Key stakeholders from the National Climate Committee (NCC) on Wednesday gathered at the Paradise Suits Hotel for a three-day training on investment and climate.
The training, funded by the UNDP seeks to capacitise participants on the assessment of investment and financial flow in addressing climate change.
In his opening remarks, the Minister of Forestry and Environment, Jatto Sillah stated that climate change has now become an every day affair.
According to him, climate change is one of the most important and complex challenges facing humanity.
Noting that global warming is already producing dramatic development, he said leaving it unabated could lead to the accelerated melting of the polar ice caps which causes major floods of low land more frequent and extreme weather events.
He stated that capacitating key actors to adapt to climate change impacts is very important and is a step in the right direction.
Noting that The Gambia is very vulnerable to climate change, he said the country’s coastal zones are likely to be most affected.
For his part, Dr. Almamy Camara from the UNDP said from development point of view, climate change constitutes the ultimate threat to human development, poverty reduction and slowing or reversing of hard-won progress made by countries like The Gambia.
"Commencing 2009, UNDP is supporting the Ministries of Environment and Energy to address pressing environmental and climate change issues for the attainment of the MDGs and the poverty reduction strategy paper," he added.
Dr. Camara further elucidated that there is general recognition and concern that most developing countries do not possess relevant adequate capacity for effective and efficient participation in global environmental and sustainable development negotiations. He added that countries like The Gambia tends to miss out lots of opportunities offered or available under relevant multilateral Environmental Agreements, such as the UNFCCC, UN Convention to Combat Desertification and the Convention on Biological Diversity.
Madam Susanne Olbrisch, New York UNDP representative confirmed that UNDP has been involved in advocacy and capacity -building programmes on climate change. She added that the seminar is a logical follow-up to the January 2009 Inter Ministerial Dialogue on Climate Change held in
