Presidency funded COP26 trip for 24 persons not 337 - Eugene Arhin
The Director of Communications at the presidency, Mr Eugene Arhin has disclosed that Ghana's presidential delegation to the COP26 Summit in Glasgow, Scotland was comprised of 24 persons.
According to Mr Arhin, contrary to some media reports that suggested that the Presidency funded the trip to COP 26 to over 300 persons, only 24 persons including President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and four Ministers were on the trip.
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He said the Ministers who were on the official Presidential delegation were; the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey; the Minister of Energy, Matthew Opoku Prempeh; the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel A. Jinapor and the Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, Dr Kwaku Afriyie; as well as officials of the Presidency and Foreign Affairs Ministry.
"Let me state for the record that the government of Ghana did not send or fund 337 Ghanaians to attend COP26," Mr Arhin stressed.
He said three categories of persons, namely; United Nations and related organisations and agencies, media and non-profit organisations with observer status and representatives of parties to the convention and observer states were permitted to attend the event.
Mr Arhin added that not all 337 persons from the three categories who registered as participants attended the summit or were funded by the government.
What is COP26 and why is it happening?
The world is warming because of emissions from fossil fuels used by humans, like coal, oil and gas.
Extreme weather events linked to climate change - including heatwaves, floods and forest fires - are intensifying. The past decade was the warmest on record and governments agree urgent collective action is needed.
For COP26, 200 countries have been asked for their plans to cut emissions by 2030.
Under the Paris Agreement of 2015, they were asked to make changes to keep global warming "well below" 2C - and to try to aim for 1.5C - in order to prevent a climate catastrophe.
The goal is to keep cutting emissions until reaching net zero in 2050.