CIF releases $120.5m for Ghana’s climate change agenda
CIF releases $120.5m for Ghana’s climate change agenda
CIF releases $120.5m for Ghana’s climate change agenda
The Climate Investment Funds (CIF) has released $120.5 million to support government’s climate adaptation and mitigation agenda. The Forest Investment Programme would receive $75 million, the Scaling-up of Renewable Energy Project, $40 million, and the Dedicated Grant Mechanism (DGM) for Indigenous Peoples and Communities, $5.5 million.
Ms Dora Cudjoe, the Senior Operations Officer of CIF, disclosed this in an interview with the Ghanaian Times on the sidelines at the opening of the CIF- Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) Youth Fellowship Onboarding Programme in Accra on Monday.
She said the concessional funding was meant to help Ghana leverage finance from other Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) to finance its climate change projects.
The one-year CIF-MDB fellowship programme for seven youth selected from Thailand, Egypt, Jamaica, Kenya, India and Tunisia, is being sponsored by the CIF. It is supported by the United Nations, Arab Youth Centre in partnership with the World Bank, International Finance Corporation, Ghana Climate Innovation Centre and the Ashesi University.
The programme is meant to provide opportunity to the selected youth to work with the MDBs in their respective countries on climate adaption and mitigation projects being funded by the CIF.
Ms Cudjoe said her outfit, founded in 2008 by the G8, primarily provides concessional funding to low and middle income countries to drive their climate resilient and low carbon projects. She said that the $11 billion fund have currently leveraged about $64billion in both private and public financing across 74 countries, including Ghana.
Ms Cudjoe said the Forest Investment Programme (FIP) was being implemented by the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the World Bank in order to unite public and private sectors with indigenous peoples and local communities in restoring degraded forest landscapes, improving forest management and reducing pressure on forests.
She also said the goal of the Scaling-up of Renewable Energy Programme, being implemented by the AfDB, was to provide off-grid /mini grid access to electricity to the remotest islands at the Kete Krachi in Oti Region, particular and the country as a whole.
Ms Cudjoe explained that under the DGM project, CIF had been financing local community efforts to combat the impact of climate change for the past two and a half years, and that activities supported by the DGM included capacity building in climate change and land use training.
Turning her focus on the CIF-MDB project, the Senior Operations Officer of CIF said the programme was to enhance the space and provide an enabling environment for the youth to be integrated into the climate financing discussions and delivery of climate actions. Ms Cudjoe said the participants, as part of the five-day programme in Ghana, would tour Kete Krachi to see some of the mini grids being constructed as part of the Scaling-up Renewable Energy Project.
The President of Young Professionals and Youth Coalition, Dr Andrews Osei Okrah, commended the CIF for initiating the programme. He said that the voices of the youth must be heard on policies and programmes to tackle climate crisis.
Story by Fada Amakye from Daily Sun106.com
