Thank you once again, Mr Speaker.
First, I would like to commend the maker of the Statement because of its importance, Mr Speaker, not only because of us as a country, but because of our continent and the globe. What is prevailing today is indicative of the fact that as a sovereignty, we need to begin a new task. A new task of approaching this whole climate change, designing a new paradigm shift because we think we are not feeling it tangibly. I see something different because once it happens in Africa, the probability that it is getting to us is extremely high enough for us to accord it the needed concentration.
Mr Speaker, there are countries in Africa that are experiencing increased migration because of climate change. They are leaving the country. They are closing schools because temperature went as high as 45 degrees Celsius in Sudan and other parts of the world. It is affecting food, it is affecting water, it is affecting livelihood and it is deteriorating the economies and I think we cannot run away from that. Mr Speaker, allow me to use this adage —
Mr Speaker, we are not far from the consequences our brothers from other parts of our continent are being confronted with. We need to put in place contingency measures. Because of time constraints, I would like to suggest only one thing, research. We need to prioritise our research into some of these areas.
Mr Speaker, if you read, I think, Ghana National Research Act, 2020 (Act 1056), which stipulates that about 0.5 per cent of our annual revenue budget has to go into research and development. I think the makers of that law had in mind some of these critical issues to be dealt with. However, I wonder if we as a country, whether government A or B, actually adhere to this. If not, I would like to base on this important Statement to admonish the present authority to make sure that going forward, at least, 0.5 per cent of our budget revenue goes into research and development.
Substantial amount of this proportion must go into the areas Yes, that we can actually attain the requisite knowledge when it comes to climate change so we can continue to put in place measures and contingencies and then policies or policy frameworks that will really put us in a position that we will not be found wanting one day. I think just as the whole world is battling this, we as a country and as a sovereignty being part of this whole global domain should take it very seriously.
Apart from that, I would like to say that as a House, we need to continue to accord climate change as one of the important issues to work on and make sure that we would not one day get into that situation. Thank you, Mr Speaker.