Samuel A. Jinapor and John Kerry
At the invitation of the United States' Special Presidential Envoy on Climate, and co-chair of the Forest and Climate Leaders' Partnership (FCLP), the Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel A. Jinapor, on Wednesday, 14th December 2022, attended the first FCLP co-chair's meeting with US Secretary John Kerry, on the sidelines of the US - Africa Leaders' Summit, currently underway in Washington, DC, USA.
The FCLP, co-chaired by Ghana and the United States, is a new political forum that brings together governments and partners to work to implement solutions that reduce forest loss, increase restoration, and support sustainable development.
Speaking after the meeting, which was held at the US State Department, Mr. Jinapor explained that the meeting afforded them, as co-Chairs, the opportunity to discuss plans to deliver on the high ambition of the FCLP, going into 2023.
Matters discussed, he said, included putting in place the building blocks and the institutional framework to deliver on the objectives of the Partnership, and how to bring major forest countries across the world as members of the Partnership.
The meeting also discussed plans to bring together the African constituency for an African-tailored forum on forest and Climate Change, dubbed "The Africa Forest Carbon Forum," to promote cross-learning among African countries on forest solutions, provide a platform for strategic partnerships and investments, link carbon initiatives and programs on the continent to markets, and showcase emission reductions initiatives in different eco-zones on the continent.
The meeting, he also said considered a Ghana-US Forest sector cooperation to scale up forest and other nature-based solutions to climate change.
"President Joe Biden's Executive Order on Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad, the US "Plan to Conserve Global Forests: Critical Carbon Sinks", and the New York Declaration on Forests, align with our aggressive afforestation and reforestation programme to restore our lost forest cover and contribute to global climate action," he said.
The Minister assured that Ghana is poised to work with the United States and other partners, within the FCLP Framework, to protect the forests and halt climate change.
At the end of the meeting, Secretary Kerry presented an autographed book on John Quincy Adams, the son of the second President of the United States, who also became the sixth President of the United States, and the only US President to have served in an elected office after leaving the White House, as the Representative for Massachusetts in the House of Representatives.
He noted that the commitment of the Government of President Akufo-Addo, to protect Ghana's forest resources for current and future generations remains total and unflinching, adding that "we will continue to build the right partnership on the global stage to deliver forest solutions to climate change.
