Climate Change action integral part of Ghana’s development agenda - President

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on Tuesday indicated that his government had taken the policy decision to integrate climate action into Ghana’s national development agenda.

Speaking at the ongoing R20 Austrian World Summit on Climate Change, he said the Paris Agreement and Sustainable Development Goal No. 13, which demand urgent action to combat climate change and its impact, is providing the framework for Ghana to forge ahead in that direction.

The President told the Summit that at the local level in Ghana, all local assemblies have been mandated to address climate change issues in their medium-term development plans.

That, he said, was the reason, since assumption of office in 2017, his administration decided to put a stop to the "reprehensible" activity of illegal mining that had been destroying the nations’ forests and water bodies.

President Akufo-Addo also mentioned the ban imposed on the harvesting of rosewood timber as one of the measures to protect Ghana’s forests and endangered species.

Also, through the “Youth in Afforestation” Programme, over 20,000 youth have been employed to plant 10 million trees across the country, as a way of increasing carbon sinks.

Towards realizing Ghana’s international obligations under SDG 7, on access to affordable, reliable, and sustainable energy, as well as SDG 13, President Akufo-Addo reiterated Ghana’s commitment of promoting the deployment of renewable energy, in line with government’s policy target of 10 percent renewables in the energy mix from the current one percent.

To this end, in the course of this year, Jubilee House, the seat of the nation’s presidency, will be powered by solar energy, as an example to other public institutions. The target is to install 200 megawatts of distributed solar power by 2030 in both residential and non-residential facilities, and in state agencies.

The President informed the gathering that he had engaged a select group of CEOs from the private sector to push forward Ghana’s “Green Agenda”, in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals.

The response, the President stressed, had been very positive, with commitments to create a Green Fund, to be financed largely by the private sector, in place.

This Fund, he added, would be used to drive the nation’s Agenda of ensuring access to affordable, reliable and sustainable energy for all in the country.

President Akufo-Addo stressed that “what we do in Ghana affects the people of Nepal, or Mozambique or Austria. That is why we need concerted Global action to tackle this menace. Success in addressing climate change will be one of the greatest legacies that our generation can give to the next.”