Ghana has called for stronger regional cooperation to tackle the linked challenges of climate change, environmental degradation, population displacement and insecurity across West Africa.
Speaking at the official opening of the second 2026 Parliamentary Seminar and Second Extraordinary Session of the ECOWAS Parliament in Accra, Ghana’s President John Dramani Mahama represented by the Vice-President, Professor Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang said member states must develop coordinated responses that address both the immediate effects and underlying causes of the crises.
She said the interconnected nature of the challenges required unified action, including stronger early-warning systems, better support for host communities and improved coordination across borders.
“We need stronger early warnings, better support for host communities, more resilient livelihoods and better coordination across our borders, acting before local pressures become wider humanitarian crises,” she said.
The Vice-President said climate change should be treated not only as an environmental issue but also as a development and security challenge.
Professor Opoku-Agyemang cited population displacement across the Sahel and neighbouring coastal states, saying insecurity, environmental stress and disrupted livelihoods in one part of West Africa increasingly put pressure on communities and national systems elsewhere.
She also said Ghana was working with ECOWAS to strengthen early warning through improved data sharing, closer coordination and stronger links between national and regional response systems.
The Vice-President called for greater efforts to secure climate finance and invest in resilient agriculture, water management, coastal protection and clean energy.
She said ECOWAS already had important frameworks covering free movement, disaster risk reduction, climate action and early warning, but stressed that the priority was to ensure they were fully implemented and properly resourced.
The Speaker of the ECOWAS Parliament, while declaring the session open, said climate change was increasingly affecting forests, coastlines and livelihoods while contributing to population displacement. She said regional and national climate commitments would have greater impact only when translated into budgets, legislation and concrete action.
“Our role is to ensure that public policy and budgets devoted to climate resilience … contain also the humanitarian dimensions, economic, social, migratory, and security concerns,” she said.
She described recent flooding along the region’s coastline as evidence of the interconnected nature of climate, humanitarian and security challenges, and called for practical recommendations to protect vulnerable populations and prevent conflict.
The Ghanaian Parliament also urged ECOWAS member states to strengthen legislation on environmental governance, climate adaptation, disaster preparedness and natural-resource management. It called for greater protection for displaced people, refugees and host communities, while urging investment in opportunities for young people and women in climate-smart agriculture, renewable energy and entrepreneurship.
The Second Deputy Speaker of the Ghanaian Parliament, Mr. Andrew Asiamah, who represented the Speaker, stressed that no ECOWAS member state could tackle the challenges alone, noting that rivers, ecosystems and environmental crimes crossed national borders.
He also warned that regional responses would require adequate financing, saying policies without sufficient resources would remain largely aspirational.
The Head of the Ghanaian Delegation to the ECOWAS Parliament, Mr. Kweku Ricketts-Hagan explained that the Parliament had an important role to play in bringing solutions to the issues of climate changes and insecurity since they were closer to the people and called for a coordinated and holistic approach in addressing the challenges.
The Second Extraordinary Session of the ECOWAS Parliament will also consider the institution’s 2027 budget and activity programme.
The parliamentary seminar is being held under a theme focused on climate change, environmental degradation, population displacement and growing insecurity in the ECOWAS region.