LocationsGhana, Accra — Top-ranking government officials, policy makers and ministerial representatives from across the world will be in Ghana for the Africa Climate Week from 18-22 March.
Multi-lateral organisations such as the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and the World Bank, will join investors and other key stakeholders to advance national climate action plans or the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres at the climate change conference (COP24), held late last year in Katowice, Poland, urged stakeholders to work towards an outcome— “to waste this opportunity in Katowice would compromise our last best chance to stop runaway climate change.”
The next UN climate change conference - COP25, recently announced to be taking place in Chile this December - will be the pinnacle of the year where governments’ true ambitions towards tackling climate change will be clarified on the international stage. The UN Secretary General’s Climate Summit in September, attended by world leaders, presents a final opportunity urge governments to raise ambition and deliver at COP25.
In the build-up to these global events, a series of Regional Climate Weeks are scheduled in Africa, Asia-Pacific, and Latin America and the Caribbean. The Africa Climate Week is the first of opportunity this year to beat the drum on climate change, and build on the growing understanding of our need to drastically increase our climate action on the ground.
“Climate change is the single greatest challenge humanity has ever faced, threatening water and food security, health, livelihoods, and the safety of billions of people,” stated Abdoulaye Mar Dieye, UN Assistant Secretary General and Director of UNDP’s Development Policy Bureau. “Financing the global transition to a low-carbon and climate resilient economy will require an investment of at least 60 trillion USD. The 100 billion USD per year financing commitment from the public sector must be used to strategically leverage and de-risk private investment to accelerate climate action. We need to urgently invest in new technologies where they are needed the most. This why the investment focus of this Africa Climate Week is so necessary and welcomed.”
Ghana NDC Investment Forum
Some 85 to 90 percent of the funds needed to achieve the Paris Agreement goals are going to come from the private sector, and with current flows far from sufficient, getting investors and policy makers together is critical.
This is why the Government of Ghana and UNDP are organising an NDC Investment Forum to take place during the Africa Climate Week, in collaboration with the UNFCCC.
The aim of the two-day forum, March 18 – 19 will discuss ways to crowding-in private sector investment for projects in Ghana that are financially viable, and that also deliver the climate solutions Ghana pledged in their NDC.
Ghana is a regional champion in engaging the private sector in its approach to climate change, and UNDP has been working with the government to support these efforts. A recent workshop was piloted in Ghana explaining how to turn national climate action plans – NDCs – into a set of projects that can be marketed to investors.
At the NDC Investment Forum, a number of initiatives are expected to take place:
- The launch of Ghana’s NDC implementation plan with national priority;
- Ghana’s Macro-Economic Investment Environment: Setting the Scene for Institutional Investors;
- Discussions on stripping away investment risks and crowd-in private sector finance;
- The presentation of projects by ministerial representatives to private investors; and
- Introducing innovative tool for Ghanaian enterprises to manage their SDG impacts and increase their ability to contribute towards the NDC and SDGs.
And we look forward to welcoming a number of key institutions and stakeholders, such as:
- Minister of Planning, Government of Ghana
- Special Advisor on SDGs to Minister of Finance, Government of Ghana
- Bank of Ghana
- Association of Bankers, Representative
- Principal Climate Change and Green Growth Officer, African Development Bank
- Resident Representative, International Monetary Fund
- UNDP Resident Representative, Ghana
- United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Representative
Follow the Africa Climate Week on Twitter via the hashtag #AfricaClimateWeek and @UNDPClimate
For more information, please contact:
Praise Nutakor, UNDP Ghana, +233-244093010, praise.nutakor@undp.org
Sangita Khadka, UNDP New York, +1 212 906 5043, sangita.khadka@undp.org
