate.
With the technical and financial support of Expertise France and the European Union, through the GCCA+ West Africa project, this strategy is part of a participatory and concerted approach for both its development and implementation.
Objective
The overall objective of the ECOWAS Regional Climate Strategy is to support Member States to tackle the challenge of the fight against climate change in line with the Paris Agreement.
Don’t underestimate threats of climate change
Speaking at the workshop, the Ghana Country Director for AFD, French Development Agency Group, Christophe Cottet who deputised for the CEO of Expertise France, said the ECOWAS Commission would never underestimate threats of climate change.
He noted that only a handful of regions in the world are able to deploy and effective operational and regulatory framework, to support Member States in achieving Climate adaptation and mitigation goals.
“This is the strength of the ECOWAS treaties and it illustrates the exemplarity and the leadership of West Africa in the implementation of the Paris Agreement.
ECOWAS is indeed committed to mainstream climate matters and as such set up across-cutting steering committee at the Commission embarking all ECOWAS Commission directorates and up to the highest level with the representation of the Presidency”.
Recent report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) which is the United Nations body for assessing the science related to climate change showed that an increase of temperature of 2,5 degrees may provoke 90 millions of internal climate refugees, 2/3 of them in West Africa.
“But we also know that there solutions; and as climate Change knows no borders, it is obvious that fight against climate change must also be implemented at the regional level”, Mr Cottet said.
In a speech read for Ghana’s Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, Dr Kwaku Afriyie, said the country is in full support of the ECOWAS Regional Climate Strategy.
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