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Civil society organizations working in the area of climate change have given thumbs up to government for its intention to set up a ‘Ghana Green Fund’ to finance climate related initiatives.
The move, according to the organizations “is laudable and must be pursued,” as it would assist in pulling together fragmented climate change interventions which are never up-scaled and therefore unable to measure impacts of such interventions to attract the needed investment.
They are also of the view that private sector contribution to Ghana’s climate financing is woefully inadequate, but that, they maintained, could be resolved when the objectives of the proposed interventions are clear with activities that promise transformative and demonstrative effect such as gender mainstreaming.
These were contained in a communiqué issued in Accra at a press conference to climax a number of dialogue series on climate change with various stakeholders in the country. The dialogues were convened by ABANTU for Development in collaboration with OXFAM and the GACCES, targeting civil society organizations, the Private Sector, the Media and Development Partners.
Participants in their recommendations underscored the need to create ownership, build capacity alignment and harmonization in climate financing at the country level.
They added, “There should be a joint engagement and increased participation of the private sector in mobilizing funds and tapping into existing financial mechanism such as the Green Climate Fund for climate financing.”
The participants further called for active youth inclusion at all levels of engagement to, among others build their capacity. This approach is a sure way of ensuring sustainable development as young people invariably are the next generation of leaders expected to continue the fight against climate change.
The Executive Director, ABANTU For Development, Dr Rose Mensah -Kutin said the dialogues sought to engage stakeholders on climate financing opportunities in Ghana, specifically, within private sector. The dialogues were purposed to engage the targeted stakeholders on how to mobilize the needed funds to implement Ghana’s climate change agenda and the country’s Nationally Determined contributions (GH-NDCs).
Dr Kutin added that Climate change has become the most challenging environmental issue impacting negatively on ecosystems, human lives and communities. “This therefore calls for the need to develop strategies, policies and programmes to help curb its adverse impacts.” She
acknowledged that Ghana has made progress in her quest to address climate related issues through the development of the National Climate Change Policy, the Climate change master plan with the introduction of Ghana’s Nationally Determined Contribution (GH-NDCs). She noted that the current outlook of climate financing in the country reveals funding is mostly bilateral or multilateral and are targeted at projects which are mostly pilot based.
By Mohammed Suleman
