‘Embed Ghana’s energy transition framework in operational strategy to attract foreign green investments’
Ghanaian businesses have been urged to embed Ghana’s energy transition framework in their operational strategy to attract foreign green investments and enhance compliance of new green regulations.
The framework outlines plans aimed at raising carbon finance to support its nationally determined contributions and drive foreign direct green investments to benefit local businesses.
The existing international carbon market offers the opportunity for Ghana to partner with other countries, international organisations, and private entities to achieve its 24 million tones of conditional absolute greenhouse gas emissions reduction goal and beyond.
This, according to Country Managing Partner of EY Ghana, Emmanuel Adekahlor, was critical for business survival in the face of changes in service provision and business environment.
He was speaking to Ghanaian Times on the sidelines of a forum on sustainability in Accra yesterday.
“The carbon framework has been developed the regulations are in place. We’ve seen the Bank of Ghana regulation and the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) guide.
Now it is up to us as businesses and business leaders to pick this framework , study the framework, identify the risks and opportunities and then embed that into business strategy and see how businesses can position themselves to achieve compliance as well as mitigate the risk and take advantage of the opportunities,” MrAdekahlor stated.
Businesses that fail to embed the framework in their operational strategy, he said, were likely to be denied access to new technologies, funding and market opportunities.
“If businesses do not identify the opportunities, and identify the risks and plan, they are going to be overtaken by event. Your technology can get obsolete, for instance, if it has not been your value chain, you are not sourcing from institutions that comply with this requirement, you will lose access to some market if you do not comply with some of these things.
So it’s important that we identify the risk and be able to plan and strategize otherwise, it will get to a point where your business, you will even have restriction in terms of how you access funding, because funding will be tied to compliance with some of these regulations “ he added.
MrAdekahlor reiterated the need for continuous stakeholder engagements on driving the agenda by supporting businesses, sensitisation on evolving regulations and gap assessment to promote compliance.
In a speech read on his behalf, Deputy Minister of Energy, Herbert Krapa said, the government had rolled out smart initiatives to ensure that the business environment remained clean, robust and competitive in the face of the global threats for non-climate friendly goods and services from the exploitation of finance and natural resources, which often leads to resource depletion and environmental degradation.
Citing Europe as an example, he noted that, there were stringent requirements which prevent businesses not producing clean energy certificate from exporting their commodities or goods and services into their markets.
In this regard, he said, it was imperative that Ghana continues to enhance the energy sector in order to reduce its carbon footprint and be able to make Ghanaian businesses competitive on the global stage.
As a signatory to the Paris agreements, Mr Krapa noted that, Ghana was committed to its nationally determined contribution targets to address the adverse impacts of climate change and increased access to energy for the socio economic development of the country.
He said the energy transition framework provides a sustainable pathway for fuel supply security, diversified energy mix and cost efficient electricity generation for Ghana in the coming decades.
“The implementation of the policy measures in the framework will lead to lower electricity generation tariffs below 4.5 dollar cents per kilowatt hour and accelerates the socio economic development of the country,” he added.
BY CLAUDE NYARKO ADAMS
