Ghana: Finance Ministry's Role in Addressing Climate Change Non-Negotiable

Climate change has become a global phenomenon every country has to contend with.

This event is recorded as having started from the mid-20th Century and running.

It is characterised by shifts in temperature and weather patterns.

Such shifts can be natural due to changes in the sun's activity or volcanic eruptions.

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It can also be attributed to increased atmospheric carbon dioxide produced by the use of fossil fuels.

Fossil fuels refer to non-renewable energy sources such as coal, coal products, natural gas, derived gas, crude oil, petroleum products and non-renewable wastes.

The causes of climate change cannot be the same everywhere, hence it is sometimes regarded as a change in regional climate but the aggregate change affects the global climate, which makes it a dangerous event for the whole world.

It is said that fossil fuels, particularly coal, oil and gas, account for 75 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions and nearly 90 per cent of all carbon dioxide emissions.

Experts say the greenhouse gas emissions trap the sun's heat, and this leads to global warming and the climate change.

The world is said to be warming faster now than previously and warmer temperatures are changing weather patterns and disrupting the usual balance of nature.

This has ramifications like unusual flooding, drought and other hitherto unexpected events like melting of ice in cold climatic zones, which the world witnesses now.

Climate change has also become the single largest threat to global health through air pollution and extreme weather events, for instance.

In a word, we can say the effects of climate change impact the environment, lives and livelihoods and if nothing is done about it, a worse situation will emerge and mankind would find it difficult to address it.

It is said that while climate change cannot be stopped, it can be slowed, which means that the world has been invaded by the phenomenon and the only way out is to find a way around it, or manage it.

It is clear that every country has contributed in one way or another to cause climate change and so all nations must help in managing it.

This is why The Ghanaian Times is glad that Ghana is planning to raise the needed resources to successfully implement its reference programme for climate action.

It is estimated that the country requires between $9.3billin and $15billion over the next ten years, for that effort.

We see it as a commitment to achieve that objective once the country's Ministry of Finance says in the circumstances, it has become more than imperative for a centralised point within the Ministry to coordinate and co-lead in the activities that would help raise the necessary finances and implement activities of the climate action plan to be established.

It is even more reassuring to hear the Ministry say the impact of climate change requires that its officials reimagine its 'business as usual model' or attitude and prepare to respond to the financing challenges associated with the changing climate.

Addressing climate change calls for a collective effort but that effort is constituted by various specific roles, all of which need resources to prosecute.

This makes the role by the Ministry of Finance in this matter the one which underpins all the other roles, so The Ghanaian Times expects it to uphold its role and lead the way.

This article was originally featured in the Ghanaian Times.

Blessing Mwangi