Gambia’s Vice President, His Excellency, Badara A. Joof
Excellencies, Distinguished delegates, on behalf of my President, His Excellency Mr. Adama Barrow, I extend sincere gratitude and appreciation to the Government and People of the Arab Republic of Egypt for hosting COP27 and for inviting The Gambia to attend the World Leaders Summit, to seriously discuss the climate crisis confronting the world, particularly the developing countries.
The Gambia is on track to meet the SDG 13 on climate action. Our NDC2, was acknowledged to be ambitious and in compliance with Article 4, paragraphs 6 and 19 of the Paris Agreement.
The Gambia has also submitted its strategy for becoming climate neutral by 2050 – called The Gambia`s Long-Term Climate-Neutral Development Strategy 2050 (LTS) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) available for viewing on their website.
The LTS focuses on the country`s 5 key greenhouse gas emitting sectors on both mitigation and adaptation actions and, requires an estimated 4 billion USD for implementation now against 2050.
To support the unconditional targets in our NDCs, my government has increased allocations in our national budget and also working with the private sector and development partners, such as, the World Bank, EU and others to address climate change, both in the areas of adaptation, resilience, mitigation and renewable energy. By 2025, The Gambia will have more than 30MV solar plant to reduce the cost of buying and using fossil fuel.
The Gambia being a small and low-lying country, bisected by the River Gambia, our greatest risk is the sea level rise, posing potentially a greater existential threat to the country, especially the capital, Banjul. his year’s floods and the windstorms of last year caused enormous destruction to live and livelihoods, putting much pressure on our already mega national budget and achieving the SDGs.
Pledges of financial support alone are not sufficient, we need practical financial commitments, easily accessible without much procedural difficulties. Like many LDCs, The Gambia’s negligible contribution to the global emission of Green House Gas (GHG) is less than 0.01%, but still took a lead to respond to the global call for action to prepare an ambitious NDC2 meeting the Paris Agreement’s temperature goal of 1.50oC. This is a clear indication of the highest level of political will and commitment.
We join others to call on developed countries to make good on their promises on climate financing. Developed nations that have contributed more to the accumulation of greenhouse gas emission, should take a leading responsibility to finance the climate crisis with reference to the Paris Agreement, Article 2, We now need committed actions for urgent implementation to be make here in Sharm El Sheik, COP27.
End.
