African governments urged to conduct climate change research
African governments should consciously promote the use of indigenous technologies in adapting to the impact of climate change on the continent, a communiqué issued and copied to the Ghana News Agency said on Tuesday.
The communiqué also called on governments to as part of the process, increase the proportion of GDP dedicated to research on the continent, to support innovation.
Over 150 participants at the just ended 2nd Climate Change and Population Conference on Africa organised by the Regional Institute for Population Studies (RIPS), University of Ghana, from 3rd to 7th June in Ghana, said African states should support credible local institutions to undertake rigorous policy-relevant climate change research and empirical assessments.
This would help to inform climate negotiations, adaptation options and policy implementation in Africa, it noted.
The participants, comprising researchers, civil society groups, environmentalists, private and public sector institutions, politicians, gender and indigenous people activists from countries including Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, Mozambique, Kenya, France and USA, opined that the deterioration in the living conditions of the human population in Africa, was inextricably linked to the degradation of the environment of which climate change had been in the lead.
African governments, particularly African Ministers of Environment, should expand climate negotiating teams to include scientists so as to realize a strong African position in global negotiations. “African problems should first and foremost be subjected to African analyses and solutions”, the communiqué indicated.
It called on governments to re-assess their relevance to global climate negotiations and to institute their own sub-regional blocks that would aid negotiation on the continent towards establishing adaptation funds, which alleviate poverty and promote Green Growth.
“Climate change disproportionally affects our population for which women, children and the elderly are the most vulnerable in aspects of food and water insecurity, poor health, disaster risks, displacement and mobility, increased drudgery and economic loss, and that gender mainstreaming into climate change requires immediate attention.”
There was the need to stage a process to commit national governments and regional blocks on the African continent to fund thematic climate change policy roundtables that allow robust policy-research interactions, the communiqué affirmed.
Dubbed, the 2nd International Climate Change and Population conference on Africa, it afforded various participants from across Africa the opportunity to deliberate and bridge the research and policy gaps on climatic change that was lacking in Africa.
The theme for the conference, which also coincided with the 40th anniversary of RIPS, was: “Climate Change and Development at Crossroads-Sharing Lessons.”
Source: GNA