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Professor François Engelbrecht (center). On his right, Ms. Debra Roberts, Co-Chair of IPCC Working Group II, and Professor Youba Sokona, Vice Chair of the IPCC.
African scientists have been invited to continue their research on climate change to inform policy makers and continent leaders on adaptation measures.
Professor François Engelbrecht, climatologist and author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) special report on the global warning of 1.5 ° C, said that Africa is the continent most vulnerable to the effects of climate change.
He said African countries needed to collaborate on sharing climate science data, saying African scientists in different parts of the continent needed to have a data-sharing policy so research from other countries could be shared. African scientists on climate can be treated. be easily accessible by others.
Engelbrecht, who spoke in an interview with Online chart after the opening of a two-day IPCC awareness event on the 1.5-degree report held at the Law School of the University of Ghana on Thursday, July 25 this year, said that the Scientific research on climate in Africa could be stimulated when scientists from the continent could freely access data from other African scientists on the continent.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the United Nations body responsible for badessing scientific knowledge related to climate change.
The IPCC was created to provide policy makers with regular scientific badessments of climate change, its implications and potential future risks, as well as to propose options for adaptation and mitigation.
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Some of the participants
Engelbrecht said he was concerned that many scientists and students in the continent would not be able to access third-party data, a situation he described hampers climate research on the continent. .
He also called for more investment in observing networks on the continent, saying the continent needed more meteorological stations capable of accurately measuring the weather conditions of the continent and others. climate issues.
He felt there were not enough meteorological stations in Africa to measure time to determine what was happening to the continent's climate.
Engelbrecht said the continent should also build the capacity of its scientists to make accurate projections of future climate change on the continent.
"We need a big data server to store the data and super computers to be able to generate the projections," he said.
According to him, African researchers on climate change were struck by the lack of tools needed to conduct their research.
He added that African researchers on climate change lacked the tools to conduct their research, so the continent relied mainly on European, Latin American, Chinese and Indian climate stations to obtain data on the continent's climate. .
"We need to develop our own data servers on the continent," he said, noting that "we need to invest in connectivity".
"We need very fast data connections. high speed fiber optic cables between African countries; and between African countries and the United States, Europe, and Asia, so that we can share data much more effectively, "said Professor Engelbrecht.
According to him, the best way for Africa to improve its research on climate change was to put in place a solid data infrastructure, stressing that "the choice we make will create a difference in the world". effort to combat climate change "and that it" was not too late to change our future. "
Dr. Debra Roberts, Co-Chair of IPCC Working Group II, said that three to 16 million people worldwide would be pushed into extreme poverty if nothing was done to change the global climate, adding that three billion people would probably live in shantytowns by 2050. because of the effects of climate change.
Dr. Fatima Denton, director of the United Nations University Institute for Natural Resources in Africa (UNU-INRA), said the 1.5-degree report "recognized that the possibility of counteracting the effects of climate was always possible, but only if we increase ambition to enable sustainable management of land, energy and water systems. "
According to her, Africa would take responsibility for managing the impacts of climate change, given the problems of its limited adaptive capacity, high levels of underdevelopment, high population mobility and excessive dependence on climate change. to climate sensitive areas.
Dr. Denton explained that the 1.5 degrees "reinforce a new urgency that will, hopefully, encourage African farmers and pastoralists to make choices by providing them with better methods of conservation, so that they will be better off." Away from the fight against the cumulative risks of poor yields, ecosystem degradation and extreme events. "
She said: "We need to demonstrate that climate change is not just about the carbon problem, but also how we use this problem to reset the dials for a radically different development trajectory."
Professor Felix Dapare Dakora, president of the African Academy of Sciences (AAS), said that the ASA would continue to do what would be beneficial for the continent, explaining that the continent should continue its efforts in research on climate change.
He added that the African Academy of Sciences would badociate with the University of Ghana and INRA-UNU to conduct more research on climate change as well as in other African countries. other disciplines related to science.
He also called for the involvement of young people in actions and activities related to climate change.
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