The Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, Dr Kweku Afriyie, has tasked the Planning Committee of the 28th Conference of Parties (COP) to adopt all measures to ensure Ghana’s successful participation at the conference in the United Arab Emirates in November this year.
According to him, Ghana is a developing country with one of the best healthcare financing in the world, as such a good presentation was needed to give good account and also correct the impression that money was been wasted on such conferences.
Dr Afriyie made these remarks at the inauguration of a 21 member-committee yesterday in Accra to coordinate information sharing among the various sectors participating in the COP.
The team is expected to plan for Ghana’s day during the event and also plan the programme for a pre-COP meeting as well as support in resource mobilisation where needed, and present a post COP report to the minister and cabinet.
The United Nations framework convention on climate change will be held in the Expo city of Dubai from November 30 to December 12, and expected to attract experts in health, agriculture, fields of science, environment, finance and political engagements.
It would involve major negotiations among countries on mitigation issues bothering on Climate Change and how to operate goals alive as well as long term financing.
He said the COP would provide parties the opportunity to review the implementation of the convention and any other legal instruments adopted by the COP, such as the Paris Agreement.
The minister indicated that several decisions would be taken to promote the effective implementation of the convention, including institutional and administrative arrangements
“Ghana has since 1995 been part of the UN climate change conferences which took place in Berlin, Germany as you are all aware, last year we had a very successful COP in Egypt and this year, it’s my wish that our participation in the COP becomes unique more so as this is our last year in our role as the presidency of the CVF and V20 Forum,” he added.
Dr Afriyie stated that the purpose of the planning committee was, therefore, to plan and coordinate the various activities across the various sectors for a successful participation in the COP.
He said due to the arrangement of the UAE government, Ghana was sharing the same Pavilion with the Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF) and Vulnerable (V20) Forum, and so we have also invited representatives from the two bodies to join the committee and entreated all to participate effectively and contribute towards making Ghana’s preparation a memorable one.
The Chairman of the committee, Dr Peter Justice Dery, assured the minister that they had experts of diverse background to ensure Ghana’s participation becomes a remarkable one.
BY LAWRENCE VOMAFA-AKPALU & EDITH DEBRAH
