By Lydia Kukua Asamoah, GNA’s Special Correspondent in Katowice, Poland, Credit: GIZ, Ministry of Energy, Environmental Protection Agency
Katowice, Poland, Dec. 14, GNA - Ghana is implementing an ambitious multispectral plan to help citizens adapt to the global phenomenon of climate change, Madam Patricia Appiagyei, Deputy Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, has said.
Speaking at a high-level Ministerial meeting, held alongside COP24 in the Polish city of Katowice, Madam Appiagyei said the plan would allow Ghana to achieve its 35 Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCS) to combat climate change.
It has also responded to the United Nation’s Declaration for Sustainable Energy for all by 2030 and thus implementing a number of actions in the energy sector.
These include household solar rooftop subsidy programme for upgrade areas and the distribution of solar lanterns to rural communities, as well as the distribution of Liquefied Petroleum Gas, (LPG) for domestic cooking to reduce the use of biomass as fuel wood.
“We are in the process of implementing a sustainable transportation programme with the introduction of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) and electric buses for mass public transportation,” she sated.
“Over 20,000 young people have been recruited in our ambitious forest plantation programme as part of the process of restoring degraded lands; while Government has streamlined small-scale mining activities to avoid degradation of water bodies.”
“Again, a plastic waste policy has been developed to clean the environment and oceans of plastic waste and we are currently enforcing our electronic and hazardous waste law”.
Confidently enumerating the work in progress to her colleague Ministers, who were there to give political backing to the deliberations of the COP, Madam Appiagyei said Ghana’s Ambitious Climate Reporting System had been also established to track climate finance in compliance with Article 13 of the Paris Agreement.
According to the Deputy Minister, Ghana’s Red+ programme was also transforming the Savannah and high forest zones through the discouragement of deforestation, but the promotion of tree commodity supply chain, with emphasis of cocoa and shea.
“These are some of the policies and measures we are undertaking as a country, to build resilience and equitable low carbon economy,” she said. We hope with additional support we can do more”.
Other Ghanaian officials also spoke at the various levels of the COP 24 deliberations .
Mr Kwaku Ofori Asiamah, Minister of Transport, talked extensively on Ghana’s preparation towards the introduction of electric buses to minimise the 47 per cent emissions from the transport sector.
COP 24, which opened on Monday, Dec 3, comes to a close, on Friday, December 14.
Some civil society actors have, however, expressed their disappointment at how some of the developed countries, who emitted more greenhouse gases, were dragging their feet towards meeting their financial obligations towards, mitigation, loss and damage, and technology transfer.
Mr Mithika Mwenda, the Secretary-General, Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA), said the issue of equity, just transition, climate justice and principles of transparency, as well as participatory negotiations, were very critical for addressing.
He, however, later told the Ghana News Agency in an interview that: "We feel that there is no progress- the issues which bought us here- issues of finance, technology, adaptation, loss and damage have all been thrust by the COP Presidency".
He, however, said Africa would continue highlighting issues for a better climate because it hinged on their survival.
GNA
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