Climate Change: Ghana champions financing mechanisms to build resilience

Ghana is championing the transformation of the Climate Vulnerable Forum and the Vulnerable 20 Group (V20) of Finance Ministers into a permanent Inter-Governmental Organization.

The principal aim is to push for “a ‘Fair Share’ Agenda to ensure appropriate financing for 29 adaptation, mitigation, and loss and damage; whilst leveraging our natural resources to raise carbon financing for accelerated climate action and to ensure that the 1.5-degree Celsius temperature threshold is not breached,” says Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, when he addressed Parliament on the 2023 Mid-Year Budget Review.

Ghana’s President currently chairs the Climate Vulnerable Forum while the Finance Minister chairs the V20 Group – an organization of 58 countries with a population of 1.5 billion people in the most affected climate regions of the world.

According to Mr. Ofori-Atta, Ghana has already developed a framework for the V20 Climate Prosperity Plan to attract climate investments from the private sector.

The World Bank estimates that climate change could cost Ghana approximately 1.7 percent of GDP annually by 2030 if left unaddressed.

To drive foreign direct green investment to benefit local businesses, the government is working to secure carbon financing to support its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and meet its commitments under the Paris Agreement.

“As part of our efforts to address loss and damage from climate change, Ghana, as one of the first pathfinder countries, launched the in-country process for Ghana’s participation in the Global Shield against Climate Risk and the Global Risk Modelling Alliance.

“These initiatives will enable us to assess quantitatively our climate risk, design solutions informed by the data and facilitate access to resources from the Global Shield,” noted Mr. Ofori-Atta.

The government, in partnership with the Green Climate Fund, has established the Ghana Shea Landscape Emission Reduction Project (GSLERP) at an estimated cost of US$54.5 million.

The Project will focus on the Shea Landscape and will address the country’s efforts to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+).

“Additionally, government is implementing the Ghana Cocoa Forest REDD+ Programme (GCFRP), which covers 5.9 million ha – 79% off-reserve, 21% on reserve – in seven regions. The programme will benefit 12 million urban and rural residents,” said Ken Ofori-Atta.

Ghana became the second African country after Mozambique to receive FCPF REDD+ payments in January 2023.

By Kofi Adu Domfeh

 

Climate Change: July 2023 is the hottest month ever recorded

July has been the hottest month ever recorded, and may have been the hottest month in 120,000 years, according to an analysis published by Dr Karsten Haustein, a climate scientist at Leipzig University, Germany.

 

This is an average temperature about 1.5°C hotter than the planet was before it was warmed by burning coal, oil and gas, and other human activities.

 

Temperatures will continue to increase and extreme weather will worsen until the world drastically cuts fossil fuel use and reaches net-zero emissions. 

 

This month’s average global temperature is projected to be 1.3-1.7°C above the average July temperature before humans began warming the planet by burning fossil fuels – hotter than the previous record, July 2019, by 0.2°C, meaning it is now virtually certain that July will set a new global temperature record. 

 

“Not only will it be the warmest July, but the warmest month ever in terms of absolute global mean temperature. We may have to go back thousands if not tens of thousands of years to find similarly warm conditions on our planet,” said Dr. Haustein. 

 

According to the IPCC – the UN’s climate science panel – the 2.8°C temperature rise that would result from current policies would threaten food production, water supplies, human health, people living near the sea, national economies and the survival of much of the natural world.

 

Its report last year concluded: “Climate change is a threat to human well-being and planetary health. Any further delay in concerted anticipatory global action on adaptation and mitigation will miss a brief and rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a liveable and sustainable future for all.”

 

Taking Climate Action

 

The fact that the temperature rise this month has reached 1.5°C does not mean that governments have yet permanently failed to limit warming to the 1.5°C limit set in the Paris Agreement as average warming is measured on a longer-term timescale.

 

This is not the first time a month has been at, or more than, 1.5°C above the pre-industrial average: it previously happened in 2016 and 2020, though this is the first time it has happened in the Northern Hemisphere summer when the planet is hotter.

 

But the fact this month’s temperature increase is at the agreed maximum long-term level reflects the fact that, while the limit has not yet been broken, actions to cut emissions are still inadequate and the world is on course to fail to uphold the agreement.

 

Other climate scientists had warned that July was likely to be the hottest month on record, but Dr Haustein’s analysis is the first to confirm it and estimate the month’s average temperature.

