Ghana receives $8m climate change adaptation grant

Ghana will receive $8 million from the international Adaptation Fund to support the government’s climate change adaptation and mitigation efforts.

The Adaptation Fund Board (AFB) approved the grant last week with the aim of reducing the impacts of climate change on the ecosystems and residents in Ghana.

The AFB manages the Adaptation Fund which finances projects and programmes aimed at helping developing countries boost their climate change adaptation measures.

The fund was set up under the Kyoto Protocol of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Deputy Director in charge of Climate Change at the Ministry of Environment, Science Technology and Innovation, Peter Derry, announced that the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) would assist the government to implement the climate change programme at the national forum on Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) in Accra in August.

The mitigation efforts of the programme include the reduction of fossil fuel emissions and the burning of firewood for cooking, while the adaption process is aimed at boosting conservation efforts and protect plants and animals from the effects of pollution.

The INDCs are national climate plans that the UN has requested from its 195 member states in the build up to the international climate change conference to be held in Paris in December as part of global efforts to reduced greenhouse has emissions and limit global warming.

The Accra forum, organised by the Ghana Climate Change Coalition (GCCC), ABANTU for Development and the Pan African Climate Justice and Alliance, brought together climate change experts and was designed to enhance civil society engagement in national climate change issues including the INDCs.

Mr Derry said: “The situation has been exacerbated by threats and challenges of climate change, including warming, unpredictable rainfall, drought, water shortage, food insecurity, and low generation of hydro-electricity, migration and health.”

Derry said that in July 2014, the government launched the Ghana Climate Change and Environment Policy, aimed at tackling climate change in a more holistic manner.

Ghana has also developed a National Climate Change Strategy and Low-carbon Emission Road map and included climate change into District Medium-Term Development Plans, he added.

Mr Derry said the INDCs proposals on climate change mitigation and adaptation had been drafted by technical working groups on climate change.

Ghana’s final INDC document is due to be submitted to the Cabinet for review and approval this week being sent to the UNFCCC.