Access to a clean earth must be respected - Stakeholders

Stakeholders at the Pre-Conference of Parties (COP21) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change say access to a clean earth must be considered as a basic human right to be respected by all nations.

In a communique issued on Wednesday at the end of their meeting at the University of Ghana, the stakeholders urged the global community and its leadership who would meet in December 2015 in Paris for the COP21, to take robust action to curtail further warming of the earth.

The communique subscribed to the Intended Nationally Determined Commitments (INDCs) towards reducing the greenhouse gas, but also called for fairness and equity based on national circumstances.

It invited the global community to clearly demonstrate the link between the Sustainable Development Goals and INDCs goals.

It entreated the global community to take adaptation seriously and to ensure that climate related disasters, food insecurity and poverty issues be treated as a composite part of climate change.

The communique considered access to clean earth as basic human right to be respected by all individuals, states and their affiliates and functionaries.

It urged governments in developing countries to fully accept their contributions to global warming no matter how small it is and thus accept responsibility for committing internal resources to response to climate change.

“We the participants of the 2015 Pre-COP Climate Change Festival resolve to support the efforts at reducing the impact of climate change on our societies and development in our own reasonable ways, especially through intense awareness creation across all spectrum of society,” the communique said.

COP21, also known as the 2015 Paris Climate Conference will be held in Paris in December, for the first time in over 20 years of UN negotiations.

It aims to achieve a legally binding and universal agreement on climate, with a target of keeping global warming below 2°C.

The Pre-COP21 is a follow up on the fifth Climate Change and Population Conference on Africa hosted held at the University of Ghana from July 29-31, 2015.

The Pre-COP event serves as a watershed for the Sustainable Development Goals and the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions using migration as an entry point to demonstrate relevance to climate change adaption solutions.

The Pre-COP21 Climate Change Knowledge and Leadership Festival was organised by the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research, under the auspices of the International Development Research Centre, Canada, in collaboration with stakeholders such as the Institute of Environment and Sanitation Studies, the Regional Institute for Population Studies and the Climate Change Working Group; all of the University of Ghana.