Pre-COP 27: Ghana seeks support on climate change
As the Conference of Parties (COP) 27 approaches, the Director of Environment at the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI), Peter Dery, has stressed the need for a change in support for adaptation actions in developing countries especially in Africa.
COP is an annual forum on the climate crisis where the opinions and concerns of countries are deliberated on to tackle climate change across the world.
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Mr Dery said Africa, the most vulnerable continent when it comes to climate change, has special needs and circumstances because the continent has contributed least to emissions yet it is bearing the heaviest price.”
“We are saying that attention must be given to Africa, and adaptation finance must double. We are already suffering from the impacts of climate change; properties and others are destroyed during extreme events so the question of loss and damage is also important for us.
There must be a way to compensate us for the destruction of property and lives that are lost due to climate change,” he said.
Pre-COP 27 meeting
Mr Dery made the call at a Pre-COP stakeholders’ meeting held in Accra on October 28.
The meeting was organised by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research’s Science Technology Policy Research Institute (CSIR-STEPRI) under the auspices of the Resilience against Climate Change (REACH) – Social Transformation Research (STR) project.
It was held under the theme: “Building Resilience against Climate Change through Effective Adaptation Planning and Actions: Ghana‘s progress ahead of COP 27 and aimed at enhancing advocacy and knowledge on exploring approaches to building resilience to climate risks through fair, inclusive and enhanced climate actions.
It brought together policy makers, development partner organisations, climate change experts, researchers, academia, youth groups, farmers, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and some representatives from the private sector to deliberate on issues Ghana would be presenting at COP 27 next week in Cairo, Egypt.
Challenge
Mr Dery said despite government's contribution to reducing mitigation and building resilience through policies such as the climate change policy, the country has not yet achieved the expected results adding that “climate change is not an event but something that happens on a daily basis.
He, therefore, noted that “climate change must be part of what we do on a regular basis.”
A Research Scientist at CSIR, Dr Portia Adade Williams, said after the meeting, a communique highlighting the outcomes and key messages from the meetings will be developed and pushed to Ghana’s negotiation team attending the main event next week.
“It will later be submitted to the presidency when the overall COP 27 report is ready,” she said.