Climate Change Project in Sierra Leone (Second National Communications), in collaboration with the Ministry of Transport and Aviation, Office of the Department of Meteorology and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), on Tuesday 17th April 2012, ended a day workshop on ‘Vulnerability and Assessment’. The workshop was held at the Saint Anthony’s Parish Hall, Skye Street, Brookfields in Freetown.

Acting Director, Department of Meteorology in the Ministry of Transport and Aviation, Mr. Alpha Bockarie, welcomed the participants to the workshop, whilst underscoring the importance of the workshop. He encouraged them to make meaningful contributions and to also make good use of the knowledge gained from the workshop.

Delivering the keynote address on behalf of the Minister of Transport and Aviation, the Senior Secretary in the ministry, Mr. Umaru A. Conteh, expressed his ministry and Government’s continued support, to climate change issues, whilst thanking the stakeholders present for the important role played in the development of the Second National Communications.

Conteh said his ministry has been implementing projects related to climate change since it was identified as the focal point for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). He noted that this is a result of the fact that the Meteorological Department under which this project is implemented, is affiliated with the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

WMO, he went on, is one of the affiliating bodies of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in 1988 to form the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Mr. Conteh further cited that since the ratification of UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol, the ministry launched the project “Enabling Sierra Leone’s Capacity to fulfil its obligations to the UNFCCC”.

He said the result of the project was Sierra Leone’s First Communications to the UNFCCC Secretariat indicating Sierra Leone’s contribution to the emission of Green House Gases, followed by a self assessment exercise which ended shortly after 2007. This exercise he went on, laid the framework, and identified the gaps on which the proposal for the Second National Communications that was developed. He acknowledged the cooperation that his ministry had been receiving from other ministries. Project Coordinator Climate Change, Dr. Reynold Johnson, said objective of the workshop is to present for validation to key stakeholders, the findings of the assessment of the vulnerability of major socio-economic sectors and ecosystems in Sierra Leone to impacts of climate change and the proposed adaptation measures.

Dr. Reynold Johnson highlighted identification of gaps within the vulnerability and adoption assessment report of the Initial National Communications (INC) of Sierra Leone to Climate Change, to identify new areas for inclusion into the Second National Communications (SNC) report and to assess the vulnerability of the economy of Sierra Leone to climate change and most importantly, to develop adaptation measures to minimize climate change impacts, as some of the studied objectives of the vulnerability and assessment.