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His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has stated that with the African Development Bank stating that Africa will need some US$3 trillion “in mitigation and adaptation by 2030” to enable her implement nationally determined contributions, Africa should seriously consider the question of financing this challenge.

“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.

He continued, “The development and industrialization of the wealthy nations of today were also hinged on the exploitation of their natural resources. This development came at the expense of pollution and the emission of greenhouse gases. Even today, the western world is responsible for 76% of carbon emissions.”

COP26 in Glasgow

Around 120 leaders have come together in Glasgow since (Monday) at the start of COP26, launching two weeks of global negotiations to help determine whether humanity can drive forward the urgent action needed to avoid catastrophic climate change.

As the world experiences record temperatures and extreme weather pushing the planet dangerously close to climate catastrophe, the need for urgent action at COP26 has never been clearer.

COP26 brings the major emitting countries face to face with the countries most vulnerable to climate change. The World Leaders Summit are expected to send a clear signal to negotiators to be as ambitious as possible and agree to a negotiated outcome that accelerates action this decade.

The Summit will also underscore that the Paris Agreement is working, with increased commitments on finance, emissions and adaptation as we see the first crank of the Paris Agreement ratchet.

Nana Addo's Address

PeaceFM's Senior Correspondent, Sampson Kwame Nyamekye, reports that the president said this when delivered Ghana’s statement at the UN Climate Change Conference, COP 26, currently ongoing in Glasgow, Scotland.

According to him, the president pointed out the need to strike a "balance" between socio-economic advancements and its environmental impact.

“Ghana acknowledges the importance and effects of Climate Change, and the urgent need to combat it, and we acknowledge equally the importance of protecting our development. We believe that a balance must be struck and maintained between our social, economic and environmental imperatives,” Nana Akufo-Addo stated.

Protecting Ghana’s Forests and Oceans

Describing deforestation and forest degradation as the “greatest challenges to sustainable forest management” in Ghana, the President stated that Ghana has, in the course of the last two decades, adopted several policies and programmes, such as National Forest Plantation Development Programme and the Ghana Forest Plantation Strategy, aimed at restoring her lost forest.

“In June this year, I led the entire country, through the Green Ghana Project, to plant over seven million trees, far above the five million we had targeted. Next year, we aim to plant a minimum of twenty million trees, and we have already begun earnest preparations towards this,” he added.

"from 2024 and beyond, we aim to reduce emissions by some ten million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent in the cocoa-forest landscape, through the implementation of the Ghana Cocoa Forest REDD+ Programme, one of five ecological landscape-tailored programmes in Ghana’s REDD+ Strategy,” he assured.

Ghana, President Akufo-Addo stressed, through her Nationally Determined Contributions in the forestry sector, “is committed to supporting the global target of halving emissions by 2030, and attaining neutrality by 2050”.