By Maimuna fatty
The Ministry of Environment, Climate Change and Natural Resources (MECCNAR) in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs (MoFEA) together with the American International University West Africa (AIUWA) and International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) has on Friday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) as part of the process in the development and implementation of the Paris Agreement Long Term Strategies (LTS).
The signing ceremony was held at Halahin Eco Lodge in Kartong.
In an effort to put long-term goals of the Paris Agreement into practice, countries are invited to formulate and communicate “long-term, low greenhouse gas emission development strategies” (LT-LEDS), also referred to as Long Term Strategies (LTS). These are visionary plans for achieving low-carbon, climate-resilient societies out to 2050.
As part of the process in the development and implementation of the LTS, the American International University West Africa was identified to be the focal point for building and strengthening long-term capacity building in the country, transferring knowledge on the foundations of the LTS, modeling outputs, monitoring and evaluation of the implementation of the LTS, among others.
Speaking, Momodou Mbye Jabang, permanent secretary at the Ministry of Environment, Climate Change and Natural Resources (MECCNAR) said it is crucial that academia, policy makers, tink-tank institutions join forces in the path towards tackling the emerging effects of climate change.
He highlighted that climate change presents global challenges and risks to environment and economies, impacting human health, increasing extreme weather events, threatening naturalresources and triggering forced migration on population.
PS Jabang stated that international efforts are necessary to ensure protection on humankind on our planet and to limit the increasing global temperatures, adding that in order to achieve the 2050 target measurable progress must be made in the near term to establish a projectory of reduction needed mid-term targets including commitments to 2030.
Anna Schulz, Ph.D., Principal Researcher, Head of the Global Climate Law, Policy and Governance Programme of the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED)on behalf of IIED congratulated Ministry of Environment and partners on the signing of the MoU.
She pointed out that The Gambia has made great strides towards an ambitious Long-Term Strategy – adopting a strong vision for a net-zero LTS by 2050.
“A critical part of the LTS process is ensuring that the vision and LTS remain living documents that can guide The Gambia towards a low-carbon climate-resilient future through the development of an in country legacy partner to carry forward work on the LTS and champion its messages after the work on the initial LTS is done,” she stated.
She expressed their commitment to continue working with The Gambia’s LTS team, partners and the legacy partner throughout the LTS process.
Professor Makie Taal, vice chancellor for the American International University West Africa (AIUWA) said they will collaborate on eight areas including capacity building on data collection and analysis on climate change, technical cooperation and capacity building to strengthen greenhouse inventory and reporting programs, direct research studies on environmental and climate change issues, among other.
He on behalf of AIUWA expressed their resolve to deliver on the expectations of the MoU.
Juldeh Ceesay, deputy permanent secretary for the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs (MoFEA) said the collaboration if successful could address a number of bottlenecks in responding to climate issues such as capacity and data gap, monitoring and evaluation challenges, among others.
She highlighted that investment in economic development and growth must be combined with investment in climate change mitigation and adaptation and as such the ministry will pursue a green-recovery focus on National Development Plan that will serve as the country’s next five years medium term development strategy.
