The programmes are crucial in the determination of specific sectors or projects the country could prioritise to deal with the effects of climate change.

Developing programmes for climate resilience is a prerequisite for countries which intend to access financing from the GCF.

Green Fund

The GCF was established in 2010 as an operating entity of the financial mechanism of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

It was designed to disburse $100 billion per year of new and additional resources by 2020 to address climate change.

To help developing countries access the GCF, the UNDP and the World Resource Institute have developed a Readiness Programme to prepare governmental institutions to access financing.

The global programme initiative is to support countries to enhance access to international climate finance.

The programme was launched in Ghana in June 2015 to support the government to strengthen national capacities to effectively and efficiently plan for, access, manage, deploy and monitor climate financing in particular through the GCF.

The UNDP Resident Representative, Mr Aeneas Chapinga Chuma, stated this at the launch of the development of the programmes in Accra on Wednesday.

According to him, Ghana’s Nationally Determined Contributions (GH-NDCs), which seek to help the country meet commitments under the Paris Agreement, had considered the GCF as a key source of financing for the implementation of projects aimed at reducing emissions and increasing resilience between 2020 and 2030.

As a result, he said, the UNDP was impressed with Ghana’s desire of “getting to this stage of commencing the development of its GCF country programme”.

“The enormous effort in bringing together major stakeholders certainly shows a strong desire not only to see Ghana meet its international climate obligations but also do so through wide stakeholder collaborations,” he added.

He said the UNDP was honoured to be a partner of the government in its effort to mobilise the needed financial resources to address the challenges posed by climate change.

Mr Chuma said the UNDP had, over the last four years, supported the ministries of Finance and Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI) in their climate-finance readiness efforts.

Ghana ready

The Director of the Economic Strategy and Research Division of the Ministry of Finance, Dr Alhassan Iddrisu, said the government was determined to implement policies aimed at ensuring low-carbon and climate resilient growth.

Presently, he said, Ghana was implementing 35 programme areas, comprising 24 mitigation and 11 adaptation, noting that it would require $22.6 billion to implement the targeted programmes.
Of the amount, $16.2 billion was expected to come from international sources, while $6.4 billion would be realised from domestic sources, he added.

Dr Iddrisu said the government expected about $5 billion from the GCF, representing about 30.6 per cent of the external funds expected to support Ghana’s NDCs.