President John Dramani Mahama has described climate change as the ultimate test of global equity, calling for greater international commitment to climate justice and financing.

Addressing the 81st United Nations General Assembly in New York, he said Africa contributed less than four per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions yet bore some of the heaviest burdens of climate devastation.

President Mahama highlighted environmental challenges confronting the continent, including erratic rainfall, coastal erosion and desertification in the Sahel.

“We face erratic rainfall, our coastal towns suffer relentless erosion, and our Sahelian regions face accelerating desertification. On 29 June this year, Ghana and coastal West Africa faced an unprecedented deluge,” he said.

“Torrential rain, exceeding 160 millimetres, was dumped on seven coastal regions within 24 hours, resulting in 39 deaths and one still missing.”

President Mahama said climate justice demanded that developed countries fulfilled their long-overdue financial commitments to countries most vulnerable to the impact of climate change.

He said climate mitigation support must be operationalised through predictable, non-debt-creating grants rather than loans that further increase the debt burdens of fragile economies.

President Mahama said recent extreme weather events offered clear warnings to those who had dismissed climate change as a hoax perpetrated by geopolitical opponents.

“Melting glaciers, flash flooding, droughts, record-breaking heatwaves, brush fires, hurricanes and other extreme weather phenomena are unmistakable signals of an overburdened planet.”

The President also called for greater international solidarity in addressing global health security, saying pathogens did not respect national borders or Gross Domestic Product (0GDP).

He said the international community must build an equitable global health architecture that guaranteed regional manufacturing of vaccines and therapeutics, strengthened epidemic surveillance and financed resilient public health infrastructure across the Global South in accordance with the demands of the Accra Reset.

President Mahama said that while African countries demanded greater representation at the United Nations and advocated a more equitable and just global order, African leaders also had a responsibility to put their own countries in order.