The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is adopting a regional climate strategy to meet the challenge of combating climate change. The project was presented on Monday 20 June in Abuja, Nigeria to the Members of Parliament of the community through a communication from the Commission of the community institution.
The fight against climate change is becoming a regional affair in Africa. Just as climate change is affecting the continent’s productivity, addressing it requires the participation of all and the Regional Climate Strategy is intended to be a catalyst for action by all stakeholders. Developed by the West African Commission, with technical and financial support from the European Union, this framework will enable West African states to achieve the objectives they have set themselves since the Paris Agreement, and to better coordinate their climate action at regional level.
ECOWAS member countries unite for solidarity action
Thus, by adopting this strategy, ECOWAS is committing itself alongside and in support of its fifteen (15) Member States to make climate a priority of the region’s political action, in line with its 2050 vision. All this is based on the observation that the impacts of climate change are transboundary and that it is together that ECOWAS Member States can meet this challenge. “Climate action at the West African regional level is essential because the coordination of interventions, solidarity between member states and the commitment of local communities are the keys to effective and sustainable climate action. It is also an opportunity to raise the region’s voice on the international scene, by conveying the messages of a united and supportive region in the climate negotiations, and by structuring the mobilisation of financial resources to massively increase international climate financing,” stated Commissioner Sékou Sangaré, in charge of agriculture, environment and water resources at the ECOWAS Commission, when the project was validated at the end of April in Accra.
The objectives of the ECOWAS Regional Climate Strategy
The mission of the ECOWAS Regional Climate Strategy is to ensure the compatibility and coherence of the regional legal framework with the objectives of the Paris Agreement, to develop the capacity of anticipation and decision making to manage climate risks. It also promotes an institutional paradigm shift and strengthens the capacities of ECOWAS and the States in the implementation of policies and actions to combat climate change.
This new strategy focuses on three strands, namely adaptation and mitigation, for which the expected results are adaptation to the impacts of climate change and a contribution to the mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions.
