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African leaders need
insight on climate change – DFID
Tema, Aug. 19, Ghanadot/GNA – An
expert on climate change on Tuesday said even though climate
change had grave implications for the cocoa, water, mining
and food production sectors of African countries, African
leaders were yet to fully grasp the phenomenon and its
implications for the continent.
Mr. Sean Doolan, West African Regional Advisor on Climate
Change at the United Kingdom Department For International
Development (DFID) made the remark at a press conference on
board the HMS Endurance Ship from the United Kingdom, which
was on the 10 day visit to Ghana to raise awareness about
climate change.
HMS Endurance is a sole Ice Patrol Ship of the Royal Navy of
the United Kingdom dedicated to assisting scientists and
researchers with state of the art equipment to gather
information on the seabed and also collect data that could
be used to access climate change in the Antarctic and in
Africa.
Whiles in Ghana, the crew on the ship would also offer
training to the Ghanaian Navy on Marine Security and
policing of the sea, donate to charity and also participate
in the forthcoming UN Conference on Climate Change slated
for August 21 – 27, 2008.
Mr. Doolan expressed the hope that the conference would
provide the opportunity for African leaders to get some
technical insight into climate change.
He noted that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was
drawing on research at the global to undertake some action
to mitigate and adapt to climate change and its inevitable
effects such as global warming, food shortage, drought and
other undesirables.
“But we need a wider engagement of all sector ministries,
civil society and indeed a complete national constituency to
deal effectively with the effects of climate change,” he
said.
This he said, required a deeper understanding of the
phenomenon and a better appreciations of its impact on
Africa states, adding that African politicians and civil
society organizations needed to avail themselves of that
information in order to make meaningful contribution to the
global debate on climate change.
“Africa needs a voice in international protocols on climate
change and African leaders need to demonstrate a clear
understanding of what Africa’s stake is,” he said.
Ms. Hannah Ryder, a member of the UK delegation to the
forthcoming climate change conference said Africa was not
required to set any binding targets but rather undertake
voluntary actions to help address the effects of climate
change.
“African countries would only be expected to come up with
voluntary actions geared towards addressing the problem of
climate change because Africa’s contribution to the problem
is highly insignificant,” she said.
She noted that at this point Africa required an additional
70 per cent electricity to meet the needs of its citizens,
saying that the continent needed to be encouraged to take
measures to generate that energy but would be expected for
instance, to opt for environmentally friendly sources of
energy.
Ms. Ryder also expressed the hope that the conference would
emerge with a greater voice for Africa on the issue of
climate change.
Ms. Kirsty Lewis from the UK Metrological Department said
even though climate change was a global phenomenon, its
impact was more regional in nature, explaining that whereas
the causal factors were dominant in the developed world,
African countries faced the threat of being most hard hit.
Mr. Emmanuel Arthur, Programmes Officer from the EPA, said
the EPA in collaboration with the UNDP had awarded contracts
to civil society organizations in the country to undertake
education programmes at the local level on climate change
and how to mitigate and adapt to its effects.
He said the focus of the programme would be on the areas of
health, agriculture, mining and aforestations.
Touching on how Ghana was preparing for the onslaught of the
effects of climate change, he said Ghana’s participation in
the West African Gas Pipeline Project and the President’s
Special Initiative on forestation were all designed to
mitigate and adapt to climate change.
GNA
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