According to the North Tongu MP, whiles presidents of other countries including Nigeria and Namibia flew to Scotland in their presidential jets, President Akufo-Addo flew a private jet to the summit.
He stated that reports from the conference indicated that Ghana’s Presidential plane was missing from the scene and that President Akufo-Addo used another luxurious plane.
“Reporters at the UK's Mail Online took keen interest in how Presidents arrived in Glasgow for COP26. Instructively, their monitoring reveals that the Namibian President, Hage Geingob has kept faith with Namibia's 30-year-old presidential jet which is also a Falcon albeit a much older version when compared to Ghana’s Falcon.
“US President Joe Biden was happy to show off his 31-year-old Air Force One. The French President, Emmanuel Macron remains loyal to his presidential jet-Cotam 001 which was commissioned in 2010 — same year as Ghana’s.
“Many countries including but not limited to Nigeria, Serbia, India, Estonia, Bulgaria, Bahrain, Jordan, Germany and Georgia have felt proud as always flying their national colours.
“Unfortunately for us, our iconic Ghana flag was conspicuously missing at the Glasgow parade. President Akufo-Addo continues to prefer sybaritic charters as he parked Ghana’s presidential jet. Our Falcon has been left idle since it arrived from Praia, Cape Verde on 29th October, 2021 at 1:39pm,” parts of his post on social media reads.
Okudzeto Ablakwa criticized the decision by the President, revealing that not only is the private airplane a drain on the public purpose but it also possess a danger to the environment with its emissions.
“Environmental campaigners have slammed the use of private jets to the summit describing them as bad news for the environment. The average private jet emits two tons of CO2 for every hour in flight. To environmentalists and climate experts, it is the worst way to travel by miles. They insist that a much better option for the climate if world leaders cannot fly commercial is to remain loyal to their presidential jets and enhance their fuel efficiency by using sustainable aviation fuel.
“There can be no virtue or exemplary conduct at this time of climate crisis by expanding fleets with obscenely luxurious chartered aircrafts when you own a US$37.5million presidential jet in great condition as is the embarrassing case of Ghana.
“Sadly, we in Ghana are not only grappling with the effects of carbon emissions, we have to equally contend with reckless taxpayer emissions to satisfy the creature comforts of an unrestrained President who has become the most obstinate and disrespectful of the Ghanaian people in our entire nation’s history,” he said.
Okudzeto Ablakwa reminded of the institution of an enquiry into the foreign travels by the president and how much was expended on those trips.
“With bated breath and great anticipation I look forward to our full scale bi-partisan public parliamentary enquiry into this presidential atrocity against the suffering Ghanaian masses. The day of accountability is soon approaching and there shall be no escape,” .
President Akufo-Addo meanwhile, delivered speech at the forum on Tuesday, November 3, 2021.
He stated that climate change is the greatest threat to the realisation of the Sustainable Development Goals, as it has enormous impact on the fundamentals required for survival on earth.
“Even though we, in Africa, are the least of the contributors to this phenomenon, responsible for less than four percent (4%) of the global volume of carbon emissions, we suffer the most because our agrarian and resource-driven economies are peculiarly susceptible to the effects of climate change, and our capacity to withstand its shocks is weak,” he said.
Agriculture, water, energy, and the extraction of mineral resources, the President said, are essential drivers of developments in African countries, but, at the same time, are characteristically sensitive to changing climate.
With the African Development Bank stating that Africa will need some US$3 trillion “in mitigation and adaptation by 2030” to enable her to implement nationally determined contributions, he noted that the question of financing Africa’s commitments naturally arises.
“The Almighty has blessed our lands with abundant natural resources, and it would be wholly unfair for the world to demand that Africa abandons the exploitation of these same resources needed to finance her development, and help us to cope better with the threat of climate change, at a time when many countries on the continent have only just discovered them,” President Akufo-Addo said.
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