Gambia’s TNA emphasizes several climate adaptation and mitigation technologies as ways of building climate resilience and curbing emissions. One of the projects outlined seeks to promote the use of wind energy through the installation of wind energy equipment in a hundred communities. The project’s ambition is to reduce CO2 emissions by around 189,000 tonnes over a 3.5-year period and to build local capacity for the further uptake of technology.
Gambia is located on the coast of West Africa, where it is almost entirely surrounded by Senegal except for a short coastline to the west. It is the smallest country in mainland Africa, consisting of a thin sliver of land divided into a northern and southern part by the River Gambia, which runs from east to west and debouches into the Atlantic Ocean. Gambia’s economy is largely dependent on agriculture, which accounts for around 25% of GDP and employs around 70% of the labour force. Climate change is a great challenge for Gambia, where droughts and higher temperatures are inducing water scarcity, and sea level rises are threatening large areas of land, as well as the low-lying capital of Banjul and other coastal cities.
Gambia completed its TNA in 2018. Its coastal zone consists of 80 km of open ocean coast and approximately 200 km of sheltered coast within the tidal reaches of the River Gambia. To build resilience against sea level rises, salt-water intrusion, erosion and tidal floods, the TNA prioritizes sustainable sand-management technology, the aim being to establish this technology on 69 km of open coastline and 200 km of sheltered coastline. The adoption of sustainable sand management will protect the lucrative tourism industry, private structures, fish-landing sites, wetland agriculture and aquifer recharge.
Gambia’s TNA contributes to the following Sustainable Development Goals:
Share this
Photo credit: Axel Fassioa, CIFOR / Flickr.
