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THE Ministry of Finance (MoF) has launched the first phase of the Green Finance Taxonomy (GFT) to guide investment towards sustainable and environmentally friendly economic activities and increase the country’s green growth.
The GFT was designed to facilitate a low carbon transition and climate-resilient growth across multiple sectors such as banking, investment, business and project developments and policy regulation; and meet the country’s climate action commitments under the Paris Agreement.
The pioneering phase launched at the 2024 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Investment Fair at the Alisa Hotel in Accra would establish qualitative standards for identifying green activities across sectors which include crafting technical guidelines and principles to set the foundation for taxonomy implementation.
The second phase of the GFT which will introduce quantitative thresholds, tax exemptions and sector-based incentives is expected to commence by May next year, while the third which will gradually roll out additional sectors such as oil and gas, sustainable mining and heavy industry will be launched by the end of May next year.
The SDGs Investment Fair themed: “Unlocking Green Growth: Financing the Future through Sustainable Investments” was organised by the MoF in collaboration with the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC); GIZ, a German cooperation; United Kingdom Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO); FSD Africa; Impact Investing Ghana; Bank of Ghana; Securities and Exchanges Commission; the United Nations Country Office; and the Tony Blair Institute.
Joining the Fair virtually, the Minister of Finance, Dr Mohammed Amin Adam, said the global financial architecture, the green finance, will help develop the frameworks that allow the country to achieve the objectives of reducing the country’s debt to sustainable levels while at the same time improving sustainability in the area of environmental management.
He indicated that although the transition from carbon intensive activities to low carbon activities provided complexities; it also offers many opportunities for the country’s economy; hence the need for sacrifices to develop the taxonomy in a “phased approach”.
He added that the MoF was committed to working with stakeholders to ensure that the transition provided opportunities for harnessing the potential associated with low-carbon economies and also to be able to create green jobs.
For his part, the Deputy Minister of Finance in Charge of Revenue, Dr Alex Ampaabeng, who launched the GFT, said: “Globally there is a huge demand in green financing for which Ghana needs to respond and in a way that it will be able to shape its financial system to align with the direction of investment globally and also to sit with global financial financing architecture”.
In an interview with the Daily Graphic, the President of Climate Communications and Local Governance Africa, Kofi Don Agor, urged the government, agencies, government institutions to commit to the taxonomy to help exploit the potential it holds for the country.
He also called on the media to be more interested in SDGs issues to educate the public well on what it holds for the country, and how to address key issues raised in the SDGs to help the country achieve its SDGs goals.
