The Green Climate Fund, with over $10 billion, was created a few years ago to support climate-vulnerable countries to get climate finance flowing to them.

Professor Patrick Verkooijen, the Chief Executive Officer of the GCA, told a press conference in Accra that African countries were unable to access much of the funding from the Green Climate Fund because of the complicated procedures for accreditation for financial institutions.

“So that is why as part of the Africa adaptation acceleration programme we are supporting financial institutions to understand the rules of the game to get accredited and at the same time develop the proposals,” he said.

“So here in Ghana, we're working with the Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund to get them accredited and to develop the proposal now in parallel so that when they're fit for purpose, the proposal is there,” he added.

The Africa adaptation acceleration programme seeks to mobilise $25 billion over five years to be invested in agriculture, infrastructure and youth development.

It is estimated that Ghana required at least US$1.3 billion to implement its roadmap for climate adaptation, developed together with GCA, by building resilient infrastructure to mitigate the dire consequences of climate change.

The roadmap would allow the country to build infrastructure to supply water, create energy efficiency and expand transportation, creating associated jobs.

Professor Verkooijen said the cost for inaction is huge and in the case of Ghana, it could be around $13 billion.

“So, there is a very simple choice to be made for Ghana, for Africa for the world. We either delay and pay or we plan and we prosper. These $13 billion will come to the cost of Ghanaian people, normal people, because it has to come out of taxpayers money.”

Prof. Verkooijen expressed the hope that the accreditation would allow money to flow to Ghana to invest in resilient infrastructure by working with nature, adding “It does not make sense to build new roads, which will be washed away when the next rains are coming.”

He said while Africa contributed less than 5 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions, the impacts of climate change are felt throughout the continent, resulting in more floods, more droughts, and more storms.

Besides, Africa is getting less of the resource flow to fight climate change and called for the urgent need for the African countries to get more resources to invest in adaptation and build resilience.

“There is no alternative than a climate resilience and a climate smart development pathway because Climate and Development are two sides of the same coin. You cannot develop, you cannot grow your economy and you cannot develop jobs without taking into account the climate risks the physical risk of droughts and floods and storms of today and tomorrow. So, this is the only way to go forward,” he said.