By Stephen Asante
Accra, Sept. 06, GNA – President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has appealed to the international community to deepen its commitment towards climate financing in Africa.
Addressing climate change on the continent, he argued, was a moral and strategic need for global climate action, therefore, a lot more ought to be done at the international level.
“One major issue of concern to us is the need to streamline access to international climate finance to complement national funding,” President Nana Akufo-Addo said.
He was speaking at the first African Climate Summit in Nairobi, Kenya.
The Summit is being organised by the Kenyan Government and the African Union (AU) on the theme: “Driving Green Growth and Climate Finance Solutions for Africa and the World”.
The goal is to influence climate commitments, pledges and outcomes, including the Nairobi Declaration, a blueprint for Africa’s green energy transition.
Africa, per the United Nations (UN) statistics, accounts for only two to three per cent of the world’s carbon emissions but has been the continent most affected by global warming.
It is estimated that 17 of the world’s 20 most impacted countries are in Africa, while the world’s 20 richest nations produce 80 per cent of the world’s carbon emissions that are driving climate change.
The rapidly growing African continent of more than 1.3 billion people is losing five per cent to 15 per cent of its gross domestic product growth every year to the widespread impacts of climate change, says the UN.
President Nana Akufo-Addo said: “It is obvious that we have to act swiftly and decisively to mitigate these effects to ensure a sustainable future for generations to come.”
He drew attention to the need for the Summit to shed more light on practical ways to mobilise financial resources to support the implementation of national climate actions.
“Especially, how we can guarantee a different future from the past and ensure that the commitment of the developed world towards climate finance, which had not been met in the past, will be in the future.”
Presently, a pledge by richer nations of US$100 billion a year to help developing nations achieve their climate goals remains unfulfilled.
President Akufo-Addo pointed out that Ghana’s nationally determined contribution towards combating climate change had been fully incorporated into the government’s coordinated programme for economic and social development policies.
These are designed to facilitate their implementation.
Also, the Government has established an advisory group of prominent private sector Chief Executives who are setting up a US$100 million Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) delivery fund and a US$200 million green fund.
The President explained that the vision was to complement the government’s efforts in tackling climate change and funding the implementation of the SDGs.
The Government, he said, had embarked on a comprehensive tree–planting exercise and declared war on illegal mining– all geared towards enhancing the country’s environment and ecosystem.
“These policy initiatives are already yielding positive results to the attainment of the SDG goals, particularly the goal of reducing our carbon emissions,” he noted.
GNA