February 15, 2016 By Alusine Sesay
The Environment Protection Agency Sierra Leone (EPA-SL) last Friday engaged the media and civil society organisations on the Paris agreement, the Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) and the country’s framework for the implementation of the Paris outcome.
Assistant Deputy Director at the Climate Change Secretariat, Abdul Bakarr Salim, told pressmen that climate change was no longer a phenomenon but a reality and that Sierra Leone had been rated the third most vulnerable country in the world, thus the need for a robust approach to implementing adaptation and mitigation mechanisms to arrest the issue.
He described climate change as a cross-cutting issue that needed the input of all sectors to address it.
He spoke on the adoption of the Intended Nationally Determined Contribution, which is a commitment made by individual countries to deal with climate change.
He said INDC, which was an intention, became a legally binding agreement and now referred to as a nationally determined contribution after the Paris conference on climate change.
National Consultant for the Climate Change Secretariat at EPA-SL, Dr. Reynold G. Johnson, who did a presentation on the Sierra Leone INDC, stated that the scope of implementation of the concept would be conditioned on financial resources and technologies that are available to the country.
He said Sierra Leone’s INDC includes both conditional mitigation and adaption components based on national circumstances, adding that the country’s INDC intends to maintain the emission relatively low by 2035 or neutral by 2050, by reducing the carbon footprint and following green growth pathways in all economic sectors.
“It further aims to strengthen Sierra Leone’s resilience to climate change and its adaptive capacity, particularly in vulnerable economic sectors and communities. Sierra Leone hopes to realize this intention through support in the form of finance, investment, technology, development and transfer, and capacity building,” he said.
Director of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Alpha Bockarie, did a presentation on the Paris agreement and emerging issues, while Abdul Bakarr Salim did a presentation on the implementation on the country’s framework for the implementation of the Paris outcome.