Accra, October 17, GNA
– Hajia Alima Mahama, Minister for Local Government and Rural Development on
Thursday stated that the climate chance summit provided a platform to take
steps to provide lasting solutions to climate impacts.
She said what should
be considered critical was establishing a dedicated financing window for local
authorities to implement their climate change priority action plan.
He said there was
also the need to consider the priority of Africa in the climate action that
addressed first access to energy and adaptation to climate change, adding that
so far there was an imbalance between mitigation actions that represented an
effort of over 600 billion dollars put by the international community compared
to 200 billion for adaptation.
Hajia Mahama
addressing participants on climate Change in Accra noted that there was no way
the climate agenda could be implemented without the involvement of all
stakeholders, including the local and regional governments, and the non-state
actors: civil society, traditional rulers, private sector and academia.
She said Local and
regional governments and their national associations had a critical role to
play in organising the multi-stakeholders engagement into climate action at the
local level.
The national associations
of local and regional governments are also key in the dialogue between the
national and the local levels of governments in defining climate actions and in
building the capacities of their members
The Minister of
Local Government and Rural Development said “I can see that Ghana is fast
becoming a Climate Hub not only for Africa, but globally given the many events
hosted by Ghana in the last few months on that agenda.
Of course we are up
to the task and after this event, there could be various other events related
to climate change to take place here in Ghana.
She said “yesterday
we had a prelude to this conference – we participated in a Conference of
Covenant of Mayors for Sub Sahara Africa and the theme was “Towards the
Institutionalization of Local Climate Action and Access to Finance”. It is
anticipated that the outcome paper will present local government authority
input in the agenda of COP 25.
The first Climate
Chance Summit that focused mainly on Africa was held in June, 2018, in Abidjan,
Cote d’Ivoire, with about 700 delegates in attendance.
Today, 1000
participants from the Local Government sector, and other Non-State Actors
including; Civil Society Organizations and the private sector from Africa,
parts of Europe and other parts of the world are gathered here to dialogue on
how we could strengthen the Local Climate Actions Platform in Africa, she
noted.
Mr Ronan Dontec,
President of Climate Chance Association expressed satisfaction at the
participation and added that ‘if we want to move forward, then we need the
local government.’
GNA
