The Lands and Natural Resources Minister, Samuel A. Jinapor has challenged the world to “walk the talk” and move beyond mere pledges in dealing with the climate crisis.

Speaking at the Ghana Pavilion at the ongoing United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP27 in Egypt, Mr. Jinapor said the world was “at a stage in the climate struggle where mere talk, commitments, declarations and pledges are not enough.

"Consistent with the clarion call of COP27, this is the time the world must walk the talk and get on with action and implementation of the many years of unfulfilled climate action promises.”

Ghana, like many African countries, bear the brunt of the climate crisis despite being responsible for less than 4% of global emissions. The developed world has failed to honour a $100 billion pledge made 13 years ago to help developing countries adapt and mitigate the impact of climate change.

“We, therefore, have to work together to bridge the financing gap between ambition and action. We must find means of securing funding and strategic collaboration to scale up nature-based solutions to climate change, particularly in tropical African countries,” Mr. Jinapor said.

Already, the World Bank is partnering with Ghana to make funds available to address the problem. Ghana is now eligible to receive up to $50 million for 10 million tons of CO2 emissions to be reduced by the end of 2024 within a 6 million-hectare stretch of the West Africa Guinean Forest.

Erwin De Nys, the Climate Funds Manager at the World Bank said “with the validation and verification completed for the first monitoring period, Ghana will receive very soon its first payment of about $4.8 million”. This will make Ghana the second African country to receive result-based payment in Africa after Mozambique.

“We will be supporting the partnership in strengthening the capacity of beneficiary communities to continue being a part of the Ghana Cocoa Forest REDD+ Programme,” Mr. De Nys said.

The Ghana Cocoa Forest REDD+ Programme was launched in 2019 to invest in climate-smart cocoa practices such as incorporating shade trees on farms, irrigation, application of organic fertilizers, and provision of alternative livelihood options for cocoa communities, to reduce forest degradation and deforestation resulting from cocoa expansion.

Ghana is also pursuing afforestation and reforestation programmes as part of its climate initiative including the Ghana Forest Plantation Strategy which has cultivated an estimated 547,891.70 hectares of degraded forest lands between 2017 and 2021.  

“Despite these laudable initiatives, we still have some challenges, including illegal mining and illegal logging, inadequate capacity to enforce laws, and lack of sustainable alternative livelihood for those who depend on the forests for subsistence” said Mr. Jinapor.

He said, “a common denominator of these challenges is finance”.  The government is now taking advantage of COP27 to explore additional funding sources to support domestic climate initiatives.