The Secretariat of the United Nations Regional Working Group on Climate Change, Environment, Security and Development in West Africa (UN-CCESD) organized its first virtual thematic meeting on Wednesday 14 July 2021 under the topic: “COP 26 and its implications for West Africa”. Over eighty (80) participants representing several UN agencies in West Africa as well as the ECOWAS Commission attended the two-hour long meeting, which was opened by Mr. Leko Moussa, Acting Director of ECOWAS Commission’s Directorate of Environment & Natural Resources.

On Thursday, June 10 2021 in Dakar, UNFCCC’s RCC Lome, the United Nations Office for West Africa and the Sahel (UNOWAS), the Office of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) for West and Central Africa,) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) launched the inaugural meeting of the UN-CCESD. The objective of the UN-CCESD is to combine the knowledge and expertise of its members to promote an integrated and harmonized approach to climate change, in coordination with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), by linking regional policy development with local and national actions. As part of its mission and activities, the working group will organize conferences on topical issues of interest to ECOWAS in the field of climate change. 

For the first meeting of the UN-CCESD lead by UNFCCC’s RCC Lome and IOM’s West Africa Office, a very insightful presentation was delivered by Mr. Sergey Kononov of the UNFCCC Secretariat on the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26). The presentation included details on the objectives of the Paris Agreement, this year’s negotiation areas and expected outcomes as well as key elements for an impactful conference and a timeline from now to COP26.

Her Excellency Ms. Janet Rogan, the United Kingdom’s COP26 Regional Ambassador for Africa and the Middle East took the floor immediately after Mr. Kononov to deliver remarks on behalf of the COP26 Presidency including the Presidency’s goals and expectations for this year’s conference of the Parties.

The ECOWAS Commission’s Directorate of Environment & Natural Resources through Mr. Raoul Kouame delivered a presentation on the organization’s vision and intervention on climate change including activities that are currently underway and plans for the future.

These interventions drew a lot of attention from the participants who asked several questions on the UNFCCC process and expressed their ideas and recommendations for a successful COP26, the recurring theme of these recommendations being inclusivity in the discussion and putting the interest of the people, including those of West Africa at the center of the decisions to be taken.

The meeting was closed by the UN-CCESD Secretariat and participants agreed to meet again in the coming months for the working group’s second virtual thematic meeting on another topic related to climate change in West Africa.