Experts call for evidence-based interventions for climate resilience

Experts in climate change and economic research have called for stronger collaboration among members of academia, researchers, policymakers and other stakeholders to present well-researched and evidence-based interventions to attract the needed funding to build resilience to climate change.

They said working together would help to address gaps between policies and research, and enable African countries to make a compelling case for climate financing from the Global North at the upcoming Conference of Parties (COP29) of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Those who made the call were the Director of the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER), Prof Peter Quartey; the President of the International Centre of Evaluation and Development (ICED), Dr David Ameyaw; and the Country Director of Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA), Dr Betty Annan. 

They were addressing the media in Accra yesterday as part of activities heralding the commencement of an Evidence to Action Conference and Exhibition (E2A) expected to open in Accra tomorrow, July 24, 2024.

Event

The five-day conference is being held on the theme: "Resilience and climate change adaptation”.

It is meant to provide a platform to discuss innovative research and evidence on climate change and its impact on Sub-Saharan Africa. The conference will also focus on identifying practical solutions and strategies to address challenges posed by climate change in the region.

Among thematic areas to be discussed are artificial intelligence, adaptation methods and climate-resilient infrastructure; climate and disaster risk finance and insurance; youth and climate change; climate policy, governance and climate systems, as well as agricultural innovations for climate change adaptation and resilience.

Investment

Prof. Quartey said it was important for Ghana and other African countries to make more investment in research to generate incontrovertible evidence that would help to measure the impact of climate change on lives and livelihoods.

He said in an era when developing countries were pushing for the operationalisation of loss and damage fund to address climate change impact, it was important for rigorous research and robust systems to quantify the social, economic, cultural and other losses associated with climate crisis.

“We do not take research seriously in this country and that is why we always have policy reversals. If you introduce a policy without anchoring it on research-based evidence, it will fail; and that is why the government must make adequate budgetary allocation for research,” Prof. Quartey said.

Capacity-building

The President of ICED, Dr Ameyaw, said there was also the need for capacity-building and specialisation in the use of modern tools for the quantification of losses and damages associated with climate change for it to be acceptable to the international community.

“Africa always demands funding to support climate resilience on the continent; but more than 50 per cent of the African leaders who got the opportunity to speak during COP28 did not have interventions for which they were calling for funds,” he said.

For her part, the Country Director of ADRA, Dr Annan, said collaboration among stakeholders across all sectors was crucial since that would help to identify the linkages and synergies between resilience and climate change adaptation.

She added that more attention needed to be given to the impact of climate change on agriculture and food systems, as well as vulnerable groups.