WASACL fights climate change in West Africa

The West African Service Centre on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use (WASCAL) has moved to provide climate and environmental services to mitigate and reduce the impact of climate change in the subregion.

This endeavour is on the back of the fact that West Africa is not immune to the issues of climate change, making it valuable to develop services that will position institutions to provide scientific data and relevant information to empower people in the sub-region.

The initiative, which is being pursued together with the German Climate Services Centre (GERICS), according to the Interim Executive Director of WASCAL, Prof. Kehinde Ogunjobi, is timely considering the ravaging effect of climate change on the African continent.

It is, therefore, to reduce such impact like rising temperature, low food productivity, health and infrastructure issues, among others, that WASCAL is focused on helping to build people’s capacity in the sub-region, he said.

Prof. Ogunjobi, who spoke during a media engagement on post-COP28 contributions toward Integrated Climate Services for Sustainable Socio-Economic Development in West Africa, explained that the intended services target all the 12 member-countries of WASCAL.

They include Ghana, Benin, Nigeria, Togo, Niger and Côte d’Ivoire. The rest are Burkina Faso, Mali, Senegal, the Gambia, Guinea and Cape Verde.

“Currently, we have three member-countries of the Economic Community of West Africa (ECOWAS) that we are working closely with, which are Liberia, Guinea Bissau and Sierra Leone.

“We are working very expeditiously to make sure that these three countries come on board with the current 12 so that we can have all the 15 member-countries of ECOWAS benefitting from these climate services,” he added.

The project, he said, comprises data and scientific computation (DSC), timely information on extreme climate events (TIX), migration and cross-border migration, climate policy and action, and scientific and vocational opportunities.

While the project has attracted initial funding from a partner organisation, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), Germany, Prof. Ogunjobi noted that the entire project has been designed to fund itself. This is given that part of the project has been planned to develop business models to revolve around and fund itself.

About climate finance agreements reached by the United Nations (UN) Conference of Parties (COP), he asserted the funds have been difficult to assess. “Even if this money has been released – the US$100billion that was promised to mitigate climate change in COP25, I’m not sure we have been able to assess any of this.”

Furthermore, he said various networks of funding institutions as well as third-party funding projects have been identified to enable WASCAL to leverage its climate efforts.

The Director of Capacity Building, Prof. Daouda Kone, while admitting that the climate finance commitment has not been enough, also noted that the efforts of WASCAL to collaborate with members at the country level should be welcomed in the climate fight.

The media engagement was meant to take stock of WASCAL’s commitment to providing climate services in West Africa at the just-ended COP28 and for the media to appreciate the operationalisation of the climate services available for West Africans.

The event came off on the back of a stakeholder meeting that brought participants from different West African countries and abroad. It includes private sectors, NGOs and government agencies to investigate what the user needs and standards are, the challenges ahead, where the gaps lie, and how WASCAL and GERICS seek to bring their solutions in solving the climate change issues.

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