The ECOWAS Parliament has called for urgent and practical measures to address climate change and its growing impact on communities across West Africa.
Speaker Mémounatou Ibrahima made the call on Monday in Accra, Ghana, at the Parliament’s 2026 Second Extraordinary Session Seminar.
The seminar is themed: “Focusing on Climate Change, Environmental Degradation, Population Displacement and Growing Insecurity in the ECOWAS Region.”
Ibrahima warned that climate change was increasingly affecting livelihoods and communities, while also contributing to displacement and insecurity across the sub-region.
She said the effects of climate disruption could no longer be considered only through statistics and scientific projections, as communities were already experiencing its consequences.
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“Climate disruption can no longer be measured only in degrees, statistics or projections. It is read in land that yields less, in coastlines that retreat, in flooded neighbourhoods, in families losing their livelihoods, and in communities forced to relocate,” she said.
Ibrahima said the situation raised an urgent question about how to protect the living conditions, dignity and security of populations as environmental changes outpace their ability to adapt.
She urged parliamentarians to connect technical expertise with the realities faced by their constituents in developing appropriate responses to the crisis.
“Our responsibility during this seminar is precisely to connect these realities, not to restate here what we already know, but to better understand what is at stake in our territories and to consider the most appropriate responses,” she said.
The speaker said the expertise presented at the seminar would be useful only when combined with the experiences of lawmakers who remained closely connected to their communities.
“It is from this dialogue between technical knowledge and lived realities that truly useful proposals can emerge,” she added.
The seminar forms part of the activities of the Parliament’s Sixth Legislature, which brings regional lawmakers together to examine interconnected challenges affecting communities across West Africa.
Parliamentarians, experts and other stakeholders are expected to examine how climate change and environmental degradation contribute to population movements and insecurity, with a view to developing coordinated regional responses.
