West Africa needs climate help

Daily Observer (Banjul, Gambia): Momodou Kotu Cham, secretary of state for Forestry and the Environment, yesterday opened a two-day ECOWAS climate change focal points preparatory meeting on the Bali Road Map, at the Paradise Suites Hotel in Kololi.

The forum brings together delegates from across West Africa to brief them on the latest development in intergovernmental climate change process and to properly prepare them to effectively and efficiently participate in the negotiations under the Bali Road Map processes. Organised by UNEP, in collaboration with the Department of Water Resources and the National Environment Agency, the negotiation process, under the auspices of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) Bali Road Map, sets out guidance and direction for negotiations to address climate change issues from now up to 2012 and beyond. It is expected that after the two-day meeting, the outcome of these negotiations will be finalized at Copenhagen, Denmark in 2009.

Declaring the sub-regional forum opened, SoS Cham noted that being in the sub-region and being most vulnerable to climate change, West African countries need assistance to address the most pressing climate threats and to implement adequate adaptation measures.

"As we progress towards Copenhagen," he stated, "all efforts should be made to conclude on the commitment of Annex One countries in the form of quantified emission limitation and reduction objectives (QELROs)." He went on: "The ad-hoc working group on long term cooperative action will have to finalise an agreement on all the four building blocks - mitigation, adaptation, technology and financing, and establish a timetable under the Kyoto Protocol." SoS Cham added that development and transfer of technology remains at the forefront as key elements for crafting a future climate regime and enabling effective implementation of the ongoing actions on both mitigation and adaptation to climate change….