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Climate change stakeholders find deliberate on Accra

By
Yaw Ansah, GNA

Accra, Nov 14, GNA –
Ghana’s capital continue to remain vulnerable to the adverse effects of
changing weather pattern and as a result of Climate Change.

As a result,
stakeholders have met to deliberate on concrete steps to make the city
resilient.

One of the effects,
perennial flooding and its solution is a topical issue the participants of the
7th International Climate Change and Population Conference on Africa
(CCPOP)-Ghana, made up of scientists, development partners, students, political
leaders, city authorities and the media would find answers to over the next
three days.

The conference is
being organised by the Regional Institute for Population Studies (RIPS),
University of Ghana with the assistance of the International Development
Research Centre (IDRC) of Canada and the Accra Metropolitan Assembly on
the theme, “Transforming Cities’ Resilience to Climate Change”.

Speaking at the
opening of the conference, Madam Cecilia Dapaah, the Minister of Sanitation and
Water Resources said the impacts of climate change could reverse entire
development as it had become the most important threat to human security
with impacts on agriculture, energy, health, transportation, water, food
security, etc.

She noted that
climate change had ‘literally put everything out of gear’, and that the
situation could be addressed through effective planning.

“The meteorological
agency can predict some rains, but cannot forecast flooding… What we need to do
as a society is to protect property, and lives especially the women and
children”, she added.

The Minister called
for the need to formulate an effective plan as well as deploy early systems
warning early to enable the vulnerable adapt to these effects.

Madam Sabine Nolke,
Acting High Commission of Canada to Ghana stated that Climate Change was one of
the greatest challenges facing humanity and that Canadian International
assistance project seeks to minimise the negative environmental impact and
improve environmental sustainability.

She noted that
Canada’s “Modernising Agriculture in Ghana” project was providing the
government of Ghana with $ 125 million in direct sector budget support to
develop a more modern inclusive and sustainable sector.

Madam Nolke said it
included; transfer of knowledge on best practices, climate smart agriculture to
farmer most of who were women.

Mr Yaw Oppong Boadi,
the National Focal Person for the United Nations Framework Convention on
Climate Change (UNFCC) said an implementation plan of the Nationally Determine
Contributions (NDCs)was developed and was yet to receive parliamentary
approval.

The NDCs are at the
heart of the 2015 Paris Agreement that embody efforts by each country to reduce
national emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change, which set out
the actions that countries plan to undertake to achieve the agreement’s
objectives, focused on limiting the rise in average global temperatures to well
below two degree Celsius, and ideally, to 1.5 degree Celsius.

Mr Boadi said a
Ghanaian delegation would participate in the 25th UNFCC conference
in Madrid Spain to join other parties to negotiate especially on issues on
adaptation.

Professor Joseph
Yaro, Director, Regional Institute for Population Studies at the University of
Ghana said the existence of human depended on the environment and called for
pragmatic steps to preserve nature.

In the past 10
years, the world especially Ghana, he said would not be lamenting about the
adverse effects of climate change affecting all the sectors of the economy, if
adequate steps were taken in the past to build resilience to contain the
impact.

GNA

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