Ghana must tap AfCFTA for climate finance, green technology – Zanetor
Minister-designate for Environment, Science and Technology, Dr Zanetor Agyeman-Rawlings, has urged Ghana to look beyond traditional sources of climate financing and build strategic partnerships to support its environmental and green development agenda.
She said Ghana could make better use of South-South cooperation and the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) to attract climate finance, gain access to green technologies and strengthen its response to climate change.
Speaking before Parliament’s Appointments Committee on Thursday, August 27, Dr Agyeman-Rawlings noted that while developed countries had pledged financial assistance to countries vulnerable to climate change, much of the promised funding had yet to reach countries such as Ghana.
She said this situation required Ghana to identify other avenues for securing the resources and technologies needed to deal with the effects of climate change.
According to her, cooperation with countries facing similar environmental challenges could present significant opportunities if Ghana carefully matched its needs with the technological and financial strengths of its partners.
“I think, like you mentioned, South-South cooperation is key. As a country, we need to look at strategic partners who perhaps share similar problems but may have different advantages, and then perhaps leverage on that,” she said.
Dr Agyeman-Rawlings further suggested that such partnerships should not be pursued in isolation but deliberately linked to Ghana’s broader development priorities.
She also pointed to the AfCFTA as a platform that could help Ghana deepen continental collaboration on climate-related investments and technology.
“Looking at how we can leverage on that using the African Continental Free Trade Agreement might be useful in terms of how we leverage climate finance and green technology,” she added.
Her proposal comes at a time when African countries continue to face challenges in accessing adequate funding to finance climate adaptation, mitigation, and the transition towards cleaner technologies.
Dr Agyeman-Rawlings’ comments suggest that Ghana could increasingly look towards regional trade arrangements and partnerships among developing countries to complement international climate financing commitments.