ADDIS ABABA, Dec. 10 (Xinhua) -- African experts and policymakers on Tuesday called on African leaders and pan African institutions to take concerted urgent actions to mitigate the adverse impacts of climate change across the continent.
They made the urgent call on Tuesday during the ongoing annual meeting of African Permanent Representatives to the African Union (AU) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), which mainly seeks to deepen the consultative role of the Addis Ababa-based African Permanent Representatives.
Executive Secretary of the ECA, Vera Songwe, said the overnight tide surges were evidence enough that urgent action on climate change must be taken now.
"This brings to the fore the role of the ECA in contributing to efforts to keep global warming below 1.5 degree Celsius and mitigating adverse effects of climate change," the ECA chief said.
"We will continue to deepen our engagement in seeking ways to improve the capacity of African countries and making the continent's development sustainable, inclusive and climate-resilient," Songwe said.
The ECA and the African Union Commission have been recently emphasizing that the adverse effects of climate change could hardly affect countries such as Seychelles, due to their "extremely sensitive" nature to climate change and its associated impacts.
Seychelles Health Minister, Jean-Paul Adam, said during the annual meeting that African countries, mainly those highly vulnerable to climate shocks such as the island-nation Seychelles, "are witnessing more frequent and more extreme weather events as a result of climate change."
Adam said African countries can serve as global leaders in pioneering new economic transformation pathways, including green industrialization, and leapfrog the inefficient and polluting approaches followed in the past.
Morocco's Permanent Representative to the AU also noted climate change as "a pressing issue that demands urgent multilateral action."
"I believe that our gathering here today provides an opportunity to address this pressing issue through collective action," Arrouchi said.
