The third ministerial council meeting of members of the West Africa Science Service Centre on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use (WASCAL)
The conference purported to deepen the relationship among member countries and the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research is being held on the theme “Deepening partnership between German and West African Policymakers towards the
Among other things, it is designed to showcase strategies by policy makers in ensuring a sustainable fight against the climate change challenge in the sub- region.
The member countries include Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Gambia, Cote d’Ivoire, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Togo, Nigeria and Ghana.
Speaking at the ceremony, the deputy Minister of the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI) Mrs Patricia Appiagyei commended Wascal for the pivotal role it had played to combat climate change through its three key focus areas including Climate Services, Research and Capacity Building.
She said the fight against climate change which was mainly attributed to man-made activities was not limited to a particular country but rather it cut across borders hence the need for enormous investments to combat it.
“The Magnitude of the threats that climate change poses to the survival of humanity, demands a collective action to address the challenges of keeping global warming below the 2Oc target” she said.
However, Mrs. Appiagyei called for adequate and timely provision of financial resources to enable affected countries effectively fights the negative impact of climate change.
She said the government of Ghana had established 192, 253, 19 acres of tree plantation and recently employed over 20,000 youth to plant about 10 million tree seedlings; distributed 1.2 million clean cooking stoves to households with the aim of reducing global warming.
“We have developed a plastic policy that aims to deal with the whole value chain of plastic management including the circular economy; this will provide huge green job opportunities in recycling and waste to plastic technologies,” she added.
Mrs Appiagyei therefore called for timely and adequate mobilisation of financial resources through country contributions as a means of capitalisation for the implementation of WASCAL programmes in the short and medium term.
She said her outfit would continue to promote sustainable development as government machinery, by deepening and strengthening market driven research and development for sound environmental governance, science, technology and innovation through intensive awareness creation, collaboration and partnerships.
The German Federal Minister of Education and Research Mrs Anja Karliczek said WASCAL exist to improve the projection of the impact of climate change on the economic development of the West African sub- region.
She said the centre also sought to inform policy makers on land use policies that would help counter the effects of climate change as well encourage, promote and undertake research at the regional and national levels.
BY BENEDICTA GYIMAAH FOLLEY
