ECOWAS Parliament Speaker urges practical action on climate change at Accra seminar

Pinned summary · as of 16:15

The Speaker of the ECOWAS Parliament, Hadja Mémounatou Ibrahima, opened a parliamentary seminar in Accra on Monday, 21 September with a call for concrete responses to climate change. She told delegates that the damage is already showing in the daily lives of people across the region.

What we know

• Speaking in Accra on 21 September, the ECOWAS Parliament Speaker pressed for practical, region-wide action on climate change, according to Ghana MPs and Onua Online.
• She said climate disruption is hurting livelihoods and communities in West Africa, with Ghana MPs adding that farm output is falling, coastlines are receding and flooding is costing people their incomes.
• The Speaker used the occasion to honour Ghana's first President, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, whose birthday falls on 21 September, and pointed to his push for independence and African unity as a lasting inspiration.

What's disputed / unconfirmed

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  Onua Online reported that the seminar runs from 21 to 23 September under a theme linking climate change to environmental degradation, displacement and insecurity in the ECOWAS region; Ghana MPs did not give the dates or the theme.
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  Onua Online said the Speaker described climate change as a development, humanitarian, migration, peace and security issue, and urged parliamentarians to turn regional climate pledges into funded policies and laws with visible results. This account rests on that report alone.
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  According to Onua Online, she called for closer parliamentary scrutiny of climate-resilience policies and budgets, cited recent flooding along the West African coast, and hoped the seminar would yield recommendations tying adaptation to conflict prevention and protection of vulnerable people.
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  Ghana MPs reported that the Speaker wanted delegates to go beyond familiar climate concerns and to blend the technical expertise shared at the seminar with the field experience of parliamentarians who deal with communities. This has not been reported elsewhere.
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  Onua Online said the Accra meeting also serves as the Second Extraordinary Session of the ECOWAS Parliament for 2026, and is the first gathering since the Community's leadership changed. It said the session will mostly consider the 2027 budget and annual work programme, and that the Speaker urged budget discipline. Only Onua Online carries these details.
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  Onua Online reported that the Speaker congratulated Senegal's President Bassirou Diomaye Diakhar Faye on chairing the ECOWAS Authority and General Birame Diop on becoming President of the ECOWAS Commission, and expressed gratitude to Alban Kingsford Bagbin, the Speaker of Ghana's Parliament, and to President John Dramani Mahama for backing the preparations. It also said she praised Ghana's backing of a United Nations resolution on the transatlantic slave trade and reparations.

Why it matters for Ghana

Farmers, fishing communities and coastal residents in Ghana are among those facing erratic weather, flooding and shoreline loss. When ECOWAS lawmakers settle on shared proposals, the results can shape national laws and budgets that decide how much support reaches households in places such as the Volta coast and the northern farming belt. The seminar being hosted in Accra also puts Ghana's Parliament in the middle of the regional conversation.