Ghana, Denmark pledge to promote green economies

President John Mahama and Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning Schmidt have underscored the need to scale up green growth efforts across the world at the ongoing Global Green Growth Forum in Copenhagen.

Speaking at a plenary session of the forum -- dubbed "Facing the Consumer" -- both leaders identified a dying world and increased health problems among the world's populations as some of the compelling reasons why green growth efforts must be scaled-up the world over.

President  Mahama said a critical focus in charting a green course among sub-Saharan Africa is to transform the mindset of citizens regarding their consumer patterns.

He said poor, and in some cases, non-existent waste management systems in sub-Saharan Africa presents a major impediment towards achieving success in sustainable green growth campaigns.

The Global Green Forum is an annual assembly of high level green growth leaders from around the world to discuss green issues.

This year's session in the Danish capital is under the broad headline 'Changing Production and Consumption Patterns through Transformative Action'.

Although Denmark has done relatively well with waste management, Danish Prime minister Helle Thorning Schmidt said the country is still pursuing greener innovations.

"First of we have used economic instruments to promote green behaviour among businesses and citizens. An example of that is our green tax reforms that have reduced taxation in on income and labour and increasing fiscal incentives to promote sustainable living", the Danish Prime Minister said.

Danish cities such as Copenhagen, Aarhus, Aalborg and some of the country's hundreds of islands are vying for the accolade of "zero carbon”.

Denmark is currently not just pushing to be carbon-neutral, but carbon-free, which means tackling the issue of how to escape dependence on transport fuel.

Denmark is leading the transition as the first country in the world to push for a green growth economy independent of fossil fuels by 2050.

High taxes for fossil fuel - such as 75 per cent tax on heating oil - have helped to convince the Danish general public, while for business, a stable regime of subsidies, feed-in tariffs and tax-deductible green investment have spurred renewables.

As the official green brand for Denmark, State of Green gathers all leading players in the fields of energy, climate, water and environment and fosters relations with international stakeholders interested in learning from the Danish experience.