By Abbas Nazil
The ECOWAS Parliament has called for the establishment of a regional climate resilience and human security fund as West Africa grapples with worsening environmental degradation, displacement, food insecurity and conflicts linked to climate pressures.
The proposal was among resolutions adopted at the Parliament’s Second 2026 Extraordinary Session and Second Parliamentary Seminar in Accra, Ghana, where lawmakers pushed for stronger regional mechanisms to turn existing climate commitments into practical and measurable action.
The lawmakers also urged ECOWAS member states to incorporate climate resilience into national budgets, development plans, land-use policies, conflict prevention strategies and disaster-risk reduction programmes.
They further called on the ECOWAS Commission to develop a five-year implementation roadmap to translate the seminar’s recommendations into concrete interventions across the region.
The resolutions reflect growing concern that West Africa has developed numerous climate policies and strategies but continues to struggle with financing, political commitment and effective implementation.
Speaker of the ECOWAS Parliament, Hadja Mémounatou Ibrahima, said the region’s major challenge was no longer the absence of climate strategies, but the resources and political will needed to implement them.
She said climate disruption should not be assessed only through statistics and projections, but through its effects on communities, including declining land productivity, coastal erosion, flooding and population displacement.
Ghana’s Vice-President, Prof Jane Opoku-Agyemang, similarly described climate change and environmental degradation as growing threats to livelihoods and food security, stressing that the crisis should be treated as both a development and security challenge.
She called for a shift from reacting to climate-related emergencies towards building long-term resilience through stronger early-warning systems, climate-resilient agriculture, improved water management, coastal protection and investment in clean energy.
She also highlighted the importance of creating opportunities for young people through education, skills development and economic empowerment, arguing that such measures could reduce the likelihood of environmental pressures contributing to insecurity.
The scale of the financing challenge was underscored by Dr Derek Sarfo-Yiadom of Ghana’s Environmental Protection Authority, who said Ghana would require an estimated $22.6 billion by 2030 to implement its climate actions and strengthen resilience.
Sarfo-Yiadom said climate vulnerability assessments should go beyond identifying hazards to establish who is exposed, what prevents communities from recovering, which institutions are responsible, what resources are available and how progress can be measured.
He advocated improved early-warning systems, better drainage infrastructure and stronger measures to protect rural livelihoods through climate information services, crop diversification and improved soil and water management.
ECOWAS climate expert Raoul Kouamé also highlighted the difficulties of translating regional climate commitments into implementation, particularly because member states have different institutional capacities and access to financial resources.
The discussions stressed that climate risks cannot be effectively addressed through isolated national interventions because rivers, ecosystems, migration routes and environmental pressures extend across national borders.
Guinean parliamentarian Bademba Baldé identified financing, effective implementation and national ownership as some of the major barriers to regional climate action.
The lawmakers consequently linked climate vulnerability with population displacement, competition for land and water, pastoral mobility and conflicts over natural resources.
The Parliament argued that climate resilience must therefore become part of wider development, security and disaster-management planning rather than remaining confined to environmental policies.
The issue is particularly significant for countries such as Nigeria, where flooding, drought, land degradation, food insecurity and competition over natural resources continue to create economic and social pressures.
The Accra meeting also raised questions about the ability of the ECOWAS Parliament to influence implementation, given the largely consultative nature of its role.
Nigerian lawmakers, including Senator Ali Ndume and Awaji Abiante, called for stronger legislative powers for the Parliament, arguing that greater authority would enable it to scrutinise regional and national responses more effectively.
They maintained that stronger oversight would improve accountability and help ensure that climate commitments produce tangible benefits for citizens.
The Parliament stressed that its credibility would ultimately depend on whether its resolutions lead to measurable improvements rather than becoming another collection of unimplemented regional commitments.
The proposed regional resilience fund and five-year implementation roadmap could provide new mechanisms for financing and sustaining climate action across member states.
However, participants stressed that financial resources alone would not be enough, with political ownership, institutional coordination, national legislation, community participation and effective monitoring also required.
The Accra deliberations have therefore shifted attention from recognising West Africa’s climate crisis to determining whether regional institutions and national governments can effectively govern and respond to its growing impacts.
The next test will be whether ECOWAS governments and institutions provide the funding, policies, coordination and accountability required to move the adopted resolutions from paper to implementation.