 

“Such dramatic climatic changes also trigger unprecedented marine and continental heat waves, increasing the risk for record shattering temperature extremes across the globe,” said the analyst.

 

The high temperatures in July brought record-breaking extremes across the world. Death Valley, in the US, endured the hottest night ever recorded globally and Algeria had the hottest night on record in Africa; China saw its highest recorded temperature; Phoenix, Arizona, set a record with 21 consecutive days and counting above 43.3°C; Rome smashed its heat record, set only last year; and ocean temperatures worldwide continued to break records.

 

Local all-time temperature records were broken in at least 15 countries. Alongside the extreme heat, July brought record rain and fatal flooding, including in South Korea, Japan, China, India, Pakistan and the US, while Antarctic ice continued to be at a record low for the time of year.

 

Ahead of COP28

 

The record heat comes with global average temperatures having risen 1.2^oC since 1850. According to the UN, current government policies will see average temperatures rise 2.8^oC above pre-industrial levels, underlining the need for tougher targets and plans from major polluters at the UN’s COP28 climate summit in Dubai, UAE later this year.

 

To keep levels to the 1.5°C warming limit, the IPCC says global greenhouse gas emissions need to peak before 2025 at the latest and be reduced 43% by 2030.

 

Limiting global warming to safe levels and accelerating the transition to cleaner, zero carbon fuels is on the agenda for G20 climate and energy talks in India this week, but current proposals from major emitters are well off pace say analysts at Climate Action Tracker.

 

Under a new set of plans for COP28 in Abu Dhabi, the summit’s President Sultan Al-Jaber - CEO of oil giant Adnoc - admitted the phase-down of all fossil fuels is “inevitable” and called for “an energy system free of unabated fossil fuels” by 2050 together with a target to triple renewable energy by 2030.

 

Ahead of COP28 the world’s top polluters – led by China, the US, India, the EU, Russia and Japan – have multiple opportunities to adopt tougher targets, with the African Climate Summit, G20 and UN Climate Action summits in September important milestones on the road to Dubai.

 

By Kofi Adu Domfeh

 

 

Dirty air is second killer in Africa, climate action part of solutions

Dirty air is the second leading cause of death in Africa, after HIV/AIDS.

According to Clean Air Fund, a philanthropic initiative tackling global air pollution, the rate of exposure to dirty air is increasing with urbanization and slums.

 

The burning of fossil fuel, poor management of organic waste, poor public transport systems, unsustainable agricultural practices and inefficient household energy use are contributing to dirty air.

 

The most vulnerable people are always hardest hit. Improvements in air quality would help to prevent the 1.2 million deaths resulting from exposure to fossil fuel-derived air pollution in 2020 alone.

 

Findings from the Climate and Clean Air Coalition’s Africa integrated assessment on air pollution and climate change – released during COP27 – have shown that by prioritising air pollution along with climate change solutions, governments could unlock a raft of health, environmental and economic benefits for their citizens.

 

Ghana Country Lead at Clean Air Fund, Desmond Appiah, observed the level at which non-communicable diseases are increasing is astronomical. These diseases include diabetes, lung and heart conditions.

 

He therefore believes it has become imperative to highlight climate change issues from the heath perspective.

 

“The sources of greenhouse gas emissions are virtually the same as sources of air pollution. However, the advantage we have is that if we invest in air pollution prevention, we get the whole benefit of improvement in health,” Desmond noted.

 

Governments are therefore to recognise an economic opportunity to use action on clean air as a catalyst for sustainable growth, which also helps mitigate and adapt to climate change. 

 

The fossil fuel phenomenon

 

The burning of oil, gas, and coal causes 7 million premature deaths a year around the world through the bad air that people must breathe. The burden falls mostly on the poor.

Both air pollution and climate change are mainly caused by burning fossil fuels, so many of the solutions are the same.

 

The State of Global Air Quality Funding Report 2022 indicates governments, banks and donor agencies committed 36 times more money to fossil fuel –prolonging projects in Africa than clean air measures in 2015-2021. 

 

A new report by the World Bank indicates trillions of dollars are wasted on subsidies for agriculture, fishing and fossil fuels that could be used to help address climate change instead of harming people and the planet.

 

The report, Detox Development: Repurposing Environmentally Harmful Subsidies, notes that government subsidies of $577 billion in 2021 to artificially lower the price of polluting fuels, such as oil, gas, and coal, exacerbate climate change, and cause toxic air pollution, inequality, inefficiency, and mounting debt burdens.

