Support For Meteorological Agency Crucial To Dealing With Climate Change

Academics and experts in climate change and adaptation have called on the government to adequately resource the Ghana Meteorological Service to enable it to provide relevant information and data to support the country’s climate change adaptation efforts.

They noted that there was the need for a general awareness to be created about the impact of climate change on citizens.

They made the call at a climate change adaptation conference organised by the Institute of Green Growth Solutions (IGGS) with support from the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung Foundation in Accra.

The conference was held under the theme, 'Climate Change Adaptation in Ghana: Leveraging Public Participation to build a resilient climate future.'

The event drew climate change experts from various parts of the country to deliberate on the effects and mitigation efforts the country can take up to avert any catastrophic effect of the global phenomenon.

The country representative of Konrad Adenauer Stiftung Burkhardt Hellmann said discussions on climate change must regularly be held in Ghana to drive efforts towards adaptation.

Dr. Daniel Benefor, a climate change expert with the Environmental Protection Agency, explained that the concept of climate change is real and there is the need for the government as well as other relevant agencies to ensure that the right measures are put in place to enable the country to adapt.

“It is happening, it is real and we should act. The talk is enough. We know enough about this topic” Dr. Daniel Benefor said.

Dr. Benefor noted that the country’s fish stock was greatly being affected by climate change and the state must take actions to ensure that it does not overly affect the country negatively.

He added that more than 60 percent of businesses in the country depend on the availability of natural resources hence the need for national conversations on the subject.

He also said “access to finances, capable institutions, strong engagements with Ghanaians and research-based evidences” are needed to improve climate change awareness among Ghanaians.

Professor Kwadwo Owusu, a lecturer at the University of Ghana, Geography Department while speaking on the Institutional capacity to address climate change said the government must prioritize resourcing agencies such as the meteorological service to play key roles in the country’s adaptation measures.

He said the agency must be able to provide relevant data to improve research on Climate Change in Ghana.

Climate change adaptation is a response to global warming, that seeks to reduce the vulnerability of social and biological systems to relatively sudden change and thus offset the effects of global warming.