Green Climate Fund to give African countries priority

Ghana is among African countries to be given priority to access the Green Climate Fund (GCF) within a short period, to empower them to meet their commitments to the Paris Agreement on climate change.

To this end, the Fund has expressed its readiness to accelerate the beneficiaries’ access to it within six months, instead of two years, in a bid to help them to have stronger financial and technological backing.

“As a Fund, we hope to become effective partners with Africa, including Ghana, in the next 12 months,” the GCF stated.

The GCF is a fund established within the framework of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to assist developing countries in adaptation and mitigation practices to counter climate change.

Bilateral talks

The Executive Director of the GCF, Mr Howard Bamsey, made this known during his interaction with the Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, Prof. Kwabena Frimpong Boateng, on the sidelines of the Climate Change Conference (COP23) in Bonn, Germany.

On November 16, 2017, the GCF, at the request of parties to the climate convention, signed an agreement aimed at providing financial and technological support to developing nations to meet their commitments to the Paris Agreement.

Under the arrangement, the Fund will collaborate with the Climate Technology Centre and Network (CTCN) to accelerate energy-efficient, low-carbon and climate-resilient developments in developing nations.

Keen to help Ghana

Mr Bamsey noted that the Ghana government was on track with climate-related interventions that would enable it to gain access to the GCF.

“We are keen to help Ghana and we will follow up on delays of climate-related proposals made by Ghana and we hope we can remedy such challenges very quickly,” he assured.

He said in early February next year, the Fund would organise a major conference in Bamako, Mali to get ministers of states, senior officials and operational level officials in both the private and public sectors, as well as non-governmental organisations, to consider how best the Fund could improve its service to African countries.

Climate change impact frightening

For his part, Prof. Frimpong Boateng said the impact of climate change on Africa, especially Ghana, was quite frightening.

For instance, he said the drying up of the 25,000 km Lake Chad had caused people benefiting from the lake to lose their livelihoods, causing a lot of cattle herdsmen to migrate to Ghana where there was a lot of greenery.

“The interface between the local people and the herdsmen is creating problems and every year, tens of people are killed; and as a result farmers who are displaced enter the forests to create new farms and engage in illegal mining,” he said.

Prof. Frimpong Boateng indicated that many nationals of neighbouring countries had also joined illegal mining activities in Ghana, leading to widespread degradation of the land, destruction of forest cover and pollution of water bodies.

“As I speak now, at least five per cent of the surface area of Ghana’s land is degraded through illegal mining activities alone,” he added.

The minister said the impact of climate change on the northern part of Ghana had triggered prolonged and intense dry seasons and the removal of vegetation cover, must be tackled immediately to prevent it from getting out of hand.

Writer’s email: nana.agyeman@graphic.com.gh