 

Redirecting these subsidies could unlock at least half a trillion dollars towards more productive and sustainable uses.

 

“With foresight and planning, repurposing subsidies can provide more resources to give people a better quality of life and to ensure a better future for our planet,” said Richard Damania, Chief Economist of the Sustainable Development Practice Group at the World Bank.

 

Toxic air disproportionately affects the most vulnerable, so addressing it will reduce health inequalities. And because it severely hampers productivity, cognitive performance and wellbeing, initiatives that clean the air will provide economic benefits. 

 

Desmond Appiah emphasized the need to invest in clean air solutions to drive sustainable development.

 

“We need pathways to healthy and sustainable development, which will decrease damage to health, improve economic and social impacts, improve air quality and reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” he said. 

 

By Kofi Adu Domfeh

 

Climate resilient technologies prioritized under strategic plan of Ghana’s Crops Research Institute

Ghana’s Crops Research Institute of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR-CRI) has prioritized the development of superior consumer-acceptable climate-resilient technologies under its 5-year Strategic Plan.

 

The 2023–2027 strategic plan is targeted at commercializing agricultural research and innovations to support agricultural growth and industrialization for improved livelihoods.

 

“We have not gotten the kind of support that we have been expecting from industry. Our main support has been coming from donors, but within this strategic plan we are going to make a very conscious effort to bring in industry,” said Dr. Maxwell Asante, Deputy Director of CSIR-CRI and Chairperson of the implementing committee of the strategic plan.

 

The CSIR-CRI broad research mandate covers food and industrial crops; including cereals, legumes, roots and tubers, tropical fruits and vegetables.

 

The production of these crops is under the threat of climate change as farmers experience erratic rains in recent times.

 

Projections by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) suggest that warming scenarios risk having devastating effects on crop production and food security, especially for Africa where agriculture accounts for the majority of livelihoods.

Key risks to agriculture include reduced crop productivity associated with heat and drought stress and increased pest damage, disease damage and flood impacts on food system infrastructure, resulting in serious adverse effects on food security and on livelihoods at the regional, national and individual household levels. 

 

The CSIR-CRI supports farmers to adopt new agricultural technologies.

 

Dr. Asante observed without access to irrigation, improved seedlings and agronomic technologies, farmers are unable to be climate resilient.

 

“The whole idea is to equip breeders with new technologies to breed varieties that are for this current environment because if you bred a variety 30 years ago and farmers are cultivating it now, it was not bred for that environment,” he noted.

 

“We have equipped our breeders with modern tools, DNA, markers, speed breeding so that every two years, they can generate new varieties and those varieties will be tested in this current environment and therefore it will work for our farmers in their field.

 

Farmers, traditionally, are inclined to clear new fields for crop production, in which process they contribute to deforestation and depletion of carbon sinks that eventually lead to climate change.

 

The crop researchers are already encouraging farmers to plant on continuously cropped fields, especially in the production of yam. This means they will not open up new areas to have the carbon sinks intact.

 

According to Dr. Foster Boateng, Management Board Chair of CSIR-CRI, “research is coming out with varieties that are drought-tolerant. Because now you know that climate change has set in… research must come out with varieties that can command genetic advantage. That can withstand drought. That can withstand diseases and pests. Otherwise, there's nothing we can do.

 

“And we can't put more land under cultivation. Because when you put more land under cultivation, we know that agriculture also speeds up deforestation. So once you research and get genetic materials that command that advantage, we can go on vertical expansion in production rather than horizontal expansion in production”.

 

The adoption of climate smart agricultural practices is the way to go for Ghanaian farmers.

 

The farmers will need resilient crop varieties and farming technologies, increased diversification of agriculture systems, promotion of simple irrigation facilities, and training to change from the old ways of farming.

 

“Our agronomists are also doing a lot, they are doing things like new irrigation technologies so that we don't use a lot of water in the field; we are looking for technologies that use less nitrogen so that there is less emission of greenhouse gases. The varieties, the agronomy and training, a lot of training in farmers are part of the strategy,” said Dr. Asante.

 

He believes the partnership with industry will help finance research and make technologies accessible to farmers.

 

“We have products we can launch to industrial people who want to pay a little for us to plough back into our research; show them different varieties and technologies associated with it for them to invest in the technologies,” noted the rice breeder.

 

by Kofi Adu Domfeh