‘Private investors need to invest in Ghana’s Climate Actions’

Mrs Angelina Ama Tutuah Mensah, the Environmental Communication and Head of Public Relations at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), has urged private investors to invest in Ghana’s national climate actions, also known as Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).

She mentioned, especially, the NDCs that impact on the health and job creation sectors, saying it would be beneficial to investors, citizens and government alike.

Ghana has budgeted 22.6 billion dollars to implement its 31 climate actions, expecting to use 10 billion dollars of the amount to implement its mitigation actions, while 12 billion dollars would be used for adaptation actions.

The country is also expected to mobilise six billion dollars out of the amount from domestic sources while 16 billion dollars would be mobilised from international sources.

The Gh-NDCs covers seven economic sectors with 20 mitigation and 11 adaptation actions, including water, agriculture, forestry, energy, transportation and gender.

In an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Accra, Mrs Mensah, who is also a UN Climate Negotiator/Gender and Climate Change Focal Person, said any investor that did not invest in Ghana’s NDCs would be throwing money into the drains.

She particularly asked investors to launch unto Ghana’s quest to go into electrical vehicles and invest in that sector since it had “huge investment potentials with huge returns in the long run, reducing carbons and creating a good environment for the health of the people”.

Commenting on the just ended Africa Climate Week (ACW) hosted in Ghana from March 18 to 22, Mrs Mensah said the high point of the conference was the opening of the high level session, where President Akufo-Addo called on the international community to assist Africa in funding the NDCs.

“I think that the President’s voice is enough to bring in investors,” Mrs Mensah said.

“In the health and job creation senses, any investor should be encouraged to launch onto Ghana’s NDCs and put his money there – yes the money is huge, but it would take the boldness of the business and international communities to partner African governments in implementing the NDCs”.

Mrs Mensah said by hosting the ACW, Ghana exposed her NDCs to the world, especially, the private sector, and expressed the hope that the Government’s efforts at mobilising both domestic and international funds to propel its implementation from 2020 to 2030 would yield results.

The theme for the ACW was: “Climate Action in Africa: A Race We Can Win.”

The NDCs are each country’s national action plans to deal with climate change challenges by putting the globe into low carbon pathway and climate resilient future.