Mr. Seidu Issifu, Minister of State for Climate Change and Sustainability, has called for the urgent establishment of a climate debt forgiveness mechanism to support countries disproportionately affected by the consequences of climate change.
He said developing nations, especially in Africa, were being forced into deeper debt traps as they tried to cope with the increasingly severe impacts of climate-related disasters, impacts they did little to cause.
The Minister of State was speaking during a courtesy visit paid by the African Group of Negotiators Experts Support (AGNES) in Accra.
The visit was to welcome the Minister into Africa’s climate negotiation leadership arena and explore areas of collaboration to advance Africa’s common interests in global climate talks.
It also sought to strengthen alignment and coordination between Ghana’s national actions and the African Group of Negotiators’ (AGN) continental agenda, and encourage Ghana’s sustained advocacy on key AGN priorities such as adaptation, loss and damage, and just transitions.
Mr. Issifu said, “In 2020 alone, Ghana lost 195 million U.S. dollars due to climate-related events like droughts and floods, and projections show that by 2050, we could be losing close to 550 million dollars annually if nothing is done.”
“This is not our doing but it is the cost of someone else’s development,” he added.
He urged African climate negotiators to unite behind a common demand: global debt relief for climate-vulnerable nations.
The Minister of State argued that African governments were being compelled to borrow at high interest rates from global capital markets to fund adaptation and recovery efforts, a cycle he described as unjust and unsustainable.
“We are borrowing to fix problems we didn’t create, while those who caused the damage continue to grow. Meanwhile, our people suffer from the health, economic, and environmental fallout,” he said.
He noted that the effects of climate change in Ghana had gone beyond environmental damage, affecting health systems, agriculture, infrastructure, and economic productivity.
Mr. Issifu called for the AGNES to integrate this debt-relief agenda into global climate negotiations, especially as preparations intensify for upcoming COP summits.
He also laid out his broader vision for Ghana’s national climate agenda, which included the establishment of climate and sustainability units in all climate-sensitive ministries, a multi-sectoral technical working group to coordinate initiatives, and a climate action hub to centralise and scale up efforts.
“These pockets of initiatives from smart agriculture to irrigation need coordinated support and consistent funding. Our vision is to build internal resilience, but that can only happen if we free up the financial space by forgiving unjust debts,” he stressed.
Mr. Issifu warned that if the current debt trajectory continued, African nations could be pushed to the edge of economic collapse, and the global north may soon be unable or unwilling to continue its ad hoc funding support.
Dr. George Wamukoya, Team Lead of AGNES, said AGNES provided strategic, technical, and coordination support to the African Group of Negotiators (AGN) on Climate Change.
He said the AGN played a pivotal role in shaping unified African positions on climate mitigation, adaptation, finance, technology transfer, and capacity building.
Dr. Wamukoya said scientific evidence showed that Africa was among the most climate-vulnerable regions in the world, facing increasingly frequent and severe weather events, including extreme rainfall, flooding, droughts, and the rise of climate-induced pests and diseases.
“No African country is fully adapted to climate change, which is why frameworks like Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) are essential for identifying priorities and guiding investment,” he added.
Source: GNA
The post Ghana Minister calls for climate debt forgiveness mechanism to support vulnerable nations appeared first on Ghana Business News.
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