Africa-Press – Liberia. When President George Weah addressed the 76th Session of the General Assembly this year, his address was rather focused on Liberia’s enormous role in saving the planet amid the devastating effects of Climate Change. He lamented the window-dressing of climate issues with rhetoric and passive declarations.
He reaffirmed Liberia’s commitment to continue its good stewardship of its critical ecosystem of tropical rainforest, coastal mangroves and interior peatlands.
President Weah seized the opportunity to inform his fellow world leaders that his country remains one of the few on the African continent that has enormously exhibited commitment towards reducing greenhouse emission.
“Our recently completed National Forest Inventory carried out with the support of the World Bank and the Kingdom of Norway, revealed that Liberia is endowed with nearly seven (7) million hectares of forest, representing nearly half of the entire remaining Upper Guinea forest in the West Africa region. If you add to this our 1.9 million hectares of agro-forestry and coastal mangroves, it becomes obvious that close to ninety (90%) percent of our landmass sequesters carbon,” he said.
Pres. Weah added in that address, “Our forests are the last remaining untouched tracts of forested land in this region and contain some of the highest above-ground carbon stocks of any forest in the world, even higher than the carbon stocks in the great Amazonian Forest. As one of the last reserves of such high carbon stocks, it is imperative that Liberia’s forests are maintained in the future. My government reiterates its commitment to do so.”
This Address to the UN General Assembly set the pace to put Liberia in the high chair of the negotiation tables in matters relating to climate change.
The country finds itself in an enviable position with its huge contributions towards sustaining the sanctity of the planet despite the numerous economic and developmental issues the country is faced with.
But at COP 26, the Liberia Delegation which would be led by President Weah is determined to call the shots in ensuring that the country gets what it deserves for its unmatched contribution towards combatting climate change on the continent.
Calling the Shots
His address to the UNGA stated the fact that many of the highest carbon stock forests in Liberia contain essential natural capital and ecosystem service benefits; benefits which have so far eluded the country as a developing nation.
He said, “Liberia has a youthful population and faces enormous pressures for rapid development that provides decent jobs and livelihoods, especially in our productive sectors of agriculture and mining.
“Our economy needs to develop, and we want to do so sustainably. We want to continue to maintain our forest and ecosystem endowments, and our incredible bio-diversity, as we embrace climate-smart approaches to agriculture and mining, which are our economic mainstays.”
He said, Liberia needs meaningful partnerships on this journey of sustainable development; partnerships with the United States, as well as with the rest of the developed world, including the private sector, to allow the country to leave its forests intact because of their extraordinary capacity to capture carbon for the benefit of the industrial world.
“We are therefore looking forward to constructive engagements with all interested parties in this regard. The impending United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) will provide yet another opportunity to generate more ambitious climate actions and commitments,” he said.
Meeting the Target
Speaking to FrontPageAfrica in Glasgow, Scotland where the COP 26 Conference is being held, Mr. Jefferson Nyandibo, Liberia National Focal Point for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), said, Liberia will be putting forth its revised Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) which contains the country’s climate actions and ensure that conditions and targets set as part of the climate actions are internationally discussed.
He disclosed that Liberia is one of few countries in Africa that has revised their NDCs – something he disclosed that achieved under the Weah-led administration.
The revised Nationally Determined Contribution is the instrument that is required of every party-state to the Paris Agreement to produce and revise every five years and that document sets the ambition or the target that the country will commit to do in order to commit to the global objective of reducing greenhouse emission to below 1.5 or at 1.5.
Liberia’s NDC outlines a national system for measurement, reporting, and verification (MRV) for mitigation actions and monitoring and evaluation (M&E) for adaptation actions. It also states the policy and institutional arrangement for implementation and adds an analysis of its adaptation and mitigation co-benefits, as well as the direct and indirect investment needed to implement it.
When Liberia submitted its revised NDC on 3 August, the West African country of just 5 million inhabitants and per capita GHG emissions of less than 0.3 tonnes took important steps to raise its ambition on climate action. In the revised NDC, Liberia committed to reducing economy-wide greenhouse gas emissions by 64 percent below the projected business-as-usual (BAU) level by 2030.
Mr. Nyandibo disclosed Liberia received numerous international engagements after the holding of a National Conference on Climate Change which was also attended by President Weah to demonstrate his commitment towards combatting climate change.
Now, with Liberia’s position in the world’s fight against climate change, President Weah would be among the first of 120 world leaders to address the COP 26 Conference in Glasgow.
It is expected that Liberia would be properly positioning itself for a win-win goal taking into consideration its enormous sacrifice towards the fight against climate change.
“We have come to elevate our voice since part of the solution in the fight of emission of greenhouse gas is now becoming nature-based, we have to be able to place engagements around who we are in terms of nature value. This time Liberia, came with an NDC of close of US$500 million,” Mr. Nyandibo said.
According to him, President Weah would be attending the conference along with seasoned negotiators who would all form part of several bilateral and multilateral meetings to negotiate Liberia’s potential benefits at the conference.
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