Process to enforce climate services standards in the offing

The Ghana Meteorological Agency (GMet) has started the process of developing a Legislative Instrument (L.I) to operationalise the country’s National Framework for Climate Services. 

Currently, a consultant is working on the draft L.I with the expectation to get it passed by Parliament by the end of the year. The Director-General of GMet, Dr Eric Asuman, who made this known yesterday, said the L.I was crucial as it would give the agency the legal power to enforce standards for the provision of weather and climate services by private entities.

Weather and climate services are the arts of providing and using climate information and data for decision making. "The GMet Act says that for any entity to set up a station to collect weather parameters, it must be approved by the agency.

 If there is no L.I and someone establishes it without approval, it becomes difficult to act lawfully. The L.I will, therefore, provide a framework on how people should contact GMet and if they refuse, what should be done," he explained.

Dr Asuman was speaking at a workshop organised by GMet to discuss the modalities for the implementation of the National Framework for Climate Services, which was launched on March 23, 2023.

The workshop brought together all stakeholder agencies, including the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI), the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the United Nations Disaster Risk Reduction and World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) as well as specialised institutions and the academia. 

Context

GMet, with support from the African Union (AU) and ECOWAS, procured a consultant to develop a National Framework for Climate Services in line with the requirements of the United Nations.

The framework is an integration of all existing climate services in the country with the view to help address all climate-related services.

The participants discussed how the stakeholders could collectively work to mainstream the framework into the operation of ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) and private sector entities. 

L.I crucial

Dr Asuman said although the 1992 Constitution gave GMet the mandate to advise the government on meteorology and provide weather and climate services in the country, there was no regulation for private entities who were also providing climate services.

"If someone enters the space and starts providing climate services and something goes wrong, what do we do? As the state-mandated institution, and as recommended by the framework, we decided to have L.I to regulate climate and weather services," he said.

The Director-General of GMet said the work done by the consultant had been brought to the attention of the NDPC, the EPA, the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) and other stakeholders, including the private sector actors and academia.

Key pillars

Dr Asuman explained that the framework had key pillars such as climate and agriculture, climate and energy, climate and health, as well as climate and disaster. He said the focus was to ensure that the related institutions worked to integrate climate services into their operations in a coordinated manner.

"In a nutshell, the idea is that all climate and weather services must be situated in the framework. It is not a project but a policy that will help propel other programmes in the climate space," he said.

The Acting Director, Climate Vulnerabilities and Adaptation, EPA, Dr Antwi Boasiako Amoah, stressed the need for targeted climate services based on local contexts to ensure effective climate risk management.

He stressed that a coherent national plan for clinate services would enhance community understanding of climate variability and change as well as the associated risks and opportunities.