Ghanaian Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia on Wednesday here urged renewed and clear commitment from global leaders to deepen international collaborations to ensure sustainable management of the earth.
Speaking at the ongoing 18th Plenary of the Group of Earth Observations 2022 meeting in the Ghanaian capital Accra, he said that natural disasters such as heatwaves, wildfires, and floods in some parts of the world highlighted the importance of making such efforts.
Such events reinforced the need to work collaboratively to find innovative solutions to build resilient economies, secure food and water systems, and ensure the sustainable management of the planet, he stressed.
He said that “this gathering presents a unique opportunity for us to renew our unequivocal commitment to deepen international collaborations and develop national earth observation capabilities to support socio-economic transformation.”
Despite the huge investments in earth observation capabilities that enable the widespread application of environmental intelligence to tackle the challenges, many low- and middle-income countries are lagging in infrastructure, capacity, and expertise to tap into the advances, said Bawumia.
He added that the African Union (AU) is working to address the growing needs of African countries to harness space technologies and services to drive policies and decisions to attain the AU’s Agenda 2063 and the Sustainable Development Goals.
He announced that Ghana has not been left out, as the government is working assiduously to harness earth observation tools to solve the country’s socio-economic challenges.
“We are actively pursuing improved ways to harness the power of earth observations to support planning and decision-making in weather forecasting, measuring land-use change such as deforestation, monitoring coastlines, and monitoring and responding to disasters, including fires, floods and earthquakes,” Bawumia added.
