On Monday, July 29, 2024, Niger’s Minister of Hydraulics, Sanitation and the Environment, Colonel Maizama Abdoulaye, signed the Regional Declaration on Strengthening Climate Change Education in West Africa.
This Declaration is the result of an initiative launched by UNITAR-UN CC: Learn, supported by the Permanent Inter-State Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (CILSS) and Burkina Faso at COP 27 in 2022. This initiative brought together eight West African states to address the issue of financing climate change education to tackle the climate emergency.
Niger thus becomes the sixth country in the sub-region to endorse this Declaration, which was previously signed by five countries on December 4, 2023 in Dubai during COP 28.
With Niger’s signature, the Declaration is increasingly establishing itself as an essential reference in the fight against climate change in the sub-region. Indeed, the Declaration reflects the determination of countries in the sub-region to make education about change a top priority in the fight against climate change.
It is expected that a larger number of countries will also sign the Declaration in the coming months.