Statement By Hon. Sherry Ayittey

STATEMENT

BY HON. SHERRY AYITTEY, MINISTER OF ENVIRONMENT, SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, GHANA,

AT THE COP 17/CMP7 UNITED NATIONS CLIMATE CHANGE CONFERENCE, 28TH NOVEMBER-9TH

DECEMBER 2011, DURBAN, SOUTH AFRICA

Your Excellency Madam

Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, COP President and members of the Bureau,

Your Excellences

Heads of Delegations and Colleague Ministers,

Distinguished

representatives of States Parties, International Organizations, Civil Society

and Media,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Let me commend the Government and people of South Africa for hosting

this very important Conference on the soil of Africa and for the excellent

facilities placed at our disposal since our arrival in this beautiful city of

Durban.

In line with our common African position my delegation wishes to

emphasize the importance of a fair, balanced and credible outcome in Durban.

We wish, therefore,

to associate ourselves with the positions of the African Group and the Group of

77 and China, as elaborated in the various interventions in this conference.

Ghana urges Parties to fulfill their pledges and commitments under the

Copenhagen and Cancun Agreements and provide clear and unambiguous commitments

on fast-start funding and of the climate Green fund.

Madam President, Ghana remains resolute in her call for a second

commitment period, under the Kyoto Protocol. Durban must be decisive in avoiding

a gap in the future of the Protocol and we sincerely hope that the Kyoto

Protocol would not be terminated on African soil.

Discussions at this conference should provide a global roadmap that

would define a second binding commitment period by Annex 1 state parties,

taking into consideration our common desire to save our planet based on the

principles of common but differentiated responsibilities, equity and the rule

of law.

Madam President, adaptation remains the most prioritized and essential

component of any Durban outcome.

We therefore call for the complete operationalization of the Cancun

Agreements, including capitalization of the Green Climate Fund and

identification of other long term financing sources, technology development and

transfer and capacity building. Ghana would also like to see the establishment

of the Adaptation Committee and clear guidelines on measurement, reporting and

verification of NAMAs and REDD+.

Additionally, Durban must deliver on Climate Smart Agriculture and the

mainstreaming of gender and climate change in national development plans.

In developing a policy for climate change, Ghana aimed at three broad

objectives of effective adaptation, a low carbon growth path and social

development. We seek to attain these objectives by refocusing on seven building

blocks of governance and coordination, capacity building, finance, research and

knowledge management, international cooperation, communication, monitoring and

evaluation.

We have developed a Gender strategy which is being piloted in the

northern part of our country where the women are the most vulnerable. Our

climate change adaptation strategy is being finalized and the preparation of a

Low carbon growth strategy is in progress.

Madam President, Ghana has initiated measures to internally track our

carbon footprints and tackle climate change related challenges and we urge

other countries to do same.

Ghana is experiencing varying intensities of climate change impacts,

from recurrent floods and drought culminating in the loss of several lives and

property. Sectors of the Ghanaian economy under threat and critically

challenged are: Water Resources, Tourism, Agriculture/ Cocoa Production,

Fisheries, Forestry, Energy, Health, Waste management, infrastructure and

marine conservation.

One key element of adaptation response in our strategy is the

development a comprehensive early warning system that could facilitate timely

dissemination of relevant information from community to national level and vice

versa.

This would ensure that communities at all levels cope and adapt to

disasters particularly flooding, droughts, desertification and other related

impacts such as disease out breaks. The international community may therefore

wish to finance national responses to disaster situations in developing

countries.

The Ministries of Environment, Science and Technology, and

Communication, and the Environmental Protection Agency are jointly implementing

a programme aimed at integrating Information and Communication Technologies

(ICTs) into our efforts at addressing climate change and sustainable

development challenges in Ghana. We

recognize the role of ICT in monitoring climate events, and in mitigation and

adaptation to climate change impacts and as a tool to propel Ghana in her

transition towards a green economy.

This initiative has attracted support from the International

Telecommunication Union (ITU) and a private company, Vodafone .We therefore

call for a more definitive role for ITU in UNFCC activities.

Government has also endorsed the operationalization of the Ghana Cleaner

Production Centre established by the Environmental Protection Agency in the

industrial hub of the port city of Tema.

The Centre is

to green the supply chain of production

and consumption of locally manufactured products and services with emphasis on

economic, environmental and social benefits through improvement in efficiency

of energy and water use, waste minimization at-source, recycling, recovery and

reuse of resources to address historical and potential future environmental

impacts of industrial development in

Ghana.

Ghana has over the last decade promoted

environmental management in industry with a regulatory compliance promotion

tool aimed at facilitating the development of self-regulatory approaches by

Ghanaian industries.

Madam President, Ghana is the only African member of a thirty Global

Research Alliance, research group focused on GHG inventory and measurement in

the Agricultural sector. We call on other African countries to join the

Alliance.

There are lots of benefits, in the area of research, and improvement in

the methodology for the preparation of national communications. On this note I

wish to state that Ghana has submitted hersecond National Communication to the

UNFCCC and is in the process of

preparing the third National Communication in fulfillment of reporting

obligations.

In 2009, a Presidential Initiative on National Tree Planting was

launched by our president to re-afforestate degrade areas, restore and

rehabilitate green belts country wide, to help reduce the rate of deforestation

and to enhance Ghana’ carbon sink capacity.

Madam President, Ghana and South

Africa are currently engaged in a bilateral agreement on Science, Research and

Technology and Innovation transfer.

We are working together on Space Science and Technology Innovation on

key thematic areas including

A. Radio Astronomy, Satellite Communication and Research, High

performance computing;

B. Biotechnology and Climate Change

C. Material Services and Nanotechnology and the

application in health and water purification.

It remains our conviction that as an emerging oil and gas economy, our

growth requires modernization, particularly in the agricultural sector. We

recognize that the requirement in infrastructure will increase the demand for

energy, which would most likely result in higher emissions.

On the other hand, there is persistent poverty in some areas of the

country and among particular groups of people. In this regard, Ghana embraces

the green economy as a development pathway to achieving sustainable

development. Hence it is absolutely necessary to choose this development path

to set the policy direction for generations to come.

Madam President, a lot of progress has been made since Copenhagen and

Cancun, Durban must be the place to secure the fair, balance and credible

outcome with global solutions that will save tomorrow, today, for all humanity.

I thank you