Buchanan, Grand Bassa – The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in partnership with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the European Union (EU), Conservation International (CI) and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), Monday commenced a Green Corridor Technical workshop to provide technical inputs that can help drive the inclusion of green corridors of five municipalities in Liberia as part of Liberia’s revised Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC).
These municipalities include the cities of Monrovia, Buchanan, Gbarnga, Ganta, and Paynesville.
The two-day event was attended by Development Superintendents, City Mayors, Land use authorities, Resident engineers, representatives from other line Ministries and Agencies and civil society.
The focus of this meeting is to conduct feasibility analysis of the available quantitative data on the adaptation potential of adding green corridors to these five cities; and recommend targets to be added to Liberia’s 2020 NDC.
Additionally, the objective of the workshop is to support the efforts of policy makers and technical officials in revising the NDC in 2020 which will enhance its ambition by considering the creation of green corridors in five major cities of Liberia listed above by using natural-based solutions as a strategic planning approach aiming to develop networks of green and blue spaces in urban areas designed as well as managing to deliver a wide range of ecosystem services among others.
In his opening statement and Proxying for the Executive Director of the EPA, the Chief Technical Advisor of the EPA, Prof. Benjamin S. Karmorh disclosed that the aim of the meeting was to fulfill an international requirement Liberia committed to, which is the NDC.
“That requirement came out of the Paris Climate Agreement; when we talk about Nationally Determined Contributions, we are talking about what Liberia intends to do to address the climate crisis; as you may know, climate change has been identified as a major threat to human development and this is all because of man’s quest for economic development,” explained Prof. Karmorh.
Prof. Karmorh added that ‘threats’ caused by climate change hundreds of years ago was as a result of the burning of fossil fuels which in turn has accumulated into the atmosphere-leading to global warming.
“In the 90s, the intergovernmental panel on climate change reported to the international community that the global temperature was on the increase and if we don’t take action to address the increase in the global temperature it means that we should be prepared to face the severe consequences of climate change,” he added.
Representing the UNDP, the Program Manager of NAP, E. Abraham T. Tumbey Jr conveyed greetings from the Resident Representative of the UNDP, Dr. Pa Lamin Beyai and he stressed that the UNDP is committed to supporting Liberia in terms of revising its [Liberia] Nationally Determined Contribution.
“When Liberia decided to revise its nationally determined contribution they made a request to the UNDP; for us being a key partner to the government of Liberia-supporting the various areas of sustainable development, our support to the NDC vision is something that we consider very important,” Tumbey conveyed.
Tumbey, however, appreciated Sida and the UNDP Global Climate Promise Initiative for working along with the UNDP in Liberia in tailoring the necessary funds to the government of Liberia.
He disclosed that the NDC is very important for Liberia because it allows Liberia to communicate its climate action as well as implement targeted actions to address climate change locally.
“Why it is true that Liberia may not be a major polluter, but Liberia is a member of the United Nations framework convention on Climate Change; one of the guiding principles of that convention is-common but differentiated responsibility,” he disclosed.
Also speaking, an official of the EU, Mr. Kumeh Assaf, reminded participants that the reason for the green corridor technical meeting was to establish that Liberia is also guilty like the World at large of putting up greenhouse gases into the atmosphere at the same time Liberia has a role in planning, mitigating and finding adaptative ways to reduce emission.
“In that document, we highlighted three sectors that this was happening in; understandably, energy, transport and waste; energy and transport because we using fossil fuels- the diesel, gasoline, kerosene and even the fire wood; waste sector because when the waste is getting rotten, gases come out and so on,” explain Mr. Assaf.
Assaf, however, disclosed that the EU is concerned when it comes to the Green Corridor partnership because the EU committed in helping Liberia to reduce emission in all three sectors (energy, transport and waste).
“And we can do it because we see all these energy infrastructures being put in place; the hydro dam is already built to provide clean energy, by the way the energy sector is the biggest polluter,” Assaf disclosed
For his part, the Chairperson Council of City Mayors, Dr. Abraham B.Y.J Garneo welcomed all participants to the workshop and stressed that the importance of the Green Corridor workshop was based on proposals and technical reports from the EPA “into the sector ensuring that we have an effective green corridor” in all of the cities earmarked for this project.
“One thing I always call on the EPA and partners to do, is to always share these reports with the stakeholders so that they can review and get familiar with it; when they come to an event like this then they can see exactly how to go about addressing themselves,” the Chairperson of the Council of City Mayors admonish.
Dr. Ganeo, however, stated that the issue of providing space is one of the sector’s biggest challenges especially as it relates to the coastal lines as well as the protection of the environment.
“So, there is a need for us to take serious note of this kind of exercise as a condition in making sure that we form part and parcel of these reports,” encouraged Dr. Garneo.
Meanwhile, Cities Alliance, an organization working to improve the living and working conditions for the poor in Greater Monrovia through coordinated activities, is expected to present a 21-year City Development Strategy for urban Monrovia; which has been developed in participatory engagement with various government partners including the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
The objective of the CDS is to support Greater Montserrado Metropolitan Area to harness the potential of urbanization through strategic planning, and to promote equitable growth in cities and their surrounding townships to improve the quality of life for all citizens.