African leaders need insight on climate change - DFID

Tema, Aug. 19, 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. 19 Aug 08