By Joyce Gyekye.
For the first time in the history of climate conferences, Ghana will host donors, peers, business entities and showcase measures adopted to address the weather phenomenon. Ghana is mounting her own pavilion at COP 26 in Glasgow, Scotland.
Ghana has since 1995 ratified the three climate change treaties. These are the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement 2015. These agreements target climate change which is mostly caused by the burning of fossil fuels for energy, deforestation, increasing livestock farming, fertilizers containing nitrogen, and fluorinated gases among others. The effects are evident in recent severe storms, increased drought, wildfires, unbearable heat, more health issues and increasing cost of food and in some cases severe hunger.
It was during the 21st Conference of Parties, COP 21 of the UNFCCC in Paris, that 196 countries signed on to a legally binding international treaty on climate change. The goal is to limit global warming to one-point five degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels. To achieve this, countries are to develop plans to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, known as Nationally Determined Contributions, NDCs. Within the Paris Agreement, updated NDCs should be submitted to the UNFCCC every five years. There will be one such presentation at the COP 26 Summit in Glasgow.
Ghana is in compliance and has submitted a draft copy of the NDCs ahead of the summit. Dr. Kwaku Afriyie is the Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation.
”The updated NDCs cover 19 policy areas and translate 47 migration and adaptation programs of action. The document highlights ambitions across mitigation, adaptation, and financed by prioritizing the concrete climate interventions in the following areas;
* Promoting clean electric mobility,
* Accelerating our efforts to mobilize investment needs into climate action.
*Restoring deforestation and landscape restoration. This will require 15-point 5 million dollars in investment in a decade”.
The Minister stated that this will require 15-point- five billion dollars in investment for the next decade. With the projected amount, the country needs to showcase what is already being done to address the issue to attract investors and get donor funds. In view of this, Ghana has acquired a pavilion at Glasgow COP26 conference to present its position during the summit.
COP events usually attract numerous protests from civil society and faith-based groups, fighting for climate justice and vulnerable societies who have been severely impacted by the weather phenomenon and seeking global attention for their plight. The Executive Director of the Environmental Protection Agency, Dr. Henry Kokofu outlined some events during the summit, which includes Ghana’s exhibition at a designated Pavilion.
As the conference begins with the World Leaders’ Summit, the cameras will be all over them and what they will agree on. What vulnerable communities being impacted by climate are demanding is real action to address their plight like in the case of the Anlo Beach Community in the Western Region which is at the receiving end of the tidal waves. Noble Dogbatse is an Opinion Leader of the community, at the Anlo Beach.” The community is being affected by the waves, which have destroyed the houses, and as a result, some people are living with relatives”.
He lamented that they have been left to their fate since a land earmarked for them to relocate to us being litigated with the case in court.