The government has signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) with a United States non-profit organization, Emergent, to help the country deal with climate challenges.

The agreement was disclosed by the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel Abu Jinapor at an event at the Scottish Event Centre in Accra on Wednesday November 3, 2021.

“Earlier this morning, I signed a Letter of Intent (LOI), on behalf of the Government of Ghana, with Emergent, a US non-profit organisation, under the Lowering Emissions by Accelerating Forest Finance (LEAF) Coalition,” the Minister disclosed.

The event dubbed, “Beyond the Talk – Showcasing Ghana’s Forest Sector Climate Solutions” was to showcase Ghana’s measures taken so far to address climate challenges.

According to the Minister, the LOI was signed under the Lowering Emissions by Accelerating Forest Finance (LEAF) Coalition and would give Ghana the potential to enter into a Purchase Agreement with LEAF Coalition Members for REDD+ results-based payments.

Delivering a speech at an event organized by the Forestry Commission on Wednesday November 3, 2021, Mr Samuel Abu Jinapor disclosed that the agreement would motivate the country to undertake further collective actions to address climate challenges.

“Ghana believes that the LEAF Coalition Initiative demonstrates ambition to provide near commensurate financial value for carbon emission reductions at ten us dollars (USD10) per tonne to incentivise further collective ambition to address the climate emergency with urgency,” he disclosed.

Aside the LOI signed by the government, Mr. Jinapor also noted that the Ministry has developed separate programmes to ensure the reduction of carbon emissions into the atmosphere.

“We have developed and are implementing two programmes, namely; the Ghana Cocoa Forest REDD+ Programme (GCFRP) and the Ghana Shea Landscape Emission Reductions Project (GSLERP), to ensure emission reductions in Ghana’s major commodity supply chains (cocoa in the South and shea in the North), to secure both carbon and non-carbon benefits, and improve livelihood opportunities for farmers, women groups and forest users in general,” he said.

The Minister also reiterated government’s commitment to the Joint Framework of Action (JFA) signed in 2017 between Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire and other 36 cocoa and chocolate producing companies to halt deforestation and forest degradation due to cocoa production.

Early this year, the government declared June 11 as the Green Ghana Day for trees to be planted across the country. This year, the President led Ghanaians to plant 7,000,000 trees across the country, although the target is 5,000,000.

Mr. Jinapor said the government’s target is to plant at least 20,000,000 trees for next year’s Green Ghana Day.

“Our target for Green Ghana Day 2022 is to plant, at least, twenty million trees, and I am confident that, with the measures we are putting in place, we will exceed this target too. Through the Green Ghana Project, we will instill the culture of tree planting in our people, and make planting part of their everyday life,” he mentioned.

The government as part of efforts to combat climate change has implemented a number of measures to facilitate the solution to address the issue.

The measures include; Forest Investment Programme (FIP) to address the drivers of deforestation and forest degradation in the high forest and transitional zones, the National Alternative Employment and Livelihood Programme (NAELP) to create alternative jobs for artisanal miners and the Green Ghana Project.