Africa has an interest in fighting climate change – Akufo-Addo calls united front

General News on Thursday, March 21, 2019

Source: Myjoyonline.com

2019-03-21

The President of the Republic, Nana Addo Akufo-Addo Dankwa, said that the measures taken to deal with the phenomenon of climate change were included in the coordinated program of economic and social development policies of his government.

According to President Akufo-Addo, the government's flagship programs, such as "Planting to create jobs for food and employment," "A village, a dam" and "A district, a factory" , all aim to stimulate industrialization. and rural development, as well as strengthening Ghana's resilience to the impacts of climate change.

"These policy initiatives are already yielding positive results for achieving the SDGs, especially the goal of reducing our carbon emissions," he said.

In addition, the President said that he had recently announced a major reinforcement of distributed renewable energy policy, also to combat climate change.

"Soon, the seat of the presidency of our country, Jubilee House, will be powered by solar energy. We have banned illegal mining, the phenomenon we call "galamsey," which was destroying our water bodies, vegetation and forests. Some twenty thousand (20,000) young people have been hired to plant more than 10 million trees in two years to create jobs and restore degraded lands, "he added.

President Akufo-Addo said this Wednesday, March 20, 2019 by delivering the opening speech of the high-level session of the African Climate Week, held at the International Conference Center in Accra.

Although the climate change discourse has different dimensions, its most important aspect is that the majority of countries in the world are committed to fighting it by reducing the current global temperature to a minimum of 2 degrees Celsius, well below preindustrial. continue efforts to limit the increase in temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

Describing climate change as the greatest threat to achieving the goals of sustainable development, President Akufo-Addo said that it had become a matter of grave concern to most world leaders because it had a significant impact on the fundamentals necessary for our survival on Earth – sea level rise, extreme and extreme weather conditions, such as droughts, floods and irregular rainfall, and increasing desertification.

"For us on the continent, the African Climate Week is an important opportunity because the ravages of climate change affect us the most. This week-long event gives us an opportunity to showcase the progress we are making in the fight against this phenomenon, as well as to deepen the partnerships needed worldwide to combat it, "he said.

The president said Africa suffers the most because its economies are largely sensitive to the effects of climate change and its ability to withstand shocks is low.

"Agriculture, water and energy are key drivers of the evolution of our countries, but at the same time are sensitive to climate change. For the sake of our generation, and for generations to come, we have a solemn duty to take immediate, bold and concrete steps to protect global warming climate beyond unbearable limits, "he said. .

President Akufo-Addo continued: "It is in our interest to act to save the continent's economic situation and, more importantly, to intensify our collective efforts to fight decisively against climate change. The recent report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concludes that the global community has only 12 years to halt climate change, forcing us to deal with climate change. more aggressive than in the past.

While striving to end the climate at the national level, he said that much must also be done at the international level.

"One of our main problems is the need to streamline access to international climate finance to complement national funding. I think this forum will shed more light on the practical ways to mobilize financial resources to support the implementation of national actions for climate, "said President Akufo-Addo.