By Kofi Adu Domfeh
This November, the first truly global landmark climate agreement will enter into force with the framework to reduce emissions and tackle rising temperatures planet-wide.
UN Secretary-General has stated that the strong international support for the Paris Agreement is a testament to the urgency for action, and reflects the consensus of governments that robust global cooperation, grounded in national action, is essential to meet the climate challenge.
But the work of implementing the agreement still lay ahead and most critical to implementation of the Paris Agreement is funding of climate mitigation and adaptation activities.
“The beauty of the Paris Agreement on climate change is contingent upon funding and therefore those who pledge must ensure that the money is released”, observed Dr. Albert Ahenkan, Coordinator, University of Ghana Graduate Program on Climate Change and Sustainable Development.
In Ghana, the agricultural and food economy are already under threat as local farmers reel under the severity of the weather.
The country’s climate change policy has clear plans on how to support farmers and other sectors of the economy to be climate-resilient.
Ghana’s Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC), submitted to the United Nations, safeguards developmental gains from the impacts of climate change and builds a climate resilient economy.
A projected $22.6 billion is needed in investments from domestic and international public and private sources to finance its climate mitigation and adaptation actions.
According to experts, implementation of the Paris Agreement will increase the window of funding opportunities for climate adaptation and technology transfer.
But there are questions regarding how to access the funds to undertake climate change programmes.
Participants at the 2nd African Climate-Smart Agricultural Alliance Forum in Nairobi, Kenya, deliberated on the theme “From Agreement to Action: Implementing African INDCs for Growth and Resilience in Agriculture”.
The Forum recommended that the NEPAD Agency and the African Union, working with other partners, fast track and expand support towards implementation of the nationally determined contributions and national agricultural investment plans.
But according to Dr. Ahenkan, “until we develop capacity, we will not be able to access funding. We have to build capacity of our institutions to be able to respond to calls for proposal; to be able to write very good proposals to be able to secure funding”.
The NEPAD Climate Fund has supported 22 projects in 18 African countries since its establishment in 2014 – each project could attract up to 200,000 Euros.
Coordinator of the Fund, Kwame Ababio, has acknowledged that access to finance is difficult for African countries largely due to capacity challenges in developing bankable proposals that prioritize the needs of individual farmers and other vulnerable groups.
He however says there are arrangements to support African countries with capacity building to access international financing for climate change activities, especially with climate-smart agriculture.
