Ghana and UNDP hold climate investment forum to woo investors
An investment forum on Ghana’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) has been held in Accra to showcase proven climate solution and investment-ready climate action projects to attract support and mobilize investments for climate actions in the country.
Held alongside the 2019 Africa Climate Week Summit in Accra on Monday, the two-day Investment Forum discusses ways to crowd-in private sector investment for financially viable projects in Ghana that would deliver the climate solutions as presented in the 31 national actions to mitigate climate change.
The UNDP, in partnership with the Government, is organizing the forum, which is focusing on scaling the need and investment opportunity for low-carbon transition, increase climate project flow with innovative finance, and accelerating private sector investment.
Also to be discussed is the Climate Change resilience, security and finance, as well as Climate Action and SDGs: Engaging Enterprises to advance the Nationally Determined Contributions.
Ms Patricia Appiagyei, the Deputy Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, said climate change continued to increase its threat to the world’s supply of fresh water, source of life, and food supply as rising temperatures and prolonged draught rendered fertile areas unfit for crops or grazing.
It is also causing billion-dollar weather-related calamities and destroying vital ecosystems such as forestry and coral reefs.
Ms Appiagyei said it is, therefore, welcoming that the world has adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2030, and the Paris Climate Agreement, which had a long-term goal of keeping the increasing global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels.
She said Ghana had taken steps to integrate climate change into development considerations and this had progressed positively to the extent that issues of climate change has received some significant attention in the national development framework.
“This is evident in the Ratification of the Paris Climate Agreement and the latest Government’s Coordinated Programme of Economic and Social Policies (CPESDP), 2017-2024, which is the main driver of development,” she said.
“To be able to achieve the Ghana prosperity for all agenda, the strategy is to adopt development choices that promise to deliver growth-focus, people-centered and climate-proof outcomes.”
“For such a transformation to occur at the desirable pace, the socio-economic gains in the past must be sustained and improved upon in the years ahead.”
Ms Appiagyei said Ghana’s Coordinated Programmes of Economic and Social Development Policies (CPESDP), 2017-2024, fully embraced the country’s commitments in the NDCs to the Paris Climate Agreement and with linkages to the SDGs and Africa Union’s Agenda 2063.
She said a Nationally Determined Contributions Implementation and Investment Plan has also been developed, which provides a framework for translating the emission reduction commitments into a road-map.
It also provides practical options for achieving emission reduction obligations in a manner that would promote economic growth and ensure that “the choices we make are cost-effective, transformatory and have positive spin-off on society.
“Ghana is convinced that our pursuit of climate compatible development can unlock real investment opportunities for the greater good of its sustainable development agenda”.
Ms Appiagyei, therefore, called for a serious look at how adequate international financing would be made available to countries like Ghana to complement what was being done in the country.
“It is the only surest way to fully implement the priority actions outlined in the nationally determined contributions. Without the requisite investments, the ambitious nationally determined contributions target cannot be achieved,” she said.
Ms Gita Welch, Resident Representative of UNDP, said huge investments is required to tackle climate change globally and this called for innovative financing, especially from the private sector, to accelerate climate adaptation and mitigation actions.
Mr John Pwamang, the Acting Executive Director of the Environmental Protection Agency, said Ghana has already made various initial investments in the many ongoing climate mitigation and adaptation programmes.
However, he said, those are still not adequate if the country is to achieve her NDCs target to contribute to sustainable development.
Later in a press briefing, the private sector expressed its commitment and readiness to partner the Government to implement the NDCs by exploring the business aspects and forging the needed partnerships.
Source: GNA