Environment Minister courts support for climate change
Ghana's Minister of Environment, Science and Innovation, Mr Akwasi Opong-Fosu, is courting international support to expand the country's climate change driven project, Ghana Cocoa Forest Landscape REDD+ Emission programme.
The project, to be implemented in the southern half of the country, is expected to begin in 2016.
Under the REDD+ programme, developed countries expect developing countries to either plant more trees or allow their forest cover to remain intact so it can trap the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere created as a result of the developed countries’ huge manufacturing industry.
Deforestation and forest degradation, through agricultural expansion, conversion to pastureland, infrastructure development, destructive logging and fires, among others, account for nearly 20 per cent of global green house gas emissions.
Addressing the Ministerial High Level Segment of the 20th Session of the Climate Change Conference in Lima, Peru, Mr Opong-Fosu explained that the project was part of a sub-national emission reduction programme which could prove meaningful for climate change mitigation.
The meeting was attended by more than 100 ministers of environment, government officials and other stakeholders.
"Under this programme, and with the right support and incentives, Ghana expects to generate about 598.2 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalents in emission reductions," he stated.
Mr Opong-Fosu told the meeting (chaired by Peru's Minister of Environment, Mr Manuel Pulgar-Vidal),that “this programme can be scaled up if additional investments and incentives are provided."
Case for Ghana
Scientific evidence, Mr Opong-Fosu said, has proved beyond doubt that climate change presents enormous global risks.
He said Ghana was already experiencing recurrent drought and floods, threats posed by climate change, adding that relief and rehabilitation efforts were already a drain on the country's development efforts.
Among others, he said the country had developed a national adaptation strategy and low-carbon emission roadmap and had also introduced the Ghana Climate Change and Environment Policy to complement efforts being made by the rest of the world to minimise the effects of climate change.
Expectations
Mr Opong-Fosu expressed the hope that discussions on the intended nationally determined contributions would be centred not only on mitigation but also on adaptation, capacity building, finance and technology transfer, among others.
The timely and adequate mobilisation of funds into the Green Climate Fund, he said, was also necessary.
The minister also stressed the need for negotiations on the effects of the phenomenon on the health, well-being and survival of women to be speeded up, particularly so as women were the hardest hit by effects of climate change.
Earlier, the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, said the window of opportunity for the world to stay below the internationally agreed ceiling of less than two degrees Celsius average global temperature rise was closing fast.
