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General News of Monday, 18 March 2019

Source: ghanaiantimes.com.gh

Ghana to host Africa Climate Week

Prof Frimpong Boateng, Minister of Environment,Science,Technology and Innovation Prof Frimpong Boateng, Minister of Environment,Science,Technology and Innovation

The media has been asked to join the campaign for an ambitious climate change campaign in order to promote equity and social justice between peoples.

Such a change would further ensure sustainable development of all communities and the protection of the environment.

An advocacy group, Climate Action Network Ghana that made the call also urged the media to disseminate information on Ghana’s National Determined Contributions (GH-NDC) since failure to do so could retard the development gains and hinder the quest for Ghana to become a fully fledge middle-income country.

Mr Samuel Dotse, Country Coordinator of Climate Action Network of Ghana advocated on Friday in Accra, ahead of this next week’s international event – Africa Climate Week Celebration, being hosted by Ghana.

The event would offer Ghana the platform to seek for both international and local financial assistance to support its GH-NDC, which needed about 22.6 billion dollars to be implemented.

The content of NDC which also outlined the national action plan on Climate Change was the bedrock of the Paris Agreement in 2016 where about 196 countries, were expected to individually draft documents to communicate to the international community how they intended to reduce their Green House Gas (GHG) emissions and adapt to climate change.

Mr Dotse said Ghana was being severely impacted by climate change which continues to be a threat to the national economic growth and livelihoods of the vulnerable population across the country.

He said, “while Ghana like the rest of Africa is one of the lowest contributors to global emissions, it is leading the way by mitigating and adapting to climate impacts through climate action initiatives”.

He said the Paris Agreement Work Programme answered questions on how countries should report their greenhouse gas emissions or contributions, as well as what rules should apply to voluntary market mechanisms.

Mr Dotse said there had been some financial pledges from developed countries with the World Bank announcing 200 billion dollars for its 2021-2025 climate investment programme, which doubled the 100 billion dollars given during its previous five-year investment plan, ending 2020.

He said this year has already been hailed as the year of ambition, since the world has until 2020 for countries to go back to the table to revise their national climate action plans, adding that the African Climate Week was the first of the three annual regional climate events stated for 2019.

Mr Dotse said the collective goal of these Regional Climate Weeks was to support the implementation of countries’ NDCs under the Paris Agreement and climate actions under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Climate Action Network-Ghana is a network of civil society organisations in Ghana admitted by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

It has been committed to the protection of the earth against harmful climate change caused by the constant and fast growing emission of greenhouse gases.