By Samuel Dodoo
Accra, Oct. 22, GNA – Civil society organisations (CSOs) have called on development partners to establish a fund to address climate change disasters in vulnerable countries.
They said they would vigorously advocate for the creation of the fund, which they term “loss and damage fund” at this year’s Conference of Parties (COP27) for Development Partners.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says climate change disasters have caused huge losses and damages to infrastructure and livelihoods in some African countries, which need financial and other resources to rebuild.
This came to light at a pre-COP forum held for CSOs in Accra to improve their knowledge and understanding on climate change disasters to enhance their campaign.
It was on the theme: “COP27 ‘Loss and Damage in the Context of Climate Change Adaptation in Ghana”, sponsored by Abibisroma Foundation, ENDA Energy of Senegal, and Africa Climate.
The forum asked that an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change should be mandated by the COP to write a special report on global loss and damage with vivid descriptions of disasters and their effects.
Participants called for the implementation of the decision taken at COP26 to create an institutional structure for loss and damage, which should be the third pillar after mitigation and adaptation of climate change processes.
Dr Emmanuel Tachie Obeng, the Acting Director of Climate Change, EPA, said the consequences of climate change went beyond adaptation and mitigation and constituted a serious obstacle to development.
“We keep on borrowing from the developed countries who were responsible for climate change and make our economy worse.”
But for climate change and the associated losses, Ghana would have been 20 per cent worthier today, he said.
“So, if we are talking about climate change and its losses, we need to be serious, especially the CSOs. When you push, they listen, and it is the same thing when the vulnerable countries push, they listen.”
Dr Obeng said some developed countries were pledging financial support to vulnerable nations and expressed the hope that the COP27 would engender a lot of pledges to address the impact on vulnerable nations.
GNA