Ghana's vulnerability to climate change is alarming – Expert Warning

General News of Sunday, June 9, 2019

Source: Myjoyonline.com

2019-06-09

It has emerged that Ghana is extremely vulnerable to global climate change, ranking 114th out of 181 countries in the climate vulnerability index.

Ruka Sanusi, executive director of the Ghana Climate Innovation Center (GCIC), has already said that the country is experiencing a worsening of extreme weather, higher incidence and more frequent periods of floods and droughts. long.

She revealed it at the second Annual Symposium on Intellectual Leadership organized by GCIC in Accra.

The event on "Climate Action, Business Agility and Economic Prosperity" brought together key players from the local and international entrepreneurial ecosystem to discuss and suggest the solutions needed to ensure the sustainability of business. social and economic transformation as well as climate justice.

Sanusi said Ghana's vulnerability was mainly due to its reliance on production of climate-sensitive crops, such as cbadava and cocoa, a situation it blamed on the lack of diversification of agriculture.

As an immediate step, Ms. Sanusi said that in the next five years, her group will encourage 100 climate innovators and entrepreneurs and climate entrepreneurs from the growing small business sector.

She added that GCIC's ambition is to provide green goods and services to 300,000 Ghanaian households and create 350 new jobs.

Ms. Sanusi underscored their commitment to providing these climate innovators with leading-edge information, financing, advice and help in creating companies to support their growth.

Henry Kerali, World Bank country director for Ghana, Sierra Leone and Liberia, said in a speech on his behalf that the Bank is prioritizing the fight against climate change and its impact and helped countries cope with it.

He said the Bank was supporting Ghana with $ 200 million in funding for Ghana's Economic Transformation Project, which aimed to help diversify the economy to better withstand shocks to the economy. Commodity price volatility, favoring the transition to an economic structure generating stronger and more sustainable growth in the long term.