President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo says Ghana supports the call for debt-for-climate swaps, which will address a multitude of issues in one fell swoop.
According to him, climate change is the greatest threat to the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals adding that it has an enormous impact on the fundamentals required for our survival on earth.
“Even though we, in Africa, are the least of the contributors to this phenomenon, responsible for less than four percent (4%) of the global volume of carbon emissions, we suffer the most because our agrarian and resource-driven economies are peculiarly susceptible to the effects of climate change, and our capacity to withstand its shocks is weak,” he said.
Delivery Ghana’s Statement at the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 26), in Glasgow, Scotland on Tuesday, he said agriculture, water, energy, and the extraction of mineral resources are essential drivers of developments in our countries, but, at the same time, are characteristically sensitive to changing climate.
He further noted that Ghana acknowledges the importance and effects of Climate Change, and the urgent need to combat it.
“Ghana acknowledges the importance and effects of Climate Change, and the urgent need to combat it, and we acknowledge equally the importance of protecting our development. We believe that a balance must be struck and maintained between our social, economic, and environmental imperatives.”
President Akufo-Addo further stressed that “We must find a solution that is equitable and fair; a solution that levels the playing field; a solution that recognizes the historical imbalances between the high emitters and low emitters.
Thus he urged world leaders to use COP 26 as “a turning point to create a more prosperous, greener and fairer world, which maintains the balance between the social, economic and environmental requirements of all nations of the earth, rich and poor.”
Success, in this endeavour, he reiterated, is the greatest inheritance the world can leave for current and future generations.
Source: Anthony Sasu Ayisadu/ATLFMNEWS
