Ghana to strengthen cooperation between CVF, development partners
Ghana has pledged to strengthen cooperation between Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF) and development partners as it takes over the presidency of CVF from Bangladesh, starting May 2022 to May 2024.
At the just ended United Nations Climate Change Conference, more commonly referred to as COP26, the members of the CVF agreed for Ghana to take over from Bangladesh as the next Presidency of the Forum as adopted in the CVF Dhaka-Glasgow Declaration.
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Speaking at an outreach workshop in Accra, to lay the foundation for Ghana’s Presidency of the CVF, the Minister of Finance, Mr Kenneth Ofori-Atta, in a speech read on his behalf, said one of Ghana’s priority actions as she assumes the presidency of CVF is to strengthen cooperation between CVF and development partners to deliver funding for adaptation activities.
The CVF is a global partnership of developing nations that are disproportionately affected by the consequences of global warming, and are tackling climate change to survive and thrive.
He explained that as CVF President, the country would set up a financial mechanism for Loss and Damage associated with climate change impacts, including floods, long drought spells and erratic rainfall.
Mr Ofori-Atta explained that such financing mechanism would provide meaningful avenues to deal with climate risk and help turn member states vulnerability to resilience and prosperity.
For him, the country recognised that the current architecture did not cater for the needs of the climate-vulnerable economies and would take steps to address such challenges.
“Building on the success of the Presidency of Bangladesh that has developed the first of the many Climate Prosperity Plans, we look forward to developing ours and more importantly, to spur and mobilise international investment through market creation and increased participation, technology transfer and economic partnerships, for accelerated action,” the Minister noted.
Impact of climate change
On his part, the Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, Dr Kwaku Afriyie in a statement delivered on his behalf, said climate change had posed additional stress on the economies of CVF member states, thus hampering their quest to attaining development.
He noted, for instance that, the recent intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report confirmed that Sub-Saharan Africa was one of the most vulnerable to the impacts of global warming.
“According to the State of the Climate in Africa 2020 report, investment in climate adaptation for sub-Saharan Africa would cost between US$30 billion to US$50 billion each year over the next decade, or roughly two to three per cent of GDP,” he quoted.
Support
The Head of Programme at CVF, Mr Mathew McKinnon, said the forum had helped put the vulnerable countries at forefront of climate response, including pushing for 1.5 degrees goals in the Paris Agreement.
He pledged that the secretariat would be working with the Ghana team on issues, including ensuring that the international communities delivered on their commitment to cut emissions and increase funding for adaptation.
Delegation
As part of preparatory activities, a delegation from the CVF Secretariat and the outgoing Presidency of Bangladesh were in Ghana to help ensure a smooth leadership transition.
