The West African Science Service Centre on Climate Change and Adopted Land Use, the mother body for climate change researchers in the ECOWAS sub-region, has made a strong case for governments to fund the collection of climate change data, which they say is crucial to developing climate-resilient policies.

The Interim Executive Director for WASCAL, Prof. Kehinde Ogunjobi, raised the issue on behalf of the researchers at a post-COP28 media engagement that focused on WASCAL’s Customized and Integrated Climate Services for Improved Resilience and Sustainable Socio-Economic Development in West Africa CICLES Project.

From left; Mr. Torsten Weber, representative of the German Climate Service Centre (GERICS), Prof. Kehinde Ogunjobi, WASCAL Interim Executive Director, Prof. Daouda Kone, WASCAL Capacity Building Director, and Dr Seyni Salack, Senior Scientist and in charge of the CICLES’ project.

CICLES is aimed at providing climate and environmental services for African countries that are prone to the effects of climate change.

Prof. Kehinde also highlighted how countries like Ghana can improve on research to benefit from the negotiations. This is because the collection of climate change data, which is crucial to developing climate-resilient policies, is unavailable.

Prof. Daouda Kone, who is the head of WASCAL Capacity Building, touched on the Wascal CICLES Project, a 36-month initiative that started in August this year and will provide environmental services such as technologies to prevent post-harvest losses and early and accurate weather predictions to prevent floods, as well as conduct research that can be used by countries to formulate policies that work.