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Gambia News : Gambian environment minister says Africa most vulnerable to climate change
Momodou Kotu Cham, the Gambian Minister of Forestry and the Environment, on Monday told the ECOWAS workshop on climate change taking place in Banjul that the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has stated that Africa is one of the most vulnerable continents to climate change and climate variability.
Opening the workshop at the Paradise Suites Hotel about 15 kilometres outside Banjul, Cham said the IPCC report also highlighted that West Africa’s vulnerability was exacerbated by development challenges such as endemic poverty, complex governance and institutional dimensions, limited access to capital including markets, infrastructure and technology, ecosystem degradation and complex disasters and conflicts.
Cham said the ECOWAS region has long been subjected to high levels of climate variability, in both spatial and temporal terms.
Over the past decades, he said "This has led to serious challenges in terms of security, poverty alleviation and socio economic development,”
He also stated that global climate change is due to green house gas emissions which threaten to magnify existing climate variability and which impacts directly on society.
Mr. Pa Ousman Jarju, Director of Water Resources and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change focal person in The Gambia, said that Africa’s high vulnerability was aggravated by multiple biophysical and development stresses adding that in many countries, economies are heavily reliant on climate sensitive sectors such as rain-fed agriculture, fisheries, natural resources and tourism.
West African populations are also highly vulnerable to various climate risks like the changes in air temperature, sea level rise, changes in rainfall amounts and distribution, and the increased occurrence of extreme events such as drought, Jarjue said.
"These risks are likely to increase in line with forecasted global climate change", he warned.
Jarjue explained that the management, design and implementation of action programme will be guided by the principles such as the importance of good governance and sustainable management of natural resources, the building of synergies with the national policy and legislative frameworks related to environmental management and to natural resources management
The participants are discussing the process for preparing the Strategy and Action Plan, overview of West Africa’s vulnerability to climate change and response strategies. On the last day, they will discuss and validate the recommendations of the working groups.
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