By Lydia Kukua Asamoah, GNA’s
Special Correspondent in Bonn, Germany
Bonn, Germany, Nov. 14, - Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, the
Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, has called on
Ghanaian stakeholders in climate change negotiations to unite in their efforts
to source for resources to help in the country’s mitigation and adaptation
programmes.
Addressing the Ghanaian delegates
at the UN Conference of Parties (COP 23) underway in Bonn, Germany, he said:
“”The idea of attending a COP is to network so that we get resources to change
our country”.
Assisted by his Special
Assistant, Mr Oliver Boakye and Mr Peter Abum Sarkordie, the Executive Director
of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Prof. Frimpong-Boateng said:
“These days when you talk about climate change we are not talking only about
EPA or Forestry Commission, but it is about the totality of Ghana’s
development”.
He, therefore, called for
linkages among the various stakeholders to enable Ghana to get the needed
resources to develop the country.
He said the totality of
development depended on the environment since climate change affected every
aspect of life, especially in the area of agriculture, with rivers drying up,
and prolong drought being recorded, particularly in the three regions of the
north.
He stated that even
transportation services, health, energy, and sometimes education were all being
affected by climate change, and therefore, the need to mobilise actions to
mitigate the impacts.
Prof. Frimpong-Boateng advised
all sector ministries to come together and present a common front and source
resources for the nation.
He noted that Ghana needed new
technology and capacity building to design appropriate measures and capacities
to build resilience to mitigate climate change.
“We hope that at the end of the
day we will get something to build our nation. We are here not for ourselves,
we are here to seek resources, to change the way we do things in Ghana and when
we set a good example, I think the rest of Africa will learn from our
experience,” the Minister said.
He said during the last week of
COP 23, there would be lots of bilateral engagements that he would lead the
Ghanaian team to engage in, with the expectation of getting some resources to
help develop the country.
“Let’s not think we are
insignificant, we are very significant and if we tune our minds to change the
world we can do it,” Prof Frimpong-Boateng said.
During the interactions, the
leads of the various representatives from the Ministries of Environment and
Science, Lands and Natural Resources, Food and Agriculture, and Finance, as
well as the Environmental Protection Agency and the Forestry Commission,
briefed the Minister on the level of Ghana’s engagement in the COP23 that
started a week ago.
Mr Kyekyeku Oppong-Boadi, Ghana’s
National Focal Person on Climate Change, explained that Ghana’s Team was part
of the Africa Group of Negotiators and that a key benefit being accrued from
the COP meetings was skills building.
Another advantage was that new
participants from Ghana were being brought on board to take up thematic areas
of concern as they learn the process of climate negotiations.
He expressed the hope that Ghana
would hopefully benefit from the Climate Change Finance soon, like her Kenyan
and Senegal counterparts, to address the issues of climate impact, mitigation
and adaptability.
As part of the ongoing COP23,
Ghana held a side-event on the theme: “Demonstrating Progress in Ghana’s
Climate Agenda, Trilateral Cooperation in Renewable Energy, Cities and Climate”.
The Ghana-Bonn event was used to
share the key objectives of renewable energy plan and other actions being
undertaken under the trilateral agreement.
It was also to help demonstrate
to the world what Ghana was doing within the Climate Agenda and how it was
preparing through policy, programmes and projects to undertake activities
within the Nationally Determined Contributions.
The organisation of COP23, being
hosted by the Fiji Republic as the Chair, is being supported by the German
Government.
Delegates around the world are
hoping to ensure greater momentum for the Paris Agreement and to raise the
level of ambition needed to address global warming at the two-week event.
GNA
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