Government will from next year (2020) start implementing a national adaptation plan as part of measures to address climate change.
To this end, the Environmental Protection Agency with support from the International Institute of Sustainable Development is engaging some high level stakeholders, to build political support for the process.
The Parliamentary Committee on Environment, Science and Technology, has also been briefed on the process.
A Principal Research Officer at the Environmental Protection Agency Dr. Antwi-Boasiako Amoah in a presentation said it is essential that national planning takes cognizance of the diverse negative effects of climate change on development.
He said that explains the integration of the National Adaptation Plan (NAP) into the support and medium term development and plan of the county.
The NAP will be implemented in seven strategic areas including agriculture, health, energy and transport.
Dr Antwi-Boasiako said the parliamentary committee was engaged to enable them to contribute climate issues on the floor of parliament, lobby for budget on the environment and in their constituencies consider climate issues in projects.
The Members of Parliament (MPs) including Yaw Frimpong Addo, for Manso Adubia Constituency, MP for Oforikrom, Dr. Emmanuel Marfo and Clement Kofi Humado acknowledged the effects of climate change and the need to include other climate change programmes in the NAP process.
One important issue raised was the need to qualify climate service to enable appropriate budget allocation.
The NAP stakeholders engagement started in January this year (2019) and will end in December. It is a momentum building for the three year implementation strategy.
Climate change adaptation is a response to the weather phenomenon that seeks to reduce the vulnerability of social and biological systems to the sudden change and offset the effects of global warming.
The country has been experiencing extreme and erratic weather patterns for decades.
This has led to frequent natural disasters such as flooding, windstorms, heatwaves and drought , which are affecting lovelihoods and the economy.
