The Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Mr Samuel A. Jinapor, has urged participants at the Forest and Climate Leaders Partnership (FCLP) engagement to come out with pragmatic measures to halt forest loss.
He made the call when he delivered a keynote address during a two-day Forest and Climate Leader’s Partnership engagement in Accra.
He said the views of Tropical Forest Countries would be critical to the success of environment and climate conversations.
The Minister pointed out that the world has agreed to an ambitious goal of reversing forest loss by 2030. As a result, the Steering Committee anticipates that the two days in Accra will be utilized to dive deeper into what the goals of the different projects and what can be done by COP28, particularly in terms of forest loss.
Mr Jinapor stated that the climate crisis has reached a tipping point and that the Earth is currently 1.1 degrees Celsius warmer than it was decades ago, adding that, the influence is felt by everyone regardless of where they are.
He noted that limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius is critical for sustaining a habitable environment but added, “the good news is, there is a solution and it is within our reach.”
He touted a number of things Ghana is doing to meet this target. Pertinent among them is the Green Ghana Project, an aggressive afforestation and reforestation programme launched by the government in 2021 to restore Ghana’s degraded landscapes and contribute to the global fight against climate change. Over 40,000,000 seedlings were planted in the last two years.
The Minister urged the partners from the over 19 countries to always remember that the fight against climate change requires conscious and collective effort by all. “Citizens of the world, let us roll our sleeves and get to work,” he charged.
On her part, Madam Christine Dragisic, a representative of the Co-Chair on FLCP, Mr John Kerry, stated that the meeting was convened to reconsider the Glasgow leaders’ commitments to halt forest loss by 2030 in the context of sustainable development and to come up with practical solutions.
She hoped that they would be able to use the two days to progress talks on concrete ideas that would help reach the global leaders’ aim and, eventually, rescue the world.