Lands Minister, Samuel Abu Jinapor, has refuted claims that the Ghanaian government is sponsoring all the members of its delegation attending the COP27 in Egypt.

According to him, most of Ghana’s delegates to the conference are being sponsored by their respective non-governmental organisations and thus are not a financial burden on the nation’s coffers.

His statement comes on the back of allegations that the government had sent a huge number of delegation to the conference.

JoyNews’ correspondent at the COP27, Mahmud Mohammed-Nurudeen revealed that Ghana’s delegation to COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt number about 155.

Speaking to JoyNews on the circumstance surrounding the number of delegates, Samuel Jinapor explained that many of Ghana’s delegates are members of NGOs operating both in Ghana and abroad who had received accreditation from the Ministry of Environment to attend the conference.

“I have met so many NGOs, all of them not even from Ghana, some in the United States, some in the United Kingdom, in several other countries but who are Ghanaians and who are coming for this conference as Ghana delegates.

“So you have to apply to the Ministry of Environment, get accreditation then you can attend the conference but you’ll be registered as a Ghana delegate and therefore form part of the Ghana delegation.

“And so the number you find on the website and the rest clearly are people from diverse backgrounds. Government doesn’t sponsor all these people. The tax payer doesn’t sponsor all these people. There are even government officials who have attended this conference on the ticket of non-governmental organisations,” he explained.

This year, the United Arab Emirates has registered the largest party delegation. The UAE delegation is the largest, with over 1,000 people.

The UAE delegation is nearly ten times larger than the one it brought to COP26 (116). This is perhaps unsurprising given that it has been chosen to host COP28 next year.

When compared to the second-largest delegate provider, Brazil (574), it is nearly twice the size.

Following Brazil, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (459 delegates), Kenya (386 delegates), and Canada (377 delegates) have the largest delegations. Zimbabwe sent 264 representatives, Senegal sent 245, Uganda sent 241, the Republic of the Congo sent 237, and Iraq sent 235.

The Gambia (151), Ethiopia (131), El Salvador has 16, Equatorial Guinea has 34, and Eritea with only 7 delegates.

Ghana has fewer than 155 delegates. Four more than The Gambia and 24 more than Ethiopia.

“The numbers do not include participants registered with badge types of host country, Party overflow, staff (local, secretariat, security and technical) and temporary,” UNFCCC statement said.

The official document, according to UNFCCC containing the final list of participants will be issued after the closure of the sessions. It will take into account any additional information received by the secretariat before 16 November 2022.