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Gambia News : ECOWAS officials discuss climate change in Gambian capital

The workshop, which opened on Monday at the Paradise Suites Hotel in Banjul, is in line with ECOWAS objectives, taking into account climate change. The event, which will end on 4th March, 2009, is co-hosted by the ECOWAS bureau in collaborations with the government of The Gambia.

This sub-regional action programme is to ensure that the population, economies and governments in the ECOWAS sub-region are constantly and effectively adapting to climate change.

Dr. Johnson Boanuh, Director of the ECOWAS Environment Department, who is representing the ECOWAS Commissioner of Agriculture, Environment and Water Resources, said the meeting would no doubt be a decisive turning point in the field of climate change in the sub-region.

He said scientists have shown that the planet’s global warming is caused by the effects from the concentration of green house gases in the atmosphere which he said is so evident as to justify the undertaking of concrete actions by ECOWAS member states in order to significantly reduce the gas accumulation.

According to him, "We must acknowledge the international community for taking some corrective measures to combat the consequences of environmental degradation and for coming up with appropriate measures in order to minimise their effects".

In this light, he pointed to the negotiations leading to the adoption of the Convention on Climate Change and its Additional Protocol, called the Kyoto Protocol, in order to further prevent the destruction of the ozone layer

He added that studies and exchanges carried out in Africa have clearly revealed that the impact of climate change shall affect a large portion of West Africa with lots of rainfall variables, the disappearance of a number of plant and animal species, the recurrence of a number of calamities like floods, and periods of severe drought.

Boanuh added that the effects have an economic cost estimated at 5,500 billion euros per annum worldwide. He said that all ECOWAS member countries have ratified the convention and are in the process of ratifying the Kyoto Protocol adding that the National Adaptation Action Plan (NAAP) to climate change have also been prepared and adopted, and national structures are also put in place to ensure their implementation in all the states.

At the Banjul meeting, Boanuh noted, "We need to underscore the need for a synergy of actions in order to avoid wasting energy and resources, with a view to fighting effectively the scourge in the sub-region".

He asserted that the ECOWS Commission has on several occasions been invited to prepare a sub-regional action plan and to coordinate actions, citing the Ouagadougou meeting on mitigating climate change in January 2007, the Niamey meeting on the impact of climate change on livestock in 2007, the Ouagadougou meeting on climate change and water resources in 2008, the Cotonou meeting on climate change and energy in October 2008 and the Cotonou Ministerial Dialogue on climate change, in October 2008.

He called on the participants to come up with useful contributions, with a view to making the document a unifying one, saying that "this is the only way we shall be able to provide our region with the necessary tools to minimise the problems caused by climate change while responding to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)".

He assured participants that the ECOWAS Commission shall fully play its part in the process and shall join member states in the search for solutions to the problems of climate change.