By Oforiwa Darko
While the effects of climate change will be felt universally, as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) makes clear, these trends are hurting the world’s most vulnerable populations first and hardest.
Nevertheless, achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement requires transitioning to a net-zero economy. While this is an essential task that can provide significant economic and social benefits, it can also pose significant challenges for countries and communities that are still dependent on fossil fuels and other emissions-intensive sectors.
To ensure a just and equitable transition towards achieving net zero, Ghana is making great strides in developing a transition framework that will ensure a just and equitable transition towards achieving net zero.
Speaking at the 2023 Africa Public Sector Conference and Awards event on the sidelines of the Africa Climate Summit in Nairobi, Kenya, Deputy Energy Minister, Herbert Krapa said Ghana will continue to stay committed to the pathway towards achieving net zero.
According to the Deputy Minister, Ghana has also made significant progress in advancing its national energy policy.
This, he said, is supported by the Ministry of Energy’s vision for a clean power sector and also underpinned by efforts to provide universal access to electricity by 2024, which currently stands at 88.85%, as well as increasing the installed capacity of modern renewable energy in the energy mix to 10% by 2030.
Renewable power is booming in most parts of the world as innovation brings down costs and starts to deliver on the promise of a clean energy future. Mr Krapa indicated that the country’s energy transition framework is being implemented.
“Our energy transition framework, around which some of these bold decisions revolve, has been developed to provide a clear blueprint towards achieving net zero in a just and an equitable manner, which provides a firm basis for the judicious exploitation of our other God-given energy resources.”
The framework, he emphasised, is being developed into an investor-friendly one as it provides key opportunities for strategic investment.
Ghana’s economy, he said, will be fueled largely by electricity, with a future electricity demand modelled at 380,000 GWh and a corresponding installed generation capacity of 83GW by 2070.
“An estimated 200Million ton of CO2 equivalent emission will be saved. Ghana’s Nationally Determined Contribution to the Paris Agreement has been revised with new targets in key sectors of the economy. Emission reduction target he says stands at 68Million Tons of CO2.”
The Deputy Energy Minister earlier joined the Second Lady of Ghana, Samira Bawumia, at a breakfast meeting organised by the Clean Cooking Alliance with the aim of deepening conversations on the subject.
He also held meetings with the COP 28 team led by Director of Energy Transition, Simon Birkebaek, where discussions focused on Ghana’s investment prospects in the context of the energy transition ahead of COP 28 in November.