Buchanan, Grand Bassa County – The Acting Executive Director of Liberia’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Randall M. Dobayou II has called for the alignment of Liberia developmental agenda with environment and climate change programs.
Mr. Dobayou indicated that Liberia, as one of the parties to the Paris Climate Change Agreement stands to benefit from funding to support its programs to combat the crippling effects of climate change.
The Paris Agreement’s central aim is to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change by keeping a global temperature rise this century well below two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
Additionally, the agreement aims to strengthen the ability of countries – especially least developing countries to deal with the impacts of climate change.
To reach these ambitious goals, appropriate financial flows, a new technology framework and an enhanced capacity building framework are to be put in place, thus supporting action by developing countries and the most vulnerable countries, in line with their own national objectives.
Liberia’s ‘Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC)’ identifies four mitigation scenarios which, when combined, reduce greenhouse gas emissions from projected business as usual emissions by 15 percent in 2030.
However, this reduction is conditional upon financial resources, capacity building and technology transfer from the international community.
Speaking at a two day training and stakeholders’ engagement workshop for climate actions in Liberia recently, Dobayou noted that Liberia’s ability to justify how climate change is affecting its green growth is pivotal to accessing some of the financial benefits that parties to the Paris Climate Change Agreement stand to get.
“The easiest way for a country to get support is to align its national development to climate change and justify how climate change is affecting her green growth and how climate change is helping to thwart her blue economy. When we, as a country think toward that direction, I think the climate and the environment sectors will have the biggest potential to boost Liberia’s economy,” he said.
Also speaking at the event held in the port city of Buchanan, EPA Project Officer Arthur R. M. Becker called for a new approach in addressing climate change issues in Liberia.
Some of the approaches, he added include the active involvement of the youthful population including students in discussions concerning Liberia’s climate ambitions.
“This is a way of building a new breed of young individuals to become climate ambassadors. This is a way of also ensuring that the dynamisms and drive to have young people moving into the field of environment become cardinal for the national conversation,” Mr. Becker stated.
He noted that the workshop would not have come at a better time than when leaders across the world are currently gathering at the United Nations General Assembly in New York under the guidance of UN Secretary General, António Guterres to discuss Climate Change actions.
Liberia is currently being represented by several officials including the Executive Director of the EPA, Nathaniel Blama and Benjamin S. Karmore Jr., National Focal Point on the United Nations Framework Convention in Climate Change (UNFCCC).
In the coming days, he revealed that the EPA, along with its partners and intergovernmental agencies will continue the awareness in several environmental hotspot areas including New Kru Town.
“New Kru Town is a hot spot that was almost been eroded because of sea erosion. But due to the interventions by the Government of Liberia and its partners with support from the Green Climate Fund, we were able to build a revetment along the sea of New Kru Town. Today, one of Liberia biggest public schools, D. Tweh has been saved,”
In Buchanan, he added that the Government of Liberia takes keen interest in ensuring that it reinforces the seawalls because the city of is of cardinal interest; “not only to the government on the surface but to the existence and livelihood of the people.”
He also warned that the port of Greenville in Sinoe County is under threat and Liberians should be careful of their anthropogenic actions on the environment.
Meanwhile, the gathering, among other things, was aimed at increasing knowledge and capacity of sectorial line ministries and agencies including local communities on Liberia’s climate change actions.
Several presentations and a panel discussion were made by experts from the Forestry Development Authority (FDA), Ministry of Internal Affairs, Ministry of Finance and Development Planning and EPA and pro youth environmental groups.
