A group dedicated to combating climate change and improving livelihood, West African Science Service Centre on Climate Change and Adapted Use (WASCAL) has drafted an operational document for active civil society organizations on climate-related issues across countries in ECOWAS, with the sole aim of enhancing the awareness of the stakeholders on Global Stocktake in line with the implementation of the Article 14 of the Paris Agreement.
Project Lead and Senior Scientist of the Ouagadougou-Burkina Faso based organization, Dr. Kwame Hackman, during the workshop organized in Yaba-Lagos disclosed that the Independent Global Stocktake (iGST) is aimed at pursuing multiple avenue of influence to make the most of the opportunity afforded by the Climatework Foundation to accelerate climate ambition.
According to Dr. Hackman, ‘the iGST is a unique project and the main essence of it is to bring together voices from the civil society organizations to contribute to the process of the ongoing global stocktake under the Paris Agreement’.
The WASCAL Project Lead agreed that under normal circumstances these are roles of government of countries in West Africa but ‘WASCAL is providing a complementary support for the government and it will be good to bring all the civil society climate actors together including campaigners, rather than doing this at the individual level:.
Also Read
Dr. Hackman further explained that Climateworks Foundation (USA) is working very hard providing the fund to ensure that the voices of civil society organizations from all over the world will work together under a unique platform called Independent Global Stocktake providing support to governments in line with the implementation of Paris Agreement.
In his welcome address, Director of WASCAL Competence Centre and iGST Project Expert, Professor Kehinde Ogunjobi said his team decided to visit the 15 member countries of ECOWAS and intimate them on the challenges ahead.
Ogunjobi said: ‘!by the time the real operationalization of the hub begins, all these activities will foster down people at the grassroots. We are also meeting with non-governmental actors with about 20 civil societies across the country at the workshop since they are the one on the field. By the time we interface with them the set goal of the hub will be achieved’.
Professor Ogunjobi opined that ‘the importance of the program is to achieve the goal of the UNFCCC of reducing global temperature to a minimum of between 1.5 and 2 degree Celsius and that is the ultimate”
The Director of WASCAL Competence Centre is optimistic that if this is achieved, “it means that we would be able to mitigate the impact of climate in our society and we live in a better environment it means our crops will yield and comes back to adequate yield, our environment is more greener and beautiful to live in, there are less people with diseases so it will be a win-win for us”.
Professor Ogunjobi however advised that government should take the issue of climate change because climate change is right here with us. According to him, even the Nigeria Meteorological Agency is already forecasting heavy rain this year, more than what is being experienced in the last 30 years, so government should put more funding into research by conducting more research so as to reduce the impact of climate change in our society.
Speaking on behalf of the participants at the workshop, Director, Centre for 21st Century Issues, Ms. Titilope Akosa admitted that the programme is a welcome development and participants are very proud to be part of it. She said that all participants are ready to drive the program with zeal and passion in ensuring its success.
Akosa is also of the opinion that “the program will help Nigerians to keep track of our National Designated Contribution (NDC) the Nigeria indices to see what has been done and continue to hold our policy makers to account on the implementation of Nigerian indices”.
After much deliberation at the workshop, participants and organizers later agreed to inaugurate the Nigeria iGST Group to serve as the operating body responsible for monitoring and regulate the activities of West Africa Hub in Nigeria towards achieving the desired set aims and objectives of WASCAL.