Promoting green financing, development: UESD holds stakeholders’ sustainability conference

The University of Environment and Sustainable Development (UESD) at Somanya in the Yilo Krobo Municipality in the Eastern Region has in collaboration with the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, an Economic Policy Competence Centre, held its 4th Stakeholders’ Sustainable Development Conference. 

The programme, which was held at the UESD Campus at Somanya last Thursday to find common solutions to the country’s economic challenges, was on the theme:

“Green Finance, Debt Burden and Sustainable Economic Transformation: Hopes, Realities and Dilemmas”.

The conference attracted policymakers, academicians and industry experts, and highlighted the issues, while providing policy solutions that could help the government to leverage on available opportunities to consciously finance green solutions.

Theme rationale

The Green Finance Concept has emerged as one of the pathways through which to attain the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), realise the Paris Climate Accord and a move towards the African Union (AU) Agenda 2063 (The Africa We Want).

In Ghana, green finance is becoming increasingly important, as the country faces the dual challenges of economic growth and environmental sustainability. Initiatives such as the Ghana Green Finance Strategy seek to mobilise private and public capital towards green projects, including investments in renewable energy (such as solar and wind power), sustainable agriculture and water management systems.

Also, over the past decades, Ghana has accumulated substantial debt, both domestically and internationally, to finance infrastructure projects and other government expenditures.

As the economy is heavily reliant on the export of commodities such as gold, cocoa and oil, fluctuations in global prices have impacted government revenue and exacerbated the debt situation. 

Keynote

The Head of Communications and Media 350 Ghana, Charles Wundengba, who delivered the keynote address at the event, stated that due to Ghana’s growing national debt, the government was facing significant financial constraints which limited its ability to allocate sufficient funds for financing renewable energy initiatives.

The burden of debt servicing, he said, reduced the fiscal space available for investments in critical sectors such as renewable energy, making it challenging for the government to support the transition to a sustainable energy future.

He added that as a result, the pursuit of renewable energy projects was hampered, slowing down progress toward achieving energy sustainability and reducing the country’s reliance on fossil fuels.

The Vice-Chancellor of UESD, Prof. Eric Nyarko-Sampson, in his opening remarks, said the discussions of the past conferences and that of this year pointed to the need to think and act in a way that would promote Green and sustainable development. 

Mandate

Prof. Nyarko-Sampson said: “The programme is a testament that UESD is focusing on its mandate through these and many engagements with our partners to discuss and propose workable solutions to protect our environment and foster sustainable development through teaching, research and policy dialogue.”

The Programme Coordinator of Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, Eunice Asiedu, said it was worrying that three months’ drought in northern Ghana brought a multiplier effect of job losses, threatened food security and other livelihood downturns because farmers were dependent on rain-fed agriculture.

At the end of panel discussions which involved Dr Ebenezer Agyemang Badu of Appiah Menkah University of Skills, Kumasi (on zoom), Dr Kwaku Adu of Applied Economics, UESD; Dr Eunice Stella Nyarko, UESD Applied Economics; former General Secretary of the Agriculture Workers Union of TUC, Kingsley Offei Nkansah; Isaac Abeka Koomson of UESD and the moderator, Dr Michael Appiah Karikari, UTAG President of UESD, came up with a number of policy solutions to the challenges being faced in the country.

They include enforcement of the existing bye-laws in the country, supervision of stakeholders for the effective use of borrowed monies meant for physical projects, widening of the tax net to generate revenue for the development of the country and adding value to products that are exported by the country, among others.