Vice President Prof. Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang has called for climate change to be treated not only as an environmental issue but also as a development and security challenge requiring coordinated regional action.
She said climate change, environmental degradation, population displacement and growing insecurity were interconnected challenges whose effects were increasingly putting pressure on communities and national systems across West Africa.
Addressing the opening ceremony of the ECOWAS Parliament’s Second 2026 Parliamentary Seminar and Second Extraordinary Session in Accra on Tuesday, September 22, the Vice President said ECOWAS member states must strengthen cooperation and develop coordinated responses that address both the immediate effects and underlying causes of the challenges.
She said population displacement had become one of the most serious human consequences of the pressures confronting the region, with insecurity, environmental stress and disrupted livelihoods in one part of West Africa increasingly affecting communities and national systems elsewhere.
Prof. Opoku-Agyemang called for stronger early-warning systems, better support for host communities, more resilient livelihoods and improved coordination across borders to prevent local pressures from developing into wider humanitarian crises.
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 further urged the region to strengthen its collective voice in securing climate finance and investments in resilient agriculture, water management, coastal protection and clean energy.
She cited ongoing work on the second phase of the Blekusu Coastal Protection Project as part of Ghana’s efforts to strengthen the resilience of vulnerable coastal communities.
She also warned that prolonged exclusion and limited opportunities for education, employment and decent livelihoods could leave young people vulnerable to exploitation by criminal and extremist groups, stressing that investment in education, skills and communities was also an investment in peace